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WASHINGTON — Utah Rep. Burgess Owens criticized the Biden administration Thursday for its handling of a law requiring universities to disclose certain foreign funding, and said adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party have too much influence on college campuses.
Owens, a Republican, said many colleges and universities have failed to disclose large funds given to them by foreign entities. Owens chairs the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, and led a hearing on the subject of foreign influence on campuses Thursday.
"We're now in an era when too many American college and university administrators — due to financial incentives or bribes from adversarial regimes — choose to allow indoctrination on our American campuses. I call it profit over patriotism," he said.
The hearing built on a 2019 Senate report which highlighted the links between the Chinese government and several Confucius Institutes aimed at promoting Chinese culture and language at U.S. schools. The institutes operate as "cultural indoctrination centers" that "pose a direct threat to students and academic freedom," Owens said.
Under Section 117 of the 1965 Higher Education Act, higher education institutions are required to disclose foreign funding that exceeds $250,000, but the Senate report found that a majority of schools that host Confucius Institutes didn't report the funding they received.
"The Biden administration doesn't seem to get it. ... Biden's feckless Department of Education has yet to open even a single Section 117 investigation," Owens said.
China isn't the only foreign nation to fund universities, said Paul Moore, senior counsel for the Defense of Freedom Institute. Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others have poured money onto campuses in recent years, he said.
"Many of our great universities have since become addicted to that foreign money," he said.
He described the amount of foreign money in U.S. institutions as a "black hole" because of the underreporting of foreign contracts.
Moore suggested Congress ban the practice of anonymizing university donors, and tie participation in some federal student aid programs to a university's compliance with Section 117.
Democrats on the committee agreed that transparency in foreign gifts is "crucial" but warned against "scapegoating" the Asian American community.
"The benefits of global partnerships undoubtedly helped drive intellectual and campus diversity by bolstering our economy. However, as the federal government provides roughly $30 billion annually to colleges and universities to support research and development efforts, we must ensure that colleges and universities are transparent about their ties to foreign entities," said Rep. Frederica S. Wilson, D-Fla., the ranking member on the subcommittee.
It is "imperative" that discussions about foreign influence don't "fuel prevailing anti-Asian sentiments," she continued. "Congress and this administration have raised valid concerns regarding the Chinese Communist Party and their agenda against the United States. These worries should not be twisted into an excuse to push anti-Asian rhetoric, and we must safeguard our interests without adopting an extreme, isolationist position."
John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, also warned against "xenophobia" and touted the benefits of international academic cooperation.
Many foreign students in the U.S. "chose to come here because of the democratic ideals that we represent, and because they prefer our system of government rather than having an autocratic system," he said.
But when it comes to transparency and disclosures, Owens said the Biden administration "has purposely chosen to turn a blind eye," promising that the Republican House majority "will not." He urged action ahead of the next Section 117 reporting deadline at the end of July.
"This administration has just under 20 days to ensure that America's colleges and universities — taxpayer-funded institutions — are not hiding foreign donations from the public eye," Owens said. "For the sake of our republic, and the millions of tax-paying Americans, we look for full transparency from these institutions."
The hearing also came after two Utah senators, Mike Lee and Mitt Romney, signed on to a letter Monday asking the Department of Justice to provide them with more information about "Overseas Chinese Service Centers" operating in the U.S., including one that is in Salt Lake City.
