Chairman Cassidy Delivers Remarks During Hearing on Protecting American Universities from Foreign Influence

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered remarks during today's hearing on authoritarian regimes like China using financial contributions to influence America's schools and advance an anti-America agenda. Cassidy is leading efforts to ensure our universities are not susceptible to foreign influence, including the DETERRENT Act to bring clarity, transparency, and accountability to foreign gift reporting requirements for colleges and universities in the U.S.

Click here to watch the full hearing.

Cassidy's speech as prepared for delivery can be found below:

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will please come to order.

The United States has the best universities in the world.

Major breakthroughs in cancer research, artificial intelligence, military technology, biomedical engineering, and more happen at our universities. It's sensitive, sometimes classified.

Our higher education system leads the world, and it's no accident; it's a matter of national security. The Department of War invests an average of $10 billion dollars every year to ensure we remain at the forefront of innovation.

Ultimately, college is about setting students up for success. Students are our priority.

That priority is undermined when we allow foreign adversaries to exercise influence on our college campuses and threaten our national security.

I want to be clear; not all foreign financial contributions are malicious. There are many success stories that help both American students and people around the world. These collaborations are often times fruitful, helping us solve some of world's most complex problems.

But we cannot assume everyone acts in good faith. In fact, we know, some do not. China, for example, is constantly seeking to influence our universities and students.

They do it through propaganda, but also through financial contributions. That money serves as a cover to infiltrate our universities, steal our research and talent, and spread anti-American ideology.

In 2020, the Department of Justice indicted a Harvard University Chemistry Chair for lying about his affiliation with China's Thousand Talents Plan, a research recruitment program run by the Chinese Communist Party to lure talented Chinese students back to China.

In 2024, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party discovered that China gained access to some of America's highly sensitive military technology through their partnership with Georgia Tech; which by the way they never disclosed.

We have seen foreign influence pop up in other parts of campus life as well.

In the fallout of the October 7th antisemitic attacks, the pro-Hamas National Students for Justice in Palestine caused chaos on over 275 college campuses. We heard chants of "death to America" and "death to Israel."

Let me say that again-on American college campuses, we heard "death to America."

That's not free speech. Those are threats.

Iran publicly praised these movements as evidence of their growing influence abroad, particularly on American campuses.

These are just the instances that we know about.

There's a difference between American college students having a thoughtful dialogue to explore ideas and their beliefs, and Hamas sympathizers pushing their radical ideology on our college campuses.

We need to protect college campuses, and one of the keys to doing that is transparency.

$9.7 billion dollars in foreign gifts and contracts were reported in the last year. But again, that only accounts for the dollars that universities told us about. There's been zero accountability; of course adversaries will take advantage.

You've heard the old adage, "follow the money." Well, that's what we want to do.

Passing the DETERRENT Act is the next step. Let's close reporting loopholes, increase accountability, and provide transparency to Congress, intelligence agencies, and the public.

Louisiana, Florida, Indiana, and Alabama passed similar laws. They work. But as I said before this is a national security concern. It requires federal legislation.

I thank President Trump for taking this threat seriously and protecting our institutions, their students and their research. By streamlining the process to disclose foreign source gifts and contracts, the Department of Education will be better equipped to protect the U.S. from bad actors.

We need to know if another country is trying to steal our research or influence our campuses with an anti-American ideology. We need to know when other countries are making financial contributions to our universities. It could be innocent, maybe it's not.

Our students, our professors, our country need to know.

With that, I recognize Senator Sanders.

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