Washington, D.C. — Earlier this month, FDD Action co-led a coalition of 27 major organizations in sending a letter to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees urging the adoption of bipartisan, widely supported legislation to bolster transparency into foreign funding in education as part of the annual defense authorization.
The DETERRENT Act (H.R. 1048 / S. 1296) strengthens Section 117 reporting requirements for foreign donations and contracts to institutions of higher education. That transparency would help combat the massive influx of foreign funding to U.S. schools from countries like China and Qatar, while also shedding light on funding from the likes of Iran, Russia, and North Korea. This legislation is designed to close longstanding gaps in oversight and ensure that foreign influence in American academia is fully disclosed and subject to accountability.
Noting the Pentagon’s inquiries into how this foreign funding impacts its own joint research projects with universities, the coalition urged the congressional defense leader to include the DETERRENT Act in the final version of the FY 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The legislation has also been widely supported. In March 2025, the bill passed the House with bipartisan backing (241-169) and has been proposed as an amendment to the NDAA in both the House and Senate during floor consideration.
“U.S. higher education remains the envy of the world and drives our economic competitiveness and innovation. The DETERRENT Act is designed to protect that system by ensuring foreign influence is not used to undermine our students and faculty or to steal the intellectual property and military research that is at the heart of our national security,” said Tyler Stapleton, Senior Director of Government Relations at FDD Action. “Passing the DETERRENT Act as part of the NDAA would bolster existing reporting requirements for schools while ensuring we continue to educate the most dynamic workforce, spur new technologies, and welcome foreign investment.”
The legislation, which has been years in the making, was also the subject of a hearing in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions this year where FDD’s China Program Director Craig Singleton testified on the foreign funding threat to U.S. education. “Strengthening transparency is not about restricting academic exchange,” Singleton said. “It is about ensuring that openness is matched by accountability and that policymakers, universities, and the public have the information necessary to protect the integrity of the American research enterprise in an era of increasing geopolitical competition.”
The coalition is calling on Congress to include the DETERRENT Act in the NDAA and work to fully implement its provisions this year.
The Department of Defense (DOD) has announced that it is taking additional measures to audit U.S. universities to ensure that partnerships with Chinese educational institutions are not linked to the Chinese military. This action, like the DETERRENT Act, will require further disclosures of foreign funding to schools that also receive DOD funding to develop sensitive military technologies for the United States.
The Pentagon has also taken action to update how it evaluates schools that apply for federal funding to do DOD research. The updated guidance outlines further restrictions on schools hosting Confucius Institutes or foreign talent recruitment programs that have been compromised by the Chinese government.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education and the Department of State announced a partnership that would allow foreign funding data to be shared and analyzed across the two departments. This agreement would allow the Section 117 data that is submitted by schools to the Department of Education to also receive a national security review and allow the U.S. government to track foreign influence campaigns across multiple jurisdictions and in other countries.
Taken together, these actions are a step in the right direction to increase transparency and address foreign influence campaigns on U.S. college campuses. The DETERRENT Act would authorize many of these actions, including the sharing of foreign funding data for national security screening and increased scrutiny of foreign partnerships at schools that conduct sensitive U.S. military research.
FDD Action is a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization that works directly with policymakers to advocate for a robust U.S. foreign policy — one that strengthens U.S. national security, does damage to America’s adversaries, and supports allies and partners. FDD Action serves as a trusted resource for congressional offices and executive branch policymakers navigating complex national security challenges, leveraging a team with decades of experience on Capitol Hill and in the policy arena.