I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1999
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require staff and faculty
to report foreign gifts and contracts, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH10, 2025
Mr. J
AMES(for himself and Ms. FOXX) 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
staff and faculty to report foreign gifts and contracts,
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 ‘‘Disclose Getting In-4
volved in Foreign Transactions Act’’ or the ‘‘Disclose 5
GIFT Act’’. 6
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SEC. 2. POLICY REGARDING CONFLICTS OF INTEREST 1
FROM FOREIGN GIFTS AND CONTRACTS. 2
The Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 3
et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 117 the fol-4
lowing: 5
‘‘SEC. 117A. INSTITUTIONAL POLICY REGARDING FOREIGN 6
GIFTS AND CONTRACTS TO FACULTY AND 7
STAFF. 8
‘‘(a) R
EQUIREMENT TOMAINTAINPOLICY AND 9
D
ATABASE.—Beginning not later than 90 days after the 10
date of enactment of the Disclose GIFT Act, each institu-11
tion described in subsection (b) shall maintain— 12
‘‘(1) a policy requiring covered individuals em-13
ployed at the institution to disclose in a report to 14
such institution on July 31 of each calendar year 15
that begins after the year in which such enactment 16
date occurs— 17
‘‘(A) any gift received from a foreign 18
source in the previous calendar year, the value 19
of which is greater than the minimal value (as 20
such term is defined in section 7342(a) of title 21
5, United States Code) or is of undetermined 22
value, and including the date on which the gift 23
was received; 24
‘‘(B) any contract with a foreign source 25
(other than a foreign country of concern or for-26
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eign entity of concern) entered into or in effect 1
during the previous calendar year, the value of 2
which is $5,000 or more, considered alone or in 3
combination with all other contracts with that 4
foreign source within the calendar year, and in-5
cluding the date on which such contract is en-6
tered into, the date on which the contract first 7
takes effect, and, as applicable, the date on 8
which such contract terminates; 9
‘‘(C) any contract with a foreign source 10
(other than a foreign country of concern or for-11
eign entity of concern) entered into or in effect 12
during the previous calendar year that has an 13
undetermined monetary value, and including 14
the date on which such contract is entered into, 15
the date on which the contract first takes ef-16
fect, and, as applicable, the date on which such 17
contract terminates; and 18
‘‘(D) any contract entered into or in effect 19
with a foreign country of concern or foreign en-20
tity of concern during the previous calendar 21
year, the value of which is $0 or more or which 22
has an undetermined monetary value, and in-23
cluding— 24
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‘‘(i) the date on which such contract 1
is entered into; 2
‘‘(ii) the date on which the contract 3
first takes effect; 4
‘‘(iii) if the contract has a termination 5
date, such termination date; and 6
‘‘(iv) the full text of such contract and 7
any addenda; 8
‘‘(2) a publicly available and searchable data-9
base (in electronic and downloadable format), on a 10
website of the institution, of the information re-11
quired to be disclosed under paragraph (1) (other 12
than the name or any other personally identifiable 13
information of a covered individual) that— 14
‘‘(A) makes available the information dis-15
closed under paragraph (1) (other than the 16
name or any other personally identifiable infor-17
mation of a covered individual) beginning on 18
the date that is 30 days after receipt of the re-19
port under such paragraph containing such in-20
formation and until the latest of— 21
‘‘(i) the date that is 5 years after the 22
date on which— 23
‘‘(I) a gift referred to in para-24
graph (1)(A) is received; or 25
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‘‘(II) a contract referred to in 1
subparagraph (B), (C) or (D) of para-2
graph (1) first takes effect; or 3
‘‘(ii) the date on which a contract re-4
ferred to in subparagraph (B), (C) or (D) 5
of paragraph (1) terminates; and 6
‘‘(B) is searchable and sortable— 7
‘‘(i) if the subject of the disclosure is 8
a gift, by the date on which the gift is re-9
ceived; 10
‘‘(ii) if the subject of the disclosure is 11
a contract— 12
‘‘(I) by the date on which such 13
contract is entered into; and 14
‘‘(II) by the date on which such 15
contract first takes effect; 16
‘‘(iii) by the attributable country with 17
respect to which information is being dis-18
closed; 19
‘‘(iv) by the narrowest of the depart-20
ment, school, or college of the institution, 21
as applicable, for which the individual 22
making the disclosure works; and 23
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‘‘(v) by the name of the foreign source 1
(other than a foreign source who is a nat-2
ural person); and 3
‘‘(3) an effective plan to identify and manage 4
