Rep. Jim Banks introduces bill to increase American universities’ transparency regarding foreign gifts

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., launched a invoice Friday that might pressure American universities to be extra clear about overseas presents and contracts.

The Schooling Division in 2019 and 2020 started cracking down on faculties’ acceptance of overseas presents beneath Part 117 of the Larger Schooling Act in an effort to trace the scope of cash from nations like China and Qatar within the U.S. schooling system.

That modified when President Biden took workplace. U.S. faculties reported $1.6 billion in overseas presents between July 1, 2020, and Jan. 20, 2021. Between Jan. 20, 2021 and November 2021, nevertheless, faculties reported simply $4.3 million in presents over an extended time interval, prompting questions from lawmakers about reporting necessities.

“Democrats are attempting to trick People into one other decade of cozy relations with the [Chinese] Communist Get together. Their faux China invoice does nothing to face as much as China. It’s legislative fraud,” Banks advised Fox Information Digital in a press release, referencing Democrats’ China competitiveness invoice, the America COMPETES Act, which incorporates quite a lot of Democratic provisions that critics say don’t belong in such a bit of laws and will result in abuse by Chinese language nationals.

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“Speaker Pelosi’s CONCEDES Act makes use of a basic sleight of hand to keep away from standing as much as China. It proposes a ‘evaluate’ of presents from Chinese language nationals, but when they’re illicit, it doesn’t really do something to cease them,” the Indiana Republican continued. “My invoice gives a easy resolution to hostile overseas affect at universities. Not like Democrat’s invoice, my invoice acknowledges that Americans can act on behalf of hostile overseas governments too and critiques after which blocks all presents from dangerous actors.”

Banks’ invoice, referred to as the Safeguard Our Universities From Overseas Affect Act, would cut back the reporting threshold for disclosure of overseas presents and contracts from $250,000 to $50,000. It additionally requires the Division of Schooling to put up complete disclosure-related paperwork on-line for the general public to evaluate, topics presents associated to essential know-how to elevated scrutiny and defines donors who generate substantial income or earnings from a overseas supply as “overseas sources.”

Consultant Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana, proper, speaks throughout a information convention following an all member Home briefing on Afghanistan on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg

Moreover, the laws establishes an workplace on the Division of Schooling to evaluate overseas presents and contacts with the Committee on Overseas Funding in america (CFIUS) and permits that workplace to dam and undo overseas presents and contracts deemed to compromise U.S. competitiveness or nationwide safety.

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Former President Trump proposed a change to Part 117 that would develop overseas present reporting necessities throughout his first 12 months in workplace. President Biden withdrew these modifications and has not initiated his personal modifications to Part 117 since taking workplace. 

The nonprofit Protection of Freedom Institute for Coverage Research, Inc., beforehand advised Fox Information Digital that it observed a spike in reported overseas presents to the College of Pennsylvania after the institution of the Biden Heart for Diplomacy and World Engagement in 2017. DFI claims that the college obtained $21 million in reported overseas presents between February 2017 and September 2020. 

College campus with few college students throughout Fall 2020, College of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. (Leaping Rocks/Schooling Pictures/Common Pictures Group through Getty Pictures)

DFI wrote in a FOIA request that after the Biden Heart formally opened in 2018, the following 12 months “UPenn obtained an astonishing 389% larger reportable overseas contributions 2019 in comparison with 2018.”

As well as, a 2020 investigation by the Philadelphia Inquirer discovered that Penn obtained a staggering $258 million in overseas presents since 2013, principally from Chinese language sources. College spokesperson Stephen MacCarthy advised The Each day Pennsylvanian final 12 months that the “Penn Biden Heart has by no means solicited or obtained any presents from any Chinese language or different overseas entity.”

Some lawmakers and political watchdogs have taken difficulty with hefty donations from China to U.S. academic entities, arguing that the donations may make U.S. schooling a goal for Chinese language propaganda.

In a Jan. 31 speech on threats posed by Chinese language affect within the U.S., FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that the Chinese language Communist Get together was exerting affect on U.S. college students and Chinese language college students learning in America from overseas.

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“In a latest incident at one Midwestern college, for instance, a Chinese language-American pupil posted on-line reward for these college students who have been killed within the Tiananmen Sq. bloodbath in 1989,” Wray remarked. “And virtually instantly, his mother and father referred to as from China, saying that Chinese language intelligence officers had proven as much as threaten them due to his put up.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., pressed Schooling Secretary Michael Cardona on the difficulty final 12 months. 

The Schooling Division didn’t reply to his questions on the time, however mentioned “data of overseas presents and contracts reported to the Division by establishments can be found in a searchable format right here: https://websites.ed.gov/foreigngifts.”

Fox Information’ Adam Shaw and Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.