I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1023
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require disclosure of certain
foreign investments within endowments, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY5, 2025
Mr. O
WENS(for himself and Mr. HARRISof North Carolina) 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
disclosure of certain foreign investments within endow-
ments, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Reporting on Invest-4
ments in Foreign Adversaries Act’’ or the ‘‘RIFA Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. INVESTMENT DISCLOSURE REPORT. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Part B of title I of the Higher 7
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1011 et seq.) is amend-8
ed by inserting after section 117 the following: 9
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‘‘SEC. 117A. INVESTMENT DISCLOSURE REPORT. 1
‘‘(a) I
NVESTMENTDISCLOSUREREPORT.—A speci-2
fied institution shall file a disclosure report in accordance 3
with subsection (b) with the Secretary on each July 31 4
immediately following any calendar year in which the spec-5
ified institution purchases, sells, or holds (directly or indi-6
rectly through any chain of ownership) one or more invest-7
ments of concern. 8
‘‘(b) C
ONTENTS OF REPORT.—Each report to the 9
Secretary required by subsection (a) shall contain, with 10
respect to the calendar year preceding the calendar year 11
in which such report is filed, the following information: 12
‘‘(1) A list of the investments of concern pur-13
chased, sold, or held during such calendar year. 14
‘‘(2) The aggregate fair market value of all in-15
vestments of concern held as of the close of such cal-16
endar year. 17
‘‘(3) The combined value of all investments of 18
concern sold over the course of such calendar year, 19
as measured by the fair market value of such invest-20
ments at the time of the sale. 21
‘‘(4) The combined value of all capital gains 22
from such sales of investments of concern. 23
‘‘(c) T
REATMENT OF CERTAINPOOLEDINVEST-24
MENTS.— 25
‘‘(1) P
OOLED INVESTMENT CLASSIFICATION .— 26
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this 1
section, except as provided in subparagraph 2
(B), a specified interest acquired by a specified 3
institution in a regulated investment company, 4
exchange traded fund, or any other pooled in-5
vestment that holds an investment of concern 6
shall be treated as an investment of concern 7
and shall be reported pursuant to paragraph 8
(2)(A). 9
‘‘(B) C
ERTIFICATION OF POOLED INVEST -10
MENT.—Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), 11
such specified interest shall not be subject to 12
subparagraph (A) if the Secretary certifies, pur-13
suant to paragraph (2)(B), that such pooled in-14
vestment is not holding an investment of con-15
cern. 16
‘‘(2) P
ROCEDURES.—The Secretary, after con-17
sultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the 18
Securities and Exchange Commission, shall establish 19
procedures under which a pooled investment de-20
scribed in paragraph (1)— 21
‘‘(A) shall be reported in accordance with 22
the requirements of subsection (b); and 23
‘‘(B) may be certified under paragraph 24
(1)(B) as not holding an investment of concern. 25
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‘‘(d) TREATMENT OF RELATEDORGANIZATIONS.— 1
For purposes of this section, assets held by any related 2
organization (as defined in section 4968(d)(2) of the In-3
ternal Revenue Code of 1986) with respect to a specified 4
institution shall be treated as held by such specified insti-5
tution, except that— 6
‘‘(1) such assets shall not be taken into account 7
with respect to more than 1 specified institution; 8
and 9
‘‘(2) unless such organization is controlled by 10
such institution or is described in section 509(a)(3) 11
of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 with respect 12
to such institution, assets which are not intended or 13
available for the use or benefit of such specified in-14
stitution shall not be taken into account. 15
‘‘(e) V
ALUATION OFDEBT.—For purposes of this 16
section, the fair market value of any debt shall be the prin-17
cipal amount of such debt. 18
‘‘(f) R
EGULATIONS.—The Secretary, after consulta-19
tion with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Securities 20
and Exchange Commission, may issue such regulations or 21
other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to 22
