Bill Details
View committees (1)
AI Summary This summary was generated by AI from the bill text. AI can get information wrong.
This bill would make colleges and universities share more information about gifts and contracts they receive from foreign sources. It keeps those disclosure reports open to the public, and it would require the Education Department to send unredacted copies of the reports to several federal agencies so they can review them for national security, law enforcement, and research concerns. The bill also asks the Government Accountability Office to study how agencies can work together better to enforce these rules and improve compliance.
- The Education Department would have to send each foreign gift or contract disclosure report, with the foreign source’s name and address included, to agencies such as the FBI, intelligence agencies, the State Department, Defense Department, Justice Department, Commerce Department, Homeland Security, Energy Department, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.
- This sharing would have to happen within 30 days after the department receives a report from an institution.
- Within 90 days of enactment, the department would also have to send those agencies earlier reports it already received, along with records from any foreign-disclosure investigations that had already started before the bill became law.
- The Government Accountability Office would need to begin a study within 180 days on how federal agencies can better work together on enforcement, information sharing, and compliance, and then give Congress a public report within 3 years.
Official Summaries
Instructing Noteworthy Steps toward Transparency to Rout and Undo Calamitous Transactions Act of 2025 or the INSTRUCT Act of 2025
This bill requires the Department of Education (ED) to share foreign gift and contract reports from institutions of higher education (IHEs) with specified federal agencies.
Under current law, an IHE must disclose to ED a gift from or contract with a foreign source that is valued at $250,000 or more, considered alone or in combination with all other gifts from or contracts with that foreign source. This bill requires ED, within 30 days of receiving a disclosure report from an IHE, to transmit an unredacted copy of the report to 11 listed agencies (e.g., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of State, and the Department of Homeland Security).
The bill also requires ED, within 90 days of the bill's enactment, to transmit additional information to these federal agencies. Specifically, ED must transmit (1) any disclosure report received by ED prior to the bill's enactment; and (2) any report, document, or other record generated by ED in the course of investigating an IHE's compliance with disclosure requirements (and such investigation was initiated prior to the bill's enactment).
The Government Accountability Office must study and report on ways to improve intergovernmental agency coordination for implementing and enforcing disclosure reporting requirements.
Current Full Text
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1018 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1018
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require additional
information in disclosures of foreign gifts and contracts from foreign
sources.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 5, 2025
Mr. Messmer introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Education and Workforce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require additional
information in disclosures of foreign gifts and contracts from foreign
sources.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Instructing Noteworthy Steps toward
Transparency to Rout and Undo Calamitous Transactions Act of 2025'' or
the ``INSTRUCT Act of 2025''.
SEC. 2. INTERAGENCY INFORMATION SHARING.
(a) Public Records and Sharing of Reports.--Section 117(e) of the
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1011f(e)) is amended to read as
follows:
``(e)(1) Public Inspection.--All disclosure reports required by
this section shall be public records open to inspection and copying
during business hours.
``(2) Interagency Information Sharing.--Not later than 30 days
after receiving a disclosure report from an institution in compliance
with this section, the Secretary shall transmit an unredacted copy of
such report (that includes the name and address of a foreign source
disclosed in such report) to the Director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of
the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secretary of State, the Secretary
of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Commerce, the
Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Energy, the Director
of the National Science Foundation, and the Director of the National
Institutes of Health.''.
(b) Interagency Information Sharing.--Not later than 90 days after
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Education shall
transmit to each individual listed in section 117(e)(2) of the Higher
Education Act of 1965, as amended by this Act--
(1) any report received by the Department of Education
under section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 1011f) prior to the date of enactment of this Act; and
(2) any report, document, or other record generated by the
Department of Education in the course of an investigation--
(A) of an institution with respect to the
compliance of such institution with such section; and
(B) initiated prior to the date of enactment of
this Act.
(c) GAO Study and Report.--
(1) Study.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United
States shall initiate a study to identify ways to improve
intergovernmental agency coordination regarding implementation
and enforcement of sections 117 of the Higher Education Act of
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1011f), as amended by this Act, including
increasing information sharing, increasing compliance rates,
and establishing processes for enforcement.
(2) Report.--Not later than 3 years after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United
States shall submit to Congress, and make public, a report
containing the results of the study described in paragraph (1).
<all>