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PRESIDENT TRUMP REQUIRES UNIVERSITIES TO FOLLOW THE LAW

PRIOR ADMINISTRATIONS FAILED TO ENFORCE FOREIGN FUNDING DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS

• Section 117 of the Higher Education Act requires institutions of higher education to disclose foreign gifts and contracts valued at over $250,000. This requirement is critical to tracking foreign adversaries’ and extremists’ efforts to influence U.S. higher education.
• Unfortunately, universities routinely flout this requirement, and prior administrations have failed to adequately enforce it. For example, universities failed to disclose 54% of foreign donations from 2010–2016.
• The first Trump Administration enforced reporting requirements, resulting in the disclosure of $6.5 billion in previously unreported funds by universities.
• Lax enforcement resumed during the Biden Administration. Consequently, university disclosure of foreign funding plummeted during a time in which foreign sources contributed an unprecedented $29 billion in donations—more than the combined totals for the previous 40 years.

THE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION AND JUSTICE WILL NOW ENSURE COMPLETE AND TIMELY DISCLOSURE OF FOREIGN FUNDING

• With a new executive order, President Trump has directed the Secretary of Education and the Attorney General to resume enforcement of Section 117 of the Higher Education Act.
• President Trump has directed the Secretary of Education to “reverse and rescind” Biden Administration policies that shielded foreign university funding from federal oversight, to improve the disclosure of foreign funding, and to provide the public with access to information on foreign funding of U.S. institutions of higher education.

UNIVERSITIES WILL NOW FACE CONSEQUENCES FOR FAILING TO FOLLOW FEDERAL LAW

• Under the Higher Education Act, universities who fail (or refuse) to adhere to their foreign funding disclosure requirements are subject to revocation of Title IV status, thereby cutting them off from access to federal grant and loan support.
• By directing the Secretary of Education and the heads of other appropriate agencies to enforce university compliance with foreign funding disclosure requirements, President Trump is restoring the rule of law and ensuring that the American people are aware of foreign actors’ actions—many of them, malign—to influence U.S higher education.
• U.S. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES SHOULD OBEY U.S. LAW AND PUT THE INTERESTS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AHEAD OF THOSE OF FOREIGN DONORS!