carry out the purposes of this section, including regula-23
tions or other guidance providing for the proper applica-24
tion of this section with respect to certain regulated invest-25
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ment companies, exchange traded funds, and pooled in-1
vestments. 2
‘‘(g) C
OMPLIANCEOFFICER.—Any specified institu-3
tion that is required to submit a report under subsection 4
(a) shall designate, before the submission of such report, 5
and maintain a compliance officer, who shall— 6
‘‘(1) be a current employee or legally authorized 7
agent of such institution; and 8
‘‘(2) be responsible, on behalf of the institution, 9
for personally certifying accurate compliance with 10
the reporting requirements under this section. 11
‘‘(h) D
ATABASEREQUIREMENT.—Beginning not 12
later than the May 31 of the calendar year following the 13
date of enactment of the RIFA Act, the Secretary shall— 14
‘‘(1) establish and maintain a searchable data-15
base on a website of the Department, under which 16
all reports submitted under this section— 17
‘‘(A) are made publicly available (in elec-18
tronic and downloadable format), including any 19
information provided in such reports; 20
‘‘(B) can be individually identified and 21
compared; and 22
‘‘(C) are searchable and sortable; and 23
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‘‘(2) not later than 30 days after receipt of a 1
disclosure report under this section, include such re-2
port in such database. 3
‘‘(i) E
NFORCEMENT.— 4
‘‘(1) I
NVESTIGATION.—The Secretary (acting 5
through the General Counsel of the Department) 6
shall conduct investigations of possible violations of 7
this section by institutions and, whenever it appears 8
that an institution has knowingly or willfully failed 9
to comply with a requirement of this section (includ-10
ing any rule or regulation promulgated under such 11
section), shall request that the Attorney General 12
bring a civil action in accordance with paragraph 13
(2). 14
‘‘(2) C
IVIL ACTION.—Whenever it appears that 15
an institution has knowingly or willfully failed to 16
comply with a requirement of this section (including 17
any rule or regulation promulgated under any such 18
section) based on an investigation under paragraph 19
(1), a civil action shall be brought by the Attorney 20
General, at the request of the Secretary, in an ap-21
propriate district court of the United States, or the 22
appropriate United States court of any territory or 23
other place subject to the jurisdiction of the United 24
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States, to request such court to compel compliance 1
with the requirement of this section. 2
‘‘(3) C
OSTS AND OTHER FINES .—An institution 3
that is compelled to comply with a requirement of 4
this section pursuant to paragraph (2) shall— 5
‘‘(A) pay to the Treasury of the United 6
States the full costs to the United States of ob-7
taining compliance with the requirement of this 8
section, including all associated costs of inves-9
tigation and enforcement; and 10
‘‘(B) be subject to the applicable fines de-11
scribed in paragraph (4). 12
‘‘(4) F
INES FOR VIOLATIONS .—The Secretary 13
shall impose a fine on an institution that is com-14
pelled to comply with a requirement of this section 15
pursuant to paragraph (2) as follows: 16
‘‘(A) F
IRST-TIME VIOLATIONS.—In the 17
case of a specified institution that knowingly or 18
willfully fails to comply with a requirement of 19
this section with respect to a calendar year, and 20
that has not previously knowingly or willfully 21
failed to comply with such a requirement, the 22
Secretary shall impose a fine on the institution 23
in an amount that is not less than 50 percent 24
and not more than 100 percent of the sum of— 25
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‘‘(i) the aggregate fair market value 1
of all investments of concern held by such 2
institution as of the close of such calendar 3
year; and 4
‘‘(ii) the combined value of all invest-5
ments of concern sold over the course of 6
such calendar year, as measured by the 7
fair market value of such investments at 8
the time of the sale. 9
‘‘(B) S
UBSEQUENT VIOLATIONS .—In the 10
case of a specified institution that has been 11
fined pursuant to subparagraph (A) with re-12
spect to a calendar year, and that knowingly or 13
willfully fails to comply with a requirement of 14
this section with respect to any additional cal-15
endar year, the Secretary shall impose a fine on 16