potential information gathering by foreign sources 5
through espionage targeting covered individuals that 6
may arise from gifts received from, or contracts en-7
tered into with, a foreign source, including through 8
the use of— 9
‘‘(A) periodic communications; 10
‘‘(B) accurate reporting under paragraph 11
(2) of the information required to be disclosed 12
under paragraph (1); and 13
‘‘(C) enforcement of the policy described in 14
paragraph (1); and 15
‘‘(4) for purposes of investigations under sec-16
tion 117B(a)(1) or responses to requests under sec-17
tion 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly 18
known as the ‘Freedom of Information Act’), a 19
record of the names of the individuals making disclo-20
sures under paragraph (1). 21
‘‘(b) I
NSTITUTIONS.—An institution shall be subject 22
to the requirements of this section if such institution— 23
‘‘(1) is an eligible institution for the purposes 24
of any program authorized under title IV; and 25
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‘‘(2)(A) received more than $50,000,000 in 1
Federal funds in any of the previous five calendar 2
years to support (in whole or in part) research and 3
development (as determined by the institution and 4
measured by the Higher Education Research and 5
Development Survey of the National Center for 6
Science and Engineering Statistics); or 7
‘‘(B) receives funds under title VI. 8
‘‘(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 9
‘‘(1) the term ‘attributable country’ means— 10
‘‘(A) the country of citizenship of a foreign 11
source who is a natural person, or, if such 12
country is unknown, the principal residence (as 13
applicable) of such foreign source; or 14
‘‘(B) the country of incorporation of a for-15
eign source that is a legal entity, or, if such 16
country is unknown, the principal place of busi-17
ness (as applicable) of such foreign source. 18
‘‘(2) the term ‘contract’ means— 19
‘‘(A) any agreement for the acquisition by 20
purchase, lease, or barter of property or serv-21
ices by the foreign source; 22
‘‘(B) any affiliation, agreement, or similar 23
transaction with a foreign source that involves 24
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the use or exchange of an institution’s name, 1
likeness, time, services, or resources; and 2
‘‘(C) any agreement for the acquisition by 3
purchase, lease, or barter, of property or serv-4
ices from a foreign source (other than an arms- 5
length agreement for such acquisition from a 6
foreign source that is not a foreign country of 7
concern or a foreign entity of concern); and 8
‘‘(3) the term ‘covered individual’— 9
‘‘(A) has the meaning given such term in 10
section 223(d) of the William M. (Mac) Thorn-11
berry National Defense Authorization Act for 12
Fiscal Year 2021 (42 U.S.C. 6605); and 13
‘‘(B) shall be interpreted in accordance 14
with the Guidance for Implementing National 15
Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM– 16
33) on National Security Strategy for United 17
States Government-Supported Research and 18
Development published by the Subcommittee on 19
Research Security and the Joint Committee on 20
the Research Environment in January 2022 (or 21
any successor guidance). 22
‘‘(4) the term ‘foreign source’ means— 23
‘‘(A) a foreign government, including an 24
agency of a foreign government; 25
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‘‘(B) a legal entity, governmental or other-1
wise, created under the laws of a foreign state 2
or states; 3
‘‘(C) a legal entity, governmental or other-4
wise, substantially controlled (as described in 5
section 668.174(c)(3) of title 34, Code of Fed-6
eral Regulations) (or successor regulations)) by 7
a foreign source; 8
‘‘(D) a natural person who is not a citizen 9
or a national of the United States or a trust 10
territory or protectorate thereof; 11
‘‘(E) an agent of a foreign source, includ-12
ing— 13
‘‘(i) a subsidiary or affiliate of a for-14
eign legal entity, acting on behalf of a for-15
eign source; 16
‘‘(ii) a person that operates primarily 17
for the benefit of, or under the auspices of, 18
a foreign source, including a foundation or 19
a related entity (such as any educational, 20
cultural, or language entity); and 21
‘‘(iii) a person who is an agent of a 22
foreign principal (as such term is defined 23
in section 1 of the Foreign Agents Reg-24
istration Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. 611); and 25
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‘‘(F) an international organization (as such 1
term is defined in the International Organiza-2
tions Immunities Act (22 U.S.C. 288)). 3
‘‘(5) the term ‘gift’— 4
‘‘(A) means any gift of money, property, 5
resources, staff, or services; and 6
‘‘(B) does not include— 7
‘‘(i) any payment of one or more ele-8
ments of a student’s cost of attendance (as 9
such term is defined in section 472) to an 10
institution by, or scholarship from, a for-11
eign source who is a natural person, acting 12
in their individual capacity and not as an 13
agent for, at the request or direction of, or 14
on behalf of, any person or entity (except 15
