Colleges must report all foreign gifts and partnerships; fines up to 200% for violations.

What it does

This bill requires colleges and universities to disclose all gifts and contracts from foreign sources above certain thresholds ($50,000 for most foreign sources, any amount for designated hostile countries/entities), prohibits contracts with designated foreign countries and entities of concern unless the Secretary grants a one-year waiver, requires faculty and staff at large research institutions to disclose foreign gifts and contracts, mandates disclosure of endowment investments in hostile foreign entities, and creates searchable public databases of all these disclosures. Institutions that violate these rules face civil enforcement, fines up to 200% of the value of unreported gifts/contracts, and loss of waiver eligibility.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core mechanism is mandatory disclosure of foreign gifts/contracts to federal agencies and the public, combined with a prohibition on contracts with designated hostile entities (waivable by the Secretary). This is fundamentally a transparency and national-security measure, not a subsidy, carve-out, or commemorative provision.

What the text implies

• The definition of 'foreign source' is extremely broad (includes agents, subsidiaries, and affiliated entities of foreign governments), potentially capturing routine international academic partnerships, student scholarships from foreign individuals, and collaborative research with foreign universities.
• The $50,000 threshold for disclosure of non-hostile foreign gifts is low relative to typical research grants and endowed chairs, likely triggering disclosure requirements for many legitimate academic partnerships.
• Faculty and staff at large research institutions must disclose contracts worth $5,000 or more with any foreign source, creating a chilling effect on international collaboration and potentially exposing individual researchers to scrutiny.
• The bill requires institutions to maintain unredacted copies of all contracts with hostile foreign entities and produce them to the Secretary on demand, creating a permanent record that may be shared with intelligence agencies without institutional control.
• Institutions that fail to renew waivers for existing contracts with hostile entities must terminate those contracts within 60 days, potentially disrupting ongoing research and creating legal liability for breach of contract.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Citizens benefit from transparency into foreign influence on universities and protection against hostile-nation control of research institutions; however, the bill's broad definition of 'foreign source' and low thresholds ($50,000 gifts, $5,000 faculty contracts) may chill legitimate international academic collaboration, research partnerships, and student scholarships, potentially raising costs and limiting educational access. The enforcement mechanism is severe (fines up to 200% of contract val

Named in the bill

U.S. Department of Education, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Director of National Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of Energy, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health — and 5 more

Where it stands

21 cosponsors: 18 Republicans, 2 Democrats, 1 Independents.

• Feb 6, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Feb 6, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce and Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce”
• Feb 12, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
• Feb 12, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 20 - 14”
• Mar 27, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 241 - 169 (Roll no. 83)”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

25 lobbying clients named this bill on 35 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $6,727,694 in lobbying spend. A filing names 17 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 97% of bills with at least one filing.

Michael Baumgartner, the sponsor, reported $405,400 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• University of California — $2,430,000 on 3 filings
• Fdd Action — $530,000 on 2 filings
• New York University — $380,000 on 2 filings
• Cornell University — $360,000 on 1 filing
• J Street — $340,000 on 2 filings

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.