House Passes Bill Aiming to Reduce Chinese Influence on American Campuses

The bill lowers the current foreign funding reporting threshold from $250,000 to $0 for money from China.

Cyclists ride by Hoover Tower on the Stanford University campus in Stanford, Calif., on March 12, 2019. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The House passed a bill Wednesday to reduce Chinese influence by tightening the requirements for American universities to report foreign funding. The bill lowers the threshold from the current requirement of $250,000 in a calendar year to $0 for gifts or contracts from foreign countries of concern and $50,000 from other foreign sources.

If enacted, universities will have to apply for a one-year waiver to accept money from foreign countries of concern—currently defined as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—and must renew the waiver yearly.