the institution with respect to any such addi-17
tional calendar year in an amount that is not 18
less than 100 percent and not more than 200 19
percent of the sum of— 20
‘‘(i) the aggregate fair market value 21
of all investments of concern held by such 22
institution as of the close of such addi-23
tional calendar year; and 24
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‘‘(ii) the combined value of all invest-1
ments of concern sold over the course of 2
such additional calendar year, as measured 3
by the fair market value of such invest-4
ments at the time of the sale. 5
‘‘(j) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 6
‘‘(1) F
OREIGN COUNTRY OF CONCERN .—The 7
term ‘foreign country of concern’ means the fol-8
lowing: 9
‘‘(A) Any covered nation defined in section 10
4872 of title 10, United States Code. 11
‘‘(B) Any country the Secretary, in con-12
sultation with the Secretary of Defense, the 13
Secretary of State, and the Director of National 14
Intelligence, determines, for purposes of this 15
section, to be engaged in conduct that is detri-16
mental to the national security or foreign policy 17
of the United States. 18
‘‘(2) F
OREIGN ENTITY OF CONCERN .—The 19
term ‘foreign entity of concern’ has the meaning 20
given such term in section 10612(a) of the Research 21
and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act 22
(42 U.S.C. 19221(a)) and includes a foreign entity 23
that is identified on the list published under section 24
1286(c)(8)(A) of the John S. McCain National De-25
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fense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (10 1
U.S.C. 22 4001 note; Public Law 115–232). 2
‘‘(3) I
NSTITUTION.—The term ‘institution’ 3
means an institution of higher education (as such 4
term is defined in section 102, other than an institu-5
tion described in subsection (a)(1)(c) of such sec-6
tion). 7
‘‘(4) I
NVESTMENT OF CONCERN .— 8
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘investment 9
of concern’ means any specified interest with 10
respect to any of the following: 11
‘‘(i) A foreign country of concern. 12
‘‘(ii) A foreign entity of concern. 13
‘‘(B) S
PECIFIED INTEREST .—The term 14
‘specified interest’ means, with respect to any 15
entity— 16
‘‘(i) stock or any other equity or prof-17
its interest of such entity; 18
‘‘(ii) debt issued by such entity; and 19
‘‘(iii) any contract or derivative with 20
respect to any property described in clause 21
(i) or (ii). 22
‘‘(5) S
PECIFIED INSTITUTION.— 23
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘specified 1
institution’, as determined with respect to any 2
calendar year, means an institution if— 3
‘‘(i) such institution is not a public in-4
stitution; and 5
‘‘(ii) the aggregate fair market value 6
of— 7
‘‘(I) the assets held by such insti-8
tution at the end of such calendar 9
year (other than those assets which 10
are used directly in carrying out the 11
institution’s exempt purpose) is in ex-12
cess of $6,000,000,000; or 13
‘‘(II) the investments of concern 14
held by such institution at the end of 15
such calendar year is in excess of 16
$250,000,000. 17
‘‘(B) R
EFERENCES TO CERTAIN TERMS .— 18
For the purpose of applying the definition 19
under subparagraph (A), the terms ‘aggregate 20
fair market value’ and ‘assets which are used 21
directly in carrying out the institution’s exempt 22
purpose’ shall be applied in the same manner as 23
such terms are applied for the purposes of sec-24
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tion 4968(b)(1)(D) of the Internal Revenue 1
Code of 1986.’’. 2
(b) P
ROGRAMPARTICIPATIONAGREEMENT.—Section 3
487(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 4
1094) is amended by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(30)(A) An institution will comply with the re-6
quirements of section 117A. 7
‘‘(B) An institution that, for 3 consecutive in-8
stitutional fiscal years, violates any requirement of 9
section 117A shall— 10
‘‘(i) be ineligible to participate in the pro-11
grams authorized by this title for a period of 12
not less than 2 institutional fiscal years; and 13
‘‘(ii) in order to regain eligibility to partici-14
pate in such programs, demonstrate compliance 15
with all requirements of such section for not 16
less than 2 institutional fiscal years after the 17
institutional fiscal year in which such institu-18
tion became ineligible.’’. 19
Æ
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