Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) is calling for the U.S. government to stop foreign governments such as the People's Republic of China and its Communist Party from exploiting the U.S. education system and stealing U.S technology and other research.
“Since 2018, as then-Chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, I have led oversight detailing how American taxpayers have been unwittingly funding the rise of China’s military and economy over the last two decades while federal agencies have done little to stop it. In a bipartisan February 2019 PSI report, we detailed how the federal government has been asleep at the wheel while foreign governments, like the Chinese Communist Party, have exploited the openness of our education system and bought access and influence on our school campuses,” Portman said in a statement provided to State Newswire. “In response to the findings of our report, we introduced the bipartisan Safeguarding American Innovation Act, which takes decisive action to safeguard taxpayer-funded research and hold countries like China accountable for their actions.”
Portman is the sponsor of S.1351, the Safeguarding American Innovation Act, designed to address the security of federally funded research and development grants and export-controlled goods, technologies, or sensitive information, according to a bill summary. It establishes the Federal Research Security Council within the Office of Management and Budget. S.1351 was introduced in April 2021 and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in May 2021, where it remains.
“My bipartisan bill will coordinate efforts to protect American research, stop spies from hiding affiliations with foreign governments on grant applications, and give the State Department the needed authority to stop bad actors from exploiting our open research community,” he said, according to the statement. “We cannot continue to allow our adversaries to steal taxpayer-funded research and innovation to the detriment of hard-working Americans.”
This bill seeks to prohibit individuals from preparing or submitting a federal grant application that fails to disclose the receipt of any outside compensation, including foreign compensation, by the individual; or forging, counterfeiting, or otherwise falsifying a document to obtain a federal grant, according to the bill’s text.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, under the PSI, released in 2019 a report entitled “Threats to the U.S. Research Enterprise: China’s Talent Recruitment Plans." Sens. Portman and Tom Carper (D-Del.), then chairman and ranking member of the PSI, led the year-long investigation that detