EXCLUSIVE: Taxpayers Will Finally See Which Foreign Entities Fund US Universities
Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell | March 09, 2026
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Department of Education will soon require universities to publicly disclose the counterparties of foreign funding, a senior Education Department official told The Daily Signal.
Section 117 of the Higher Education Act requires higher education institutions to report gifts and contracts valued at $250,000 or more to the Department of Education, to make them available for public inspection.
Universities currently report counterparties, their gifters or contractors, to the agency. However, the identities of foreign counterparties are not made public, which the senior department official said violates the law. The totals received from counterparties of concern are listed in the Section 117 Foreign Gift & Contract Reporting portal, but the gifters’ identities are not named.
“The law is very clear,” the official said. “It says that the Department of Education has to make available for public inspection the reports submitted by the universities. We’re not doing that right now.”
Naming the counterparties will reveal to the public if universities are funded by concerning entities, the official argued.
“It’s appropriate for them to have to be transparent with the American people, with Congress, with the media,” the official said.
Currently, even members of Congress don’t have access to the identities of counterparties of concern.
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https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/03/09/exclusive-ed-department-require-universities-disclose-identities-foreign-funders/
