Foreign Influence Transparency Act

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. Short title This Act may be cited as the Foreign Influence Transparency Act 2. Limiting exemption from foreign agent registration requirement for persons engaging in activities in furtherance of certain pursuits to activities not promoting political agenda of foreign governments (a) Limitation on exemption Section 3(e) of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 ( 22 U.S.C. 613(e) , but only if the activities do not promote the political agenda of a government of a foreign country; (b) Effective date The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply with respect to activities carried out on or after the date of the enactment of this Act. 3. Disclosures of foreign gifts and agreements (a) In general Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 ( 20 U.S.C. 1011f (1) in the section heading, by adding and agreements (2) in subsection (a), by striking $250,000 $50,000 (3) in subsection (b)— (A) in paragraph (1), in the first sentence, by inserting before the period at the end the following: , including the content of each such contract (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting before the period the following: , including the content of each such contract (4) in subsection (e), by inserting , including the contents of any contracts, reports (5) by redesignating subsections (e), (f), (g), and (h) as subsections (f), (g), (h), and (i), respectively; (6) by inserting after subsection (d) the following: (e) Confucius Institute agreements (1) Defined term In this subsection, the term Confucius Institute (2) Disclosure requirement Any institution that has entered into an agreement with a Confucius Institute shall immediately make the full text of such agreement available— (A) on the publicly accessible website of the institution; (B) to the Department of Education; (C) to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate (D) to the Committee on Education and Labor of the House of Representatives ; and (7) in subsection (i), as redesignated— (A) in paragraph (2), by amending subparagraph (A) to read as follows: (A) a foreign government, including— (i) any agency of a foreign government, and any other unit of foreign governmental authority, including any foreign national, State, local, and municipal government; (ii) any international or multinational organization whose membership is composed of any unit of foreign government described in clause (i); and (iii) any agent or representative of any such unit or such organization, while acting as such; ; and (B) in paragraph (3), by inserting before the semicolon at the end the following: , or the fair market value of an in-kind gift (b) Effect of noncompliance with disclosure requirement Any institution of higher education (as defined in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 ( 20 U.S.C. 1001 20 U.S.C. 1011f (c) Effective date The amendments made by subsection (a) shall apply with respect to gifts received or contracts or agreements entered into, or other activities carried out, on or after the date of the enactment of this Act.

Summary: Foreign Influence Transparency Act This bill addresses foreign influence in higher education and in certain other academic, religious, and artistic pursuits. Current law exempts from foreign agent registration requirements a person engaging in activities in furtherance of religious, scholastic, academic, or scientific pursuits or of the fine arts. The bill specifies that this exemption applies only if those activities do not promote the political agenda of a foreign government. Under current law, an institution of higher education (IHE) must disclose to the Department of Education (ED) a gift or contract that is from a foreign source and is valued at $250,000 or more, considered alone or in combination with all other gifts from or contracts with the foreign source within a calendar year. The bill lowers this disclosure threshold to $50,000. The bill also requires the IHE to include in its disclosure report the contents of any such contract and make the contents available for public inspection and copying. Additionally, an IHE that enters into an agreement with a Confucius Institute (i.e., a cultural institute directly or indirectly funded by the Chinese government) must immediately make available the full text of the agreement to the public, ED, and Congress. Finally, the bill prohibits an IHE that does not comply with these disclosure requirements from enrolling foreign students under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program.