OPINION:
Foreign adversaries have found a friend in the Biden administration.
Today, malign foreign influences are taking their fight to college campuses and enjoying a familiar ally in President Biden. As members of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, we are leading the charge against these bad actors by demanding increased transparency and accountability in foreign donations to colleges.
Today, the committee released its comprehensive plan to combat undue foreign interference on college campuses, the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act. This legislation is guided by a simple premise: Every dollar comes with strings attached.
Reports have found adversaries target academia with large donations and contracts in hopes of increased access and political influence. Foreign adversaries have exposed America’s three main vulnerabilities: (1) loose legislative language, (2) Mr. Biden’s blatant crippling of enforcement and (3) institutions’ refusal to adhere to the law has prevented donations from being reported with basic transparency and accountability.
The current law, found in Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, has not been updated in over 30 years, and its loopholes allow those looking to take advantage to use the law to their benefit. It contains a high foreign gift reporting threshold of $250,000, which is ripe for abuse by bad actors and offers little incentive for compliance. The only penalties explicitly in the law are court fees, a slap on the wrist compared with hundreds of millions these institutions get from China’s checkbook.
The Biden administration has shown no willingness to prosecute any wrongdoing. After the Senate revealed 70% of colleges fail to report gifts from the Chinese Communist Party and the Trump administration uncovered over $6.5 billion in previously undisclosed foreign money, the Biden administration has failed to launch a single Section 117 investigation.
The problem of foreign influence is happening as we speak. Earlier this year, the University of California, Berkeley was exposed for hiding a $240 million partnership directly with China. But rather than enforcing the already trampled law, the Biden administration is undermining it: It plans to shift Section 117’s enforcement obligation from the well-equipped attorneys in the Office of the General Counsel to the ill-equipped Office of Federal Student Aid.
What president would witness the hot mess that is our broken student loan system and conclude that the staff “handling” it should have more responsibility?
The answer is clear: only a president who is not serious about enforcing the law.
Not coincidentally, a trail of financial breadcrumbs connects Mr. Biden’s not enforcing Section 117 and his previous post at the Penn Biden Center. The center received tens of millions of dollars in anonymous funding from China, much of which paid the incomes of over 10 future Biden administration officials, averaging $208,000 per person — with a handsome salary of $900,000 to the future president.
If the president won’t take the threat of foreign influence seriously — and the evidence overwhelmingly suggests he won’t — Congress will. The DETERRENT Act contains three main pillars — transparency, accountability and clarity — that will work together to improve foreign gift reporting.
Among other provisions, the transparency pillar lowers the reporting bar from $250,000 to $50,000 for most countries and to $0 for our adversaries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. It also makes sure institutions justify to the American people why they accept these foreign funds, including reporting the source of the gifts and the intended use by the school.
Furthermore, it requires transparency in the endowments of our wealthiest schools by requiring them to disclose their financial ties with China and other countries or businesses that work against the American people.
The accountability pillar makes clear that illicit foreign funds aren’t worth the cost. The DETERRENT Act ramps up fines for noncompliant institutions. For serious and repeat offenders, it revokes Title IV funding.
The final pillar, clarity, will help defuse any potential issues colleges might have with conforming to the new law. It will establish a specific point of contact at each university so that transmissions between the Department of Education and colleges do not get lost in a morass of nameless, faceless bureaucracies.
It also aligns reporting standards with other federal regulations and breaks down interagency red tape to help well-meaning institutions as they submit their reports.
With these components, the DETERRENT Act would deter bad foreign actors from exploiting the openness of the American education system without restricting partnerships with our allies. Striking this balance is key.
In his farewell address, George Washington warned republican governments to defend themselves against foreign influence, because an open society inevitably invites bad actors. He therefore counseled, “the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake.”
We heed Washington’s warning 227 years later by introducing this legislation, which is designed to protect our nation from foreign enemies.
• Virginia Foxx represents North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District. Michelle Steel represents California’s 45th Congressional District.
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