The federal government has no single rule barring recipients of taxpayer-funded research from working with entities on U.S. national security blacklists, despite investigations involving Chinese defense-linked institutions and tens of millions of dollars recovered or protected through agency enforcement.
Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) introduced legislation in May that would prohibit universities, national laboratories, and other recipients from using federal research money to collaborate with people or institutions on designated restricted lists.
The National Science Foundation, which funds research and education across science and engineering, plans to implement a similar restriction in fiscal year 2027.
Pentagon-Funded Research With Chinese Institutions
The hearing followed the committee’s 2025 “Fox in the Henhouse” investigation into Pentagon-supported research.The committee report said its review identified more than 1,400 papers produced between June 2023 and June 2025 through Pentagon-funded research involving Chinese collaborators.
More than 700 involved researchers affiliated with entities the committee classified as connected to China’s defense research and industrial system.
The papers covered artificial intelligence, quantum sensing, semiconductors, advanced materials, cyber capabilities, propulsion, and other fields with military and commercial applications, according to the report.
“The Chinese Communist Party has a different agenda,” Moolenaar said in his opening remarks. “It seeks to exploit American taxpayer-funded research.”
From a Microwave Cloak to Fighter Stealth
Moolenaar pointed to metamaterials research at Duke University as an example of how fundamental science can move from an American laboratory into Chinese military applications.A Duke-led research team demonstrated a microwave “invisibility cloak” in 2006. The device used engineered structures to guide microwaves around an object, limiting the waves reflected back toward a detector.
The research had direct relevance to radar, which uses electromagnetic waves to detect objects.
Liu Ruopeng, a Chinese doctoral student working under Duke professor David Smith, later cofounded the Kuang-Chi Institute of Advanced Technology in Shenzhen.
A 2019 article in the U.S. Naval Institute’s publication Proceedings described the transfer of Duke metamaterials research to China as unauthorized. Liu said he took only basic research, but Smith disputed that account, citing an exact replica of Duke’s microwave-cloaking model that was later built at Zhejiang University.
The Naval Institute article said Kuang-Chi expanded metamaterials development in China and that the country was pursuing metasurface coatings to reduce the radar signatures of military aircraft. It cited work involving China’s J-20 stealth fighter.
Bill Would Apply One Rule Across Government
The Securing Innovation and Research From Adversaries Act would prohibit federally funded collaboration with entities and people on specified government-restricted lists.The lists include designations maintained by the Commerce Department, Treasury Department, State Department, and Pentagon, including lists covering export-control risks, sanctions, and Chinese military companies.
The bill covers collaboration that would include joint projects, co-authorship, data sharing, personnel exchanges, and other forms of research cooperation.
The legislation would apply to universities, national laboratories, private organizations, and other recipients of federal research funding.
Foundation Plans Fiscal 2027 Restriction
The National Science Foundation said its forthcoming policy would prohibit foundation money from being spent on research conducted with organizations on specified U.S. restricted-party lists.The prohibition would extend to employees of listed organizations.
Senior and key personnel on foundation-supported projects would also be barred from holding positions with, receiving research support from, or conducting foundation-funded work with restricted entities.
Researchers and their institutions would have to certify compliance when submitting proposals.
The foundation said existing risk-mitigation measures were insufficient for projects involving listed entities and that it intends to put the prohibition into effect in fiscal year 2027.
Rebecca Keiser, the foundation’s acting chief of staff and chief of research security policy and strategy, said enforcement actions have included 16 government-wide debarments or voluntary exclusions, 17 suspensions, 20 award terminations, and 72 suspended awards.
Other Agencies Use Different Controls
The Energy Department described a system based on foreign-national screening, access restrictions, disclosure reviews, and additional scrutiny for sensitive technologies.Jeremy Ison, chief of staff to the under secretary for science, said researchers in some higher-risk fields must disclose foreign employment, funding, patents, appointments, and other connections extending back 10 years.
He said the department favors restrictions aimed at identifiable risks rather than rules so broad that they unnecessarily impede legitimate international research.
The National Institutes of Health has relied more heavily on disclosure reviews and enforcement involving grants already awarded.
Patricia Valdez, the agency’s chief extramural research integrity officer, said it has reviewed more than 700 allegations involving possible foreign interference, undisclosed research support, overlapping funding, conflicts of commitment, or financial interests since 2018.
The agency identified possible noncompliance in 273 matters, most of which were handled administratively by the agency or the recipient institution, she said.
Khanna Says Cuts Weaken Enforcement
Khanna said the administration was undercutting its research-security agenda by reducing the people and resources needed to carry it out.He cited a proposed 26 percent cut to the National Science Foundation’s research security office and inspector general and a proposed 15 percent cap on indirect research costs.
Universities use indirect cost reimbursements to pay for facilities, administration, regulatory compliance, security, and other expenses associated with federal research.
Khanna also said the administration had dismissed personnel at the three agencies who assessed security risks and removed the members of the board overseeing the foundation.
“You cannot claim the high ground on research security while firing the people who do it and cutting the programs that fund it,” he said in his opening statement.
He also warned that funding cuts, visa restrictions, and suspicion directed at foreign researchers could drive scientific talent away from the United States.
“We can have zero tolerance for CCP theft and zero tolerance for civil rights violations at the same time,” Khanna said.
The National Science Foundation said its restricted-entity policy is scheduled for fiscal year 2027. Moolenaar and Banks’s broader prohibition remains pending in Congress.
