Every year, the Department of Education sends a verification list to the schools and universities that remind them of the various federal laws and regulations that have to comply, including environmental norms, title IX and FERPA, the Law of Educational Rights and family privacy. << /p>
For many years, that verification list did not mention any reports for foreign gifts and contracts. As a result, many higher education institutions were taken by surprise in 2019 when the department began launching research from schools and universities for non -compliance with regulations.
institutions fought to put their dissemination practices online, combing through gifts and contracts and sometimes hire expensive auditors to deliver each stone, said Deborah Altenburg, associate vice president of research policy and matters Government in the Association of Public Universities and Grant Tierra
the most popular debacle
"I don't think there is any bad intention, that people try to avoid informing," he said. "I was out of sight, out of mind for many people."
Now, three years later, legislators try to strengthen and clarify reporting mandates for donations that come from abroad. The Bipartisan Innovation Law, whose versions approved the Chamber and the Senate this spring, is intended to promote the competitiveness of the United States in the global economy, but also includes a language that would reinforce the laws of transparency of foreign donations for education for education institutions higher.
<The law would require that individual teachers and staff members report gifts from foreign entities and reduce the current report threshold for institutions of $ 250,000 per gift to $ 50,000. President Biden has promised to sign the bill once the House of Representatives and the Senate discourage their differences.
googetag.cmd.push (function () Googetag.display ("dfp-ad-article_in_article");););););););););););););););););););););););););););Some experts say that the sub -registration and a general lack of transparency with respect to foreign gifts have been problems for decades, and that the clearest and most strict regulations are a step forward. Public criticisms of university ties with the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei in 2018, to the financing of the Saudi royalty after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the oligarchs and institutes linked to Kremlin transparency in foreign donations.
"The current state of transparency and the dissemination framework around higher education is quite poor," said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudett, Government Affairs Manager of the non-profit project on government supervision on the supervision of the government which specializes in foreign influence. "There is simply not enough information and sunlight in whom it is giving money, how much and what that money is."
others feel different. More than 20 Higher Education Defense Organizations signed letters to Congress that protested the new measures, arguing that they would present an undue burden on institutions that are already struggling to understand and comply with current report laws.
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"We agree that we have the obligation to report gifts Foreigners, "said Sarah Spreitzer, associated vice president of government relations for the American Education Council, a lobbying of higher education, a lobbying of Higher Education Group. "The confusing is that there are still many questions about what that implies."
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