H.R. 1999 — Disclose GIFT Act

This section requires institutions of higher education eligible under title IV programs that either received more than $50 million in federal research and development funds in any of the previous five calendar years or receive title VI funds to maintain, beginning 90 days after enactment, (1) a policy requiring covered individuals to disclose by July 31 of each subsequent calendar year certain gifts from foreign sources exceeding the minimal value under 5 U.S.C. 7342(a) or of undetermined value and contracts with foreign sources—including those valued at $5,000 or more (alone or combined), of undetermined value, or any value ($0 or more) with a foreign country or entity of concern (with full contract text required for the latter)—(2) a publicly available searchable database of such disclosures (excluding names or personally identifiable information) available for 30 days after receipt until five years after the gift or contract effective date or contract termination, (3) a plan to identify and manage espionage risks from such gifts and contracts via communications, reporting, and enforcement, and (4) records of disclosing individuals' names for investigations or Freedom of Information Act requests. (Thus, disclosures must include dates, values, countries, departments, and foreign source names where applicable, with contracts broadly defined to include agreements for property/services, affiliations, or use of institutional resources.)

This section establishes enforcement mechanisms for violations of section 117A disclosure requirements (i.e., reporting of foreign gifts and contracts to higher education institutions), including Secretary of Education investigations of knowing or willful failures, Attorney General civil actions to compel compliance, recovery of enforcement costs, and fines on compelled institutions: the greater of $250,000 or the total value of unreported gifts/contracts for first violations, and the greater of $500,000 or twice that value for subsequent violations. The section further requires the Secretary to designate a single point-of-contact at the Department of Education to provide technical assistance and inquiries on section 117A compliance; issue status updates every 90 days on investigations and actions to authorizing committees and subject institutions; maintain a public website list of foreign countries and entities of concern with update dates; and notify covered institutions of list updates within 7 days. It also requires covered institutions to establish a compliance policy and designate 1-3 employees or agents as compliance officers to certify ongoing adherence to section 117A and the policy. Finally, the section defines "foreign country of concern" to include covered nations under 10 U.S.C. 4872 (i.e., nations restricted from certain Defense Department procurements, such as China) and any country the Secretary determines—after interagency consultation—to harm U.S. national security or foreign policy; and "foreign entity of concern" as defined in 42 U.S.C. 19221(a) (i.e., entities posing risks to U.S. research security), including those on a specified Department of Commerce list.