The Department of Education says it has improved a portal that requires higher education institutions to report the source of foreign donations and contracts to the federal government.
"After years of neglect by the Biden administration, the new portal will assist our institutions of higher education in fulfilling their statutory responsibilities and enable us to protect our national security by facilitating improved compliance," Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Monday in a news release.
"America's taxpayer-funded colleges and universities have both a moral and legal obligation to be fully transparent with the U.S. government and the American people about their foreign financial relationships."
President Donald Trump's executive order in April strengthened transparency requirements for foreign funds flowing to U.S. higher education and research institutions. The administration said at the time that only about 300 of roughly 6,000 U.S. institutions report foreign money each year.
Section 117 of the Higher Education Act requires biannual disclosures of foreign-source gifts and contracts worth $250,000 or more annually to the Department of Education. The law also requires the department to make those disclosures available for public inspection.
The department said the disclosure rules are intended to protect national security and academic integrity by increasing transparency about potential foreign influence in higher education.
Noncompliant institutions risk enforcement by the Department of Justice, including civil actions compelling compliance and recovering enforcement costs, according to the Education Department.
The Trump administration has opened or expanded Section 117 investigations this year into Harvard, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Texas System.
Officials have issued formal records demands and 30-day compliance deadlines and warned that continued underreporting of foreign gifts and contracts could trigger DOJ action and even jeopardize federal funding.
In September 2024, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party reported that federally funded researchers helped China advance technologies with military and other applications, potentially posing a national security threat.
The new portal has undergone a three-day beta-test period among nine universities, including the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Southern California, Pepperdine University, Purdue University, and the University of Arizona. It is scheduled to go live on Jan. 2.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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