Education Committee Passes Owens’ Bill to Expose Foreign Influence in U.S. Universities

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House Education and Workforce Committee passed the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act, which includes provisions from the Reporting on Investments in Foreign Adversaries (RIFA) Act. The RIFA Act, led by Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee Chairman Burgess Owens (R-UT), strengthens oversight of foreign influence in higher education.

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“For far too long, private universities have operated in the shadows, keeping students, parents, and taxpayers in the dark while taking billions from foreign adversaries with zero accountability — that ends now,” said Rep. Owens. “The committee’s passage of the DETERRENT Act, which includes my RIFA Act, brings us one step closer to ensuring that universities disclose their financial entanglements and face real consequences for noncompliance. This is a win for American taxpayers, for our students, and for our national security.”

The Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act:

• 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.
• Closes reporting loopholes and provides transparency to Congress, intelligence agencies, and the public.
• Requires disclosure of foreign gifts to individual staff and faculty at research-heavy institutions to protect those targeted the most by our adversaries.
• Holds our largest private institutions accountable for their financial partnerships by revealing concerning foreign investments in their endowments.
• 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.

The Reporting on Investments in Foreign Adversaries (RIFA) Act: 

RIFA requires private universities with endowments above $6 billion or with more than $250 million in investments of concern to report on: 

• A list of investments of concern purchased, sold, or held during the calendar year
• The aggregate fair market value of all investments of concern held as of the close of the calendar year
• The combined value of all investments of concern sold over the calendar year, as measured by the fair market value of such investments at the time of the sale
• The combined value of all capital gains from sales of investments of concern

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