House Committee advances university foreign donations disclosure bill
The DETERRENT Act passed the House Education and Workforce Committee on a party line vote
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Chairman Tim Walberg, R-Mich., attends the House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on "The State of American Education" in the Ryaburn House Office Building on Wednesday, February 5, 2025.
The House Education and Workforce Committee voted on party lines on Wednesday to advance legislation that would tighten requirements for colleges and universities to report and disclose foreign donations.
Such donations have become a concern for the Jewish community since Oct. 7, 2023, amid worries that funding from states hostile to Israel — including Iran and Qatar — is fueling antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment on college campuses. The bill passed the House 246-170 last year, with 31 Democrats supporting it. The Senate did not take it up at the time.
The bill, the DETERRENT Act, is sponsored by Reps. Michael Baumgartner (R-WA) and Tim Walberg (R-MI). It requires schools to report any foreign donations above $50,000, down from $250,000 under current law, and requires them to disclose donations of any size from countries of concern, including Iran and Saudi Arabia.
It also requires schools to obtain a waiver to enter into contracts with countries of concern, mandates that schools disclose foreign contracts with and gifts to faculty and researchers and requires private colleges to file annual endowment investment reports.
It imposes new penalties for failing to properly disclose foreign donations, including substantial fines based on the amount of federal funding that schools receive.
Democrats argued during the committee meeting that the legislation would not achieve its intended effect and would be needlessly burdensome on schools and their faculty and staff. They also criticized the Trump administration’s moves to cut research grants to institutes of higher education and plans to eliminate the Department of Education.
The bill bypassed the committee in the previous Congress, and none of the Democrats on the committee voted for it on the House floor.
The Orthodox Union endorsed the DETERRENT Act.
“For too long, hostile governments have funneled billions of dollars into American universities to spread anti-American and antisemitic propaganda,” Nathan Diament, the executive director of public policy for the Orthodox Union, said in a statement. “Much of this money is hidden from public scrutiny. We urge Congress to act swiftly to pass this bill, and put an end to foreign-backed antisemitism in higher education.”