Foreign Influence Transparency Act

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 577 To amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 to limit the exemption from the registration requirements of such Act for persons engaging in activities in furtherance of bona fide religious, scholastic, academic, or scientific pursuits or the fine arts to activities which do not promote the political agenda of a foreign government, to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to clarify the disclosures of foreign gifts by institutions, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 3, 2021 Mr. RUBIO (for himself, Mr. PORTMAN, Mr. COTTON, and Mr. HAGERTY) in- troduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com- mittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 to limit the exemption from the registration requirements of such Act for persons engaging in activities in further- ance of bona fide religious, scholastic, academic, or sci- entific pursuits or the fine arts to activities which do not promote the political agenda of a foreign government, to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to clarify the disclosures of foreign gifts by institutions, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:41 Apr 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S577.IS S577 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 577 IS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Foreign Influence 2 Transparency Act’’. 3 SEC. 2. LIMITING EXEMPTION FROM FOREIGN AGENT REG- 4 ISTRATION REQUIREMENT FOR PERSONS EN- 5 GAGING IN ACTIVITIES IN FURTHERANCE OF 6 CERTAIN PURSUITS TO ACTIVITIES NOT PRO- 7 MOTING POLITICAL AGENDA OF FOREIGN 8 GOVERNMENTS. 9 (a) LIMITATION ON EXEMPTION.—Section 3(e) of the 10 Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. 11 613(e)) is amended by striking the semicolon at the end 12 and inserting the following: ‘‘, but only if the activities 13 do not promote the political agenda of a government of 14 a foreign country;’’. 15 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 16 subsection (a) shall apply with respect to activities carried 17 out on or after the date of the enactment of this Act. 18 SEC. 3. DISCLOSURES OF FOREIGN GIFTS AND AGREE- 19 MENTS. 20 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 117 of the Higher Edu- 21 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1011f) is amended— 22 (1) in the section heading, by adding ‘‘AND 23 AGREEMENTS’’ at the end; 24 (2) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘$250,000’’ 25 and inserting ‘‘$50,000’’; 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:41 Apr 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S577.IS S577 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 577 IS (3) in subsection (b)— 1 (A) in paragraph (1), in the first sentence, 2 by inserting before the period at the end the 3 following: ‘‘, including the content of each such 4 contract’’; and 5 (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting before 6 the period the following: ‘‘, including the con- 7 tent of each such contract’’; 8 (4) in subsection (e), by inserting ‘‘, including 9 the contents of any contracts,’’ after ‘‘reports’’; 10 (5) by redesignating subsections (e), (f), (g), 11 and (h) as subsections (f), (g), (h), and (i), respec- 12 tively; 13 (6) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol- 14 lowing: 15 ‘‘(e) CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE AGREEMENTS.— 16 ‘‘(1) DEFINED TERM.—In this subsection, the 17 term ‘Confucius Institute’ means a cultural institute 18 directly or indirectly funded by the Government of 19 the People’s Republic of China. 20 ‘‘(2) DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENT.—Any institu- 21 tion that has entered into an agreement with a Con- 22 fucius Institute shall immediately make the full text 23 of such agreement available— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:41 Apr 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S577.IS S577 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 577 IS ‘‘(A) on the publicly accessible website of 1 the institution; 2 ‘‘(B) to the Department of Education; 3 ‘‘(C) to the Committee on Health, Edu- 4 cation, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate; and 5 ‘‘(D) to the Committee on Education and 6 Labor of the House of Representatives.’’; and 7 (7) in subsection (i), as redesignated— 8 (A) in paragraph (2), by amending sub- 9 paragraph (A) to read as follows: 10 ‘‘(A) a foreign government, including— 11 ‘‘(i) any agency of a foreign govern- 12 ment, and any other unit of foreign gov- 13 ernmental authority, including any foreign 14 national, State, local, and municipal gov- 15 ernment; 16 ‘‘(ii) any international or multi- 17 national organization whose membership is 18 composed of any unit of foreign govern- 19 ment described in clause (i); and 20 ‘‘(iii) any agent or representative of 21 any such unit or such organization, while 22 acting as such;’’; and 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:41 Apr 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S577.IS S577 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 577 IS (B) in paragraph (3), by inserting before 1 the semicolon at the end the following: ‘‘, or the 2 fair market value of an in-kind gift’’. 3 (b) EFFECT OF NONCOMPLIANCE WITH DISCLOSURE 4 REQUIREMENT.—Any institution of higher education (as 5 defined in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 6 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)) that is not in compliance with 7 the disclosure requirements set forth in section 117 of 8 such Act (20 U.S.C. 1011f) shall be ineligible to enroll 9 foreign students under the Student and Exchange Visitor 10 Program. 11 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 12 subsection (a) shall apply with respect to gifts received 13 or contracts or agreements entered into, or other activities 14 carried out, on or after the date of the enactment of this 15 Act. 16 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:41 Apr 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S577.IS S577 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS