{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tillis.senate.gov/2023/12/tillis-applauds-house-passage-of-legislation-to-deter-malicious-foreign-influence-in-postsecondary-education", "Tillis Applauds House Passage of Legislation to Deter Malicious Foreign Influence in Postsecondary Education", "2023-12-14", "2023", "2023-12", "Republican", "Senate", "NC", "Thom Tillis", "T000476", "www.tillis.senate.gov", "tillis", "https://www.tillis.senate.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013Today, Senator Thom Tillis applauded the House of Representatives for passing the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act, legislation that brings much needed transparency, accountability, and clarity to foreign gift reporting requirements for American colleges and universities. Senator Tillis led the introduction of the Senate version last month.\n\nThe legislation follows oversight efforts uncovering the Biden Administration\u2019s failure to open a single investigation under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act\u2014the single biggest enforcement tool to protect against the threats posed by foreign adversaries. A Senate report from 2019 found that up to 70 percent of all institutions failed to comply with section 117 of the Higher Education Act. Section 117\u2019s loose legislative language, Biden\u2019s blatant crippling of enforcement efforts, and institutions\u2019 refusal to adhere to the law have resulted in billions of dollars in foreign funds infiltrating our country undetected.\n\n\u201cAmerica\u2019s foreign adversaries, including the Chinese Communist Party, are targeting our nation\u2019s students by stealing research, spewing anti-American propaganda, and censoring free speech by providing American academic institutions with lucrative funding opportunities,\u201dsaid Senator Tillis. \u201cToo often, schools fail to report these foreign gifts and funding, leaving our adversaries with an undetected stranglehold on U.S. academic institutions. I applaud the House of Representatives for passing this important legislation and I urge the Senate to follow suit and consider the legislation swiftly.\u201d\n\nThe DETERRENT Act:\n\nSlashes 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.\n\nCloses reporting loopholes and provides transparency to Congress, intelligence agencies, and the public.\n\nRequires disclosure of foreign gifts to individual staff and faculty at research-heavy institutions to protect those targeted the most by our adversaries.\n\nHolds our largest private institutions accountable for their financial partnerships by revealing concerning foreign investments in their endowments.\n\nImplements 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.\n\nA one-pager of the legislation is available HERE. Full text of the legislation can be found HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:14:16Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.tillis.senate.gov/2023/12/tillis-applauds-house-passage-of-legislation-to-deter-malicious-foreign-influence-in-postsecondary-education"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0664500296115875, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}