Title: Foreign Influence Transparency Act
Policy area: International Affairs

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 to those activities that do not promote the political agenda of a foreign government.
Under current law, an institution of higher education is required to disclose to the Department of Education 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 a foreign source. The bill instead requires the institution to disclose such a gift or contract that is valued at $50,000 or more.
An institution must include in its disclosure report the contents of any such contract and make the contents available for public disclosure.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3313 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3313

   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

                           February 13, 2020

  Mr. Rubio (for himself, Mr. Cotton, and Mr. Portman) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                           Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Foreign Influence Transparency 
Act''.

SEC. 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)) is amended by striking the 
semicolon at the end and inserting the following: ``, 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.

SEC. 3. DISCLOSURES OF FOREIGN GIFTS.

    (a) In General.--Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 
(20 U.S.C. 1011f) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a), by striking ``the value of which is 
        $250,000 or more, considered alone or in combination with all 
        other gifts from or contracts with'' and inserting ``the value 
        of which is $50,000 or more for such gift from or contract 
        with'';
            (2) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), in the first sentence, by 
                inserting before the period at the end the following: 
                ``, and the content of each such contract''; and
                    (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting before the 
                period the following: ``, and the content of each such 
                contract'';
            (3) in subsection (e), by inserting ``, including the 
        contents of any contracts,'' after ``reports''; and
            (4) in subsection (h)(3), by inserting before the semicolon 
        at the end the following: ``, or the fair market value of an 
        in-kind gift''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall 
apply with respect to gifts received or contracts entered into, or 
other activities carried out, on or after the date of enactment of this 
Act.
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