the student), made for not more than 15 16
students, and that is not made under a re-17
stricted or conditional contract with such 18
foreign source; 19
‘‘(ii) assignment or license of reg-20
istered industrial and intellectual property 21
rights, such as patents, utility models, 22
trademarks, or copyrights, or technical as-23
sistance, that are not associated with a 24
category listed in the Commerce Control 25
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List maintained by the Bureau of Industry 1
and Security of the Department of Com-2
merce and set forth in Supplement No. 1 3
to part 774 of title 15, Code of Federal 4
Regulations (or successor regulations); or 5
‘‘(iii) decorations (as such term is de-6
fined in section 7342(a) of title 5, United 7
States Code).’’. 8
SEC. 3. ENFORCEMENT AND OTHER GENERAL PROVISIONS. 9
(a) E
NFORCEMENT AND OTHERGENERALPROVI-10
SIONS.—The Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 11
1001 et seq.), as amended by this Act, is further amended 12
by inserting after section 117A the following: 13
‘‘SEC. 117B. ENFORCEMENT; SINGLE POINT-OF-CONTACT; 14
INSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENTS. 15
‘‘(a) E
NFORCEMENT.— 16
‘‘(1) I
NVESTIGATION.—The Secretary (acting 17
through the General Counsel of the Department) 18
shall conduct investigations of possible violations of 19
section 117A and subsection (c) of this section by 20
institutions and, whenever it appears that an institu-21
tion has knowingly or willfully failed to comply with 22
a requirement of any of such provisions (including 23
any rule or regulation promulgated under any such 24
provision), shall request that the Attorney General 25
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bring a civil action in accordance with paragraph 1
(2). 2
‘‘(2) C
IVIL ACTION.—Whenever it appears that 3
an institution has knowingly or willfully failed to 4
comply with a requirement of any of the provisions 5
listed in paragraph (1) (including any rule or regula-6
tion promulgated under any such provision) based 7
on an investigation under such paragraph, a civil ac-8
tion shall be brought by the Attorney General, at the 9
request of the Secretary, in an appropriate district 10
court of the United States, or the appropriate 11
United States court of any territory or other place 12
subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, to 13
request such court to compel compliance with the re-14
quirement of the provision that has been violated. 15
‘‘(3) C
OSTS AND OTHER FINES .—An institution 16
that is compelled to comply with a requirement of a 17
provision listed in paragraph (1) pursuant to para-18
graph (2) shall— 19
‘‘(A) pay to the Treasury of the United 20
States the full costs to the United States of ob-21
taining compliance with the requirement of such 22
provision, including all associated costs of inves-23
tigation and enforcement; and 24
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‘‘(B) if applicable, be subject to the appli-1
cable fines described in paragraph (4). 2
‘‘(4) F
INES FOR VIOLATIONS .—The Secretary 3
shall impose a fine on an institution that is com-4
pelled to comply with a requirement of section 117A 5
pursuant to paragraph (2) as follows: 6
‘‘(A) F
IRST-TIME VIOLATIONS.—In the 7
case of an institution that is compelled to com-8
ply with a requirement of section 117A pursu-9
ant to a civil action described in paragraph (2), 10
and that has not previously been compelled to 11
comply with any such requirement pursuant to 12
such a civil action, the Secretary shall impose 13
a fine on the institution for such violation in an 14
amount that is the greater of— 15
‘‘(i) $250,000; or 16
‘‘(ii) the total amount of gifts or con-17
tracts that the institution is compelled to 18
report pursuant to such civil action. 19
‘‘(B) S
UBSEQUENT VIOLATIONS .—In the 20
case of an institution that has previously been 21
compelled to comply with a requirement of sec-22
tion 117A pursuant to a civil action described 23
in paragraph (2), and is subsequently compelled 24
to comply with such a requirement pursuant to 25
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a subsequent civil action described in paragraph 1
(2), the Secretary shall impose a fine on the in-2
stitution in an amount that is the greater of— 3
‘‘(i) $500,000; or 4
‘‘(ii) twice the total amount of gifts or 5
contracts that the institution is compelled 6
to report pursuant to such civil action. 7
‘‘(b) S
INGLEPOINT-OF-CONTACT AT THE DEPART-8
MENT.—The Secretary shall maintain a single point-of- 9
contact at the Department to— 10
‘‘(1) receive and respond to inquiries and re-11
quests for technical assistance from institutions re-12
garding compliance with the requirements of section 13
117A and subsection (c) of this section; 14
‘‘(2) provide, every 90 days after the date of en-15
actment of the status updates on any pending or 16
completed investigations and civil actions under sub-17
section (a)(1) to— 18
‘‘(A) the authorizing committees; and 19
‘‘(B) any institution that is the subject of 20
