Republican U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana speaks to reporters in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Wednesday, December 3, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – Members of a U.S. Senate panel expressed bipartisan consensus Thursday that the country should be wary of “rogue” foreign dollars flowing into American colleges and universities. Some Democrats also argued that recent funding cuts undermine the country’s leadership in global research.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on “malign foreign influence in higher education” came as President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans pushed for reinforcement Transparency requirements when it comes to foreign gifts and contracts these schools receive.
Higher education institutions that receive federal financial support are required to disclose any foreign gifts or contracts valued at at least $250,000 per year. The requirement has existed since 1986 when the Higher Education Act 1965 was amended to include the reporting provision known as Section 117.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana and chairman of the panel, said college is ultimately about “preparing students for success and they should be our priority, but that priority can be undermined when foreign adversaries seek to exert influence on college campuses … which is inherently a threat to national security.”
A bill that would expand section 117 Disclosure requirements and lowering the reporting threshold from $250,000 to $50,000 was passed by the House of Representatives in March 2025. Rep. Michael Baumgartner, a Republican from Washington state, supported the measure.
Cassidy, who is Co-leader of a companion bill in the Senate Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina called for protecting college campuses through “transparency” and noted that his legislation is the next step in that effort.
Thursday’s hearing also came as the government continued its efforts to dismantle the 46-year-old Education Department, including through a series of measures intergovernmental agreements who outsource several of their tasks to other departments.
One of these agreements states: The State Department will aid education Manage reporting of foreign gifts and contracts under Section 117.
Research cuts augment vulnerabilities
Although Democrats saw the need to root out “malign” foreign influences in higher education, a few criticized the administration’s cuts to federal research funding and broader “attacks” on higher education.
“While I agree that it is important to root out dangerous sources of foreign influence in our higher education system, I believe it is important that we also address how cuts to research funding can increase foreign influence on the global stage and undermine U.S. competitiveness,” said Senator Angela Alsobrooks.
The Maryland Democrat cited the impact of government cuts on the National Institutes of Health, the nation’s leading medical research institution, which operates under the Department of Health and Human Services and is headquartered in her state.
Senator Tim Kaine pointed to a loss of researchers in the United States due to cuts in research funding.
“This administration has cut billions of dollars in federal research, leaving many of our researchers vulnerable to being recruited by universities in other countries, not necessarily China, but Canada, the United Kingdom and universities in Europe,” the Virginia Democrat said.
Senator Patty Murray said she found it “absurd”. Trump and Republicans are “prepared to burn billions of dollars every day” in the ongoing war with Iran, while they and many others fight “with all their might” for the administration to “release billions of dollars that Congress has appropriated for delivery to our students.”
“This is not happening, and states like mine routinely have to file lawsuits,” the Washington state Democrat said, while also calling on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to testify before the panel about the ongoing reduction efforts.
Cassidy said the panel is in discussions with the department to schedule McMahon’s testimony.
Transparency dashboard
That of the department public transparency dashboard — housed on a portal launched in January where colleges and universities are responsible for disclosing foreign gifts and contracts — also came to the fore at Thursday’s hearing.
The dashboard, which visualizes four decades of data, provides a snapshot of foreign funding disclosures filed by colleges and universities.
According to the dashboard, between 1986 and the end of January 2026, at least 559 institutions disclosed foreign gifts and contracts worth $72.1 billion.
However, the user-friendliness of the dashboard in the current version is circumscribed by the fact that filtering by year is not possible.
Robert Daly, a senior fellow at the Asia Society and former director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson Center, told the panel that the cumulative nature of the dashboard was one of its “biggest silences.” The tool does not allow the public to identify fluctuations over the years in the amount of money schools receive from foreign gifts and contracts.
He added: “Not only do we need to see how donations evolve over time in each country, but we also need to be able to distinguish between different types of donations.”
