Washington, D.C. - Today, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and her colleagues from the Committee on Education and the Workforce voted to send the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act to the floor. This legislation brings necessary oversight and transparency to foreign gift reporting requirements to help colleges and universities across the country counter foreign influence and protect our nation’s students.
This bill also includes the Halting Academic Liaisons To (HALT) our Adversaries Act which Congresswoman Stefanik introduced earlier this year to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars do not contribute to the advancement of the militaries of Communist China or the Russian Federation.
“I am committed to ensuring that our institutions of higher education are not compromised by foreign adversaries that want to see the demise of our great nation,” stated Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. “President Biden has allowed foreign adversaries to run rampant and undermine our nation’s interests through our universities. We must ensure that universities are putting the interest of American students first and not allowing foreign actors such as Communist China to push propaganda and steal our research. We must protect our students and stand strong against our adversaries.”
The DETERRENT Act:
1. Slashes the foreign gift reporting threshold for colleges and universities from $250,000 down to $50,000, with an even stricter $0 threshold for countries of concern.
2. Closes reporting loopholes and provides transparency to Congress, intelligence agencies, and the public.
3. Requires disclosure of foreign gifts to individual staff and faculty at research-heavy institutions to protect those targeted the most by our adversaries.
4. Holds our largest private institutions accountable for their financial partnerships by revealing concerning foreign investments in their endowments.
5. Implements a series of repercussions for colleges and universities that remain noncompliant in foreign gift reporting such as fines and the loss of Title IV funding.
Read more about the bill here.