such investigation or action; 21
‘‘(3) maintain, on a publicly accessible 22
website— 23
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‘‘(A) a full comprehensive list of all foreign 1
countries of concern and foreign entities of con-2
cern; and 3
‘‘(B) the date on which the last update was 4
made to such list; and 5
‘‘(4) not later than 7 days after making an up-6
date to the list maintained under paragraph (3)(A), 7
notify each institution required to comply with the 8
section listed in paragraph (1) of such update. 9
‘‘(c) I
NSTITUTIONALREQUIREMENTS FOR COMPLI-10
ANCEOFFICERS ANDINSTITUTIONALPOLICYREQUIRE-11
MENTS.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—An institution that is sub-13
ject to the requirements of section 117A shall, not 14
later than the date on which the institution first ful-15
fills the requirements of such section— 16
‘‘(A) establish an institutional policy that 17
the institution shall follow in meeting the re-18
quirements of such section; and 19
‘‘(B) designate and maintain at least one, 20
but not more than three, current employees or 21
legally authorized agents of such institution to 22
serve as compliance officers to carry out the re-23
quirements listed in paragraph (2). 24
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‘‘(2) DUTIES OF COMPLIANCE OFFICERS .—A 1
compliance officer designated by an institution under 2
paragraph (1)(B) shall certify, whenever the institu-3
tion is subject to the requirements of section 117A, 4
that the institution— 5
‘‘(A) is in compliance with the require-6
ments of such section; and 7
‘‘(B) followed the institutional policy estab-8
lished under paragraph (1)(A). 9
‘‘(d) D
EFINITIONS.—For purposes of section 117A 10
and this section: 11
‘‘(1) F
OREIGN COUNTRY OF CONCERN .—The 12
term ‘foreign country of concern’ means the fol-13
lowing: 14
‘‘(A) Any covered nation defined in section 15
4872 of title 10, United States Code. 16
‘‘(B) Any country the Secretary, in con-17
sultation with the Secretary of Defense, the 18
Secretary of State, and the Director of National 19
Intelligence, determines, for purposes of section 20
117A or this section, to be engaged in conduct 21
that is detrimental to the national security or 22
foreign policy of the United States. 23
‘‘(2) F
OREIGN ENTITY OF CONCERN .—The 24
term ‘foreign entity of concern’ has the meaning 25
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given such term in section 10612(a) of the Research 1
and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act 2
(42 U.S.C. 19221(a)) and includes a foreign entity 3
that is identified on the list published under section 4
1286(c)(8)(A) of the John S. McCain National De-5
fense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (10 6
U.S.C. 22 4001 note; Public Law 115–232). 7
‘‘(3) I
NSTITUTION.—The term ‘institution’ 8
means an institution of higher education (as such 9
term is defined in section 102, other than an institu-10
tion described in subsection (a)(1)(C) of such sec-11
tion).’’. 12
(b) P
ROGRAMPARTICIPATIONAGREEMENT.—Section 13
487(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 14
1094) is amended by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘(30)(A) An institution will comply with the re-16
quirements of sections 117A and 117B(c). 17
‘‘(B) In the case of an institution described in 18
subparagraph (C), the institution will— 19
‘‘(i) be ineligible to participate in the pro-20
grams authorized by this title for a period of 21
not less than 2 institutional fiscal years; and 22
‘‘(ii) in order to regain eligibility to partici-23
pate in such programs, demonstrate compliance 24
with all requirements of each such section for 25
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not less than 2 institutional fiscal years after 1
the institutional fiscal year in which such insti-2
tution became ineligible. 3
‘‘(C) An institution described in this subpara-4
graph is an institution that has been subject to 3 5
separate civil actions described in section 6
117B(a)(2) that have each resulted in the institution 7
being compelled to comply with one or more require-8
ments of section 117A or 117B(c).’’. 9
(c) GAO S
TUDY ANDREPORT.— 10
(1) S
TUDY.—Not later than 180 days after the 11
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller Gen-12
eral of the United States shall initiate a study to 13
identify ways to improve intergovernmental agency 14
coordination regarding implementation and enforce-15
ment of sections 117A and 117B(c) of the Higher 16
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1011f), as added 17
by this Act, including increasing information shar-18
ing, increasing compliance rates, and establishing 19
processes for enforcement. 20
(2) R
EPORT.—Not later than 3 years after the 21
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller Gen-22
eral of the United States shall submit to Congress, 23
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and make public, a report containing the results of 1
the study described in paragraph (1). 2
Æ
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