STATEMENT: PDE Action Supports Sen. Tillis and Rep. Baumgartner’s DETERRENT Act

Parents Defending Education Action is pleased to support the DETERRENT Act, H.R. 1048 / S. 1296, which strengthens transparency and reporting requirements relative to foreign gifts and contracts for American colleges and universities. 

In our highly charged geopolitical era, malign foreign actors increasingly seek access to elite American institutions of higher education. And top American universities are all too willing to accept financial support from foreign nations while concealing the origin of those donations. A recent investigation into Harvard University’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, for example, offered shocking details into Harvard’s shameful capitulation to the CCP.

Republican leaders rightly recognize that these kinds of transactions represent an imminent threat to our national security. That is why Parents Defending Education Action calls on Congressional leaders to fast-track the bipartisan DETERRENT Act. This bill imposes no extraordinary burden on universities, but simply mandates the disclosure of gifts or contracts from foreign sources, or the procurement of a waiver for contracts with a foreign country or entity of concern, such as China or Russia. This common-sense legislation is far too important to be railroaded by political polarization and legislative gridlock and we urge Congress to pass it.

Terry Stoops 

Director of Government Affairs 

Parents Defending Education Action