Senate bill aims to curb foreign influence in U.S. colleges

More individuals working for organizations that promote foreign interests in the United States would have to register as foreign agents under a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.

Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of 1938, individuals working for foreign-supported organizations that engage in religious, education, scientific or artistic activities are not required to register as foreign agents with the U.S. Department of Justice. The Foreign Influence Transparency Act would amend FARA so that individuals promote the political agendas of foreign governments don’t qualify for those exemptions.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who introduced the bill with U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Joe Wilson (R-SC), recently called on Florida colleges to end agreements with Confucius Institutes, which are non-profit public education organizations that are supported by the Chinese government. Rubio also recently urged the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to include provisions in the Higher Education Reform Act that would make it harder for the Chinese government to skirt foreign agent registration requirements.

“This legislation aims to bring greater transparency to the activities of foreign governments operating in the United States,” Rubio said. “It will strengthen foreign funding disclosure requirements for colleges and universities and close loopholes in current law so that entities like Confucius Institutes, operating in more than 100 American higher education institutions including several in Florida, would be required to register with the Department of Justice as foreign agents of the Chinese government.”

The Foreign Influence Transparency Act would also amend the Higher Education Act to require universities to report donations, contracts or gifts from foreign governments that exceed $50,000 in value.

“If we want there to be free speech and honest debate on our college campuses, then we need more transparency around other countries’ efforts to push their interests on U.S. soil,” Cotton said. “Requiring organizations like Confucius Institutes to register their activities with the Justice Department and disclose where they get their money is necessary to alert college students to the malign influence of foreign propaganda.”

Wilson added that the goal of the legislation is to enhance transparency between foreign governments, universities, and communities, concluding, “The American people have the right to know if they are consuming propaganda that is being produced by a foreign government.”