Bipartisan House backing and wide academic plus civil society support exist for Senate action on disclosure reforms. The key step left is to move forward without delay.

ByDR. CHARLES ASHER SMALL

JUNE 21, 2026 12:17

A coalition of 26 groups from academia, policy, and civil society recently pressed Congress to address an issue that officials have examined and recorded yet failed to settle: incomplete and inconsistently applied systems for tracking foreign contributions to American higher education. The coalition seeks no additional inquiries. Instead it calls for finishing reforms that started nearly four decades ago.

The coalition makes a valid point. Lawmakers possess ample data. What is required now is prompt action to reinforce and update the relevant statute in areas where it is clearly deficient.

The House has approved the DETERRENT Act on two occasions with cross-party votes. The Senate has taken up the measure each time only to delay progress. Meanwhile the core issue has grown, as documented through extensive research by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), revealing measurable, recurring, and significant patterns.

Reporting of foreign gifts under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act has suffered from weak enforcement and frequent disregard by numerous US colleges and universities. A 2019 Senate probe by the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations showed that almost 70 percent of institutions receiving over $250,000 from Chinese government-linked Confucius Institutes did not report those sums properly to the Department of Education. The inquiry also noted that China supplied $158 million directly to US schools for these institutes between 2006 and the report date, raising serious concerns about external influence. Congress responded in the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2021 by limiting Department of Defense funds to any institution hosting a Confucius Institute.

ISGAP's early Follow the Money findings from 2019 uncovered billions in unreported Middle Eastern support, chiefly from Qatar, to US universities. A 2020 Department of Education examination later uncovered more than $6.5 billion in previously undisclosed foreign gifts at a limited set of schools once reviews tightened, indicating the scale of ongoing non-reporting. Failure by colleges and universities to disclose such donations properly leaves room for authoritarian actors to shape curricula, administration, and security-sensitive projects.

ISGAP's Follow the Money initiative has mapped funding flows from authoritarian states and linked foundations, including Qatar and Muslim Brotherhood-related groups, into endowed positions, regional studies programs, research centers, and course development at US universities as well as overseas branches such as those in Doha. The result is not random donations but a deliberate, sustained strategy that affects hiring, research agendas, and scholarly framing, often without the knowledge of students, faculty, or the wider public. The project has further demonstrated that lack of transparency has sometimes aligned with restrictions on open inquiry into topics including authoritarian systems and antisemitism. The documented patterns are too regular to overlook.

The DETERRENT Act tackles these shortcomings head-on. It reduces the reporting threshold for foreign gifts from $250,000 to $50,000, and to zero for nations and entities of concern. It mandates disclosure of gifts to individual faculty and staff, closing a gap that has permitted influence to bypass institutional channels. It establishes a public searchable database. It also imposes meaningful financial consequences for violations, including possible loss of federal student aid eligibility, a penalty universities have historically viewed as significant.

The American university stands as a cornerstone of liberal democracy. It generates and tests evidence for public policy, allows scholars to pursue arguments to their conclusions without reprisal, and trains future judges, journalists, and legislators in the standards of intellectual integrity. When this institution faces compromise, effects extend beyond campus. They influence policy analysis, the environment for minority groups including Jewish students and faculty, and the quality of democratic choices.

Transparency forms the basis for institutional independence. The DETERRENT Act does not bar universities from international collaborations. It simply requires accurate reporting of funding origins and amounts. The Senate holds the legislation, the supporting evidence, a history of bipartisan House approval, and broad backing from academic and civil society organizations. All that remains is the choice to proceed. The moment has arrived.

Dr. Charles Asher Small is the Founding Director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) and a globally recognized scholar on contemporary antisemitism studies. He leads the Follow the Money research project into illicit funding of United States universities by foreign governments, foundations and corporations that adhere to and promote anti-democratic and antisemitic ideologies.