II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 577 

To amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 to limit the exemption 

from the registration requirements of such Act for persons engaging 

in activities in furtherance of bona fide religious, scholastic, academic, 

or scientific pursuits or the fine arts to activities which do not promote 

the political agenda of a foreign government, to amend the Higher 

Education Act of 1965 to clarify the disclosures of foreign gifts by 

institutions, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 3, 2021 

Mr. RUBIO (for himself, Mr. PORTMAN, Mr. COTTON, and Mr. HAGERTY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 

to limit the exemption from the registration requirements 

of such Act for persons engaging in activities in furtherance of bona fide religious, scholastic, academic, or scientific pursuits or the fine arts to activities which do 

not promote the political agenda of a foreign government, 

to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to clarify 

the disclosures of foreign gifts by institutions, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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•S 577 IS

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Foreign Influence 

3 Transparency Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. LIMITING EXEMPTION FROM FOREIGN AGENT REG5 ISTRATION REQUIREMENT FOR PERSONS EN6 GAGING IN ACTIVITIES IN FURTHERANCE OF 

7 CERTAIN PURSUITS TO ACTIVITIES NOT PRO8 MOTING POLITICAL AGENDA OF FOREIGN 

9 GOVERNMENTS. 

10 (a) LIMITATION ON EXEMPTION.—Section 3(e) of the 

11 Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. 

12 613(e)) is amended by striking the semicolon at the end 

13 and inserting the following: ‘‘, but only if the activities 

14 do not promote the political agenda of a government of 

15 a foreign country;’’. 

16 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

17 subsection (a) shall apply with respect to activities carried 

18 out on or after the date of the enactment of this Act. 

19 SEC. 3. DISCLOSURES OF FOREIGN GIFTS AND AGREE20 MENTS. 

21 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 117 of the Higher Edu22 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1011f) is amended— 

23 (1) in the section heading, by adding ‘‘AND

24 AGREEMENTS’’ at the end; 

25 (2) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘$250,000’’ 

26 and inserting ‘‘$50,000’’; 


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1 (3) in subsection (b)— 

2 (A) in paragraph (1), in the first sentence, 

3 by inserting before the period at the end the 

4 following: ‘‘, including the content of each such 

5 contract’’; and 

6 (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting before 

7 the period the following: ‘‘, including the con8 tent of each such contract’’; 

9 (4) in subsection (e), by inserting ‘‘, including 

10 the contents of any contracts,’’ after ‘‘reports’’; 

11 (5) by redesignating subsections (e), (f), (g), 

12 and (h) as subsections (f), (g), (h), and (i), respec13 tively; 

14 (6) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol15 lowing: 

16 ‘‘(e) CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE AGREEMENTS.— 

17 ‘‘(1) DEFINED TERM.—In this subsection, the 

18 term ‘Confucius Institute’ means a cultural institute 

19 directly or indirectly funded by the Government of 

20 the People’s Republic of China. 

21 ‘‘(2) DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENT.—Any institu22 tion that has entered into an agreement with a Con23 fucius Institute shall immediately make the full text 

24 of such agreement available— 


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1 ‘‘(A) on the publicly accessible website of 

2 the institution; 

3 ‘‘(B) to the Department of Education; 

4 ‘‘(C) to the Committee on Health, Edu5 cation, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate; and 

6 ‘‘(D) to the Committee on Education and 

7 Labor of the House of Representatives.’’; and 

8 (7) in subsection (i), as redesignated— 

9 (A) in paragraph (2), by amending sub10 paragraph (A) to read as follows: 

11 ‘‘(A) a foreign government, including— 

12 ‘‘(i) any agency of a foreign govern13 ment, and any other unit of foreign gov14 ernmental authority, including any foreign 

15 national, State, local, and municipal gov16 ernment; 

17 ‘‘(ii) any international or multi18 national organization whose membership is 

19 composed of any unit of foreign govern20 ment described in clause (i); and 

21 ‘‘(iii) any agent or representative of 

22 any such unit or such organization, while 

23 acting as such;’’; and 


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1 (B) in paragraph (3), by inserting before 

2 the semicolon at the end the following: ‘‘, or the 

3 fair market value of an in-kind gift’’. 

4 (b) EFFECT OF NONCOMPLIANCE WITH DISCLOSURE

5 REQUIREMENT.—Any institution of higher education (as 

6 defined in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 

7 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)) that is not in compliance with 

8 the disclosure requirements set forth in section 117 of 

9 such Act (20 U.S.C. 1011f) shall be ineligible to enroll 

10 foreign students under the Student and Exchange Visitor 

11 Program. 

12 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

13 subsection (a) shall apply with respect to gifts received 

14 or contracts or agreements entered into, or other activities 

15 carried out, on or after the date of the enactment of this 

16 Act. 

Æ 


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