I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1535 

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 3, 2021 

Mr. WILSON of South Carolina (for himself, Mr. NORMAN, Mr. GAETZ, Mr. 

GIBBS, Mr. GOODEN of Texas, Mr. BABIN, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. TURNER, 

Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr. POSEY, Mr. BURCHETT, Mr. GONZALEZ of Ohio, Mr. 

DESJARLAIS, Ms. STEFANIK, Mr. TIMMONS, Mr. GUEST, Mr. RICE of 

South Carolina, Mr. HARRIS, Mr. MAST, Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina, 

Mr. ALLEN, Mr. ROUZER, Mr. HUIZENGA, Mr. CARTER of Texas, Mr. 

WEBER of Texas, Mr. BURGESS, Mr. ISSA, Mr. LOUDERMILK, Mr. DUNN, 

Mr. BROOKS, and Mr. FITZGERALD) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the 

Committee on Education and Labor, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 

as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

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, 


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•HR 1535 IH

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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

5 Transparency Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. LIMITING EXEMPTION FROM FOREIGN AGENT REG7 ISTRATION REQUIREMENT FOR PERSONS EN8 GAGING IN ACTIVITIES IN FURTHERANCE OF 

9 CERTAIN PURSUITS TO ACTIVITIES NOT PRO10 MOTING POLITICAL AGENDA OF FOREIGN 

11 GOVERNMENTS. 

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

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

14 613(e)) is amended by striking the semicolon at the end 

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

16 do not promote the political agenda of a government of 

17 a foreign country;’’. 

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

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

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


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•HR 1535 IH

1 SEC. 3. DISCLOSURES OF FOREIGN GIFTS AND AGREE2 MENTS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 117 of the Higher Edu4 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1011f) is amended— 

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

6 AGREEMENTS’’ at the end; 

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

8 and inserting ‘‘$50,000’’; 

9 (3) in subsection (b)— 

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

11 by inserting before the period at the end the 

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

13 contract’’; and 

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

15 the period the following: ‘‘, including the con16 tent of each such contract’’; 

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

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

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

20 and (h) as subsections (f), (g), (h), and (i), respec21 tively; 

22 (6) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol23 lowing: 

24 ‘‘(e) CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE AGREEMENTS.— 

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

26 term ‘Confucius Institute’ means a cultural institute 


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1 directly or indirectly funded by the Government of 

2 the People’s Republic of China. 

3 ‘‘(2) DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENT.—Any institu4 tion that has entered into an agreement with a Con5 fucius Institute shall immediately make the full text 

6 of such agreement available— 

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

8 the institution; 

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

10 ‘‘(C) to the Committee on Health, Edu11 cation, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate; and 

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

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

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

15 (A) in paragraph (2), by amending sub16 paragraph (A) to read as follows: 

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

18 ‘‘(i) any agency of a foreign govern19 ment, and any other unit of foreign gov20 ernmental authority, including any foreign 

21 national, State, local, and municipal gov22 ernment; 

23 ‘‘(ii) any international or multi24 national organization whose membership is 


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1 composed of any unit of foreign govern2 ment described in clause (i); and 

3 ‘‘(iii) any agent or representative of 

4 any such unit or such organization, while 

5 acting as such;’’; and 

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

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

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

9 (b) EFFECT OF NONCOMPLIANCE WITH DISCLOSURE

10 REQUIREMENT.—Any institution of higher education (as 

11 defined in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 

12 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)) that is not in compliance with 

13 the disclosure requirements set forth in section 117 of 

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

15 foreign students under the Student and Exchange Visitor 

16 Program. 

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

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

19 or contracts or agreements entered into, or other activities 

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

21 Act. 

Æ 


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