Republican Leader of the Education and Labor Committee, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), issued the following statement today after U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released a report examining foreign influence on American higher education:
“If we want to protect the integrity of American education, we must require greater transparency and accountability of foreign money in our colleges and universities.
“For too long, adversarial foreign actors, including China, have utilized whatever means at their disposal to influence American higher education with little to no repercussions. Since 2012, institutions reported anonymous donations from China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Russia totaling more than $1 billion. This is unacceptable.
“Students should never be subject to the horrors Ms. Vera Yueming Zhou has lived through. It is critically important colleges and universities reevaluate their entanglements with foreign entities to protect their students, advocate for human rights, and renew their commitments to free and open societies.
“This isn’t a partisan issue. This very real threat impacts all Americans. Committee Republicans stand ready to work with Secretary DeVos and President Trump to address this threat by ensuring the process is easy for institutions to report foreign gifts and contracts while still providing maximum transparency for American taxpayers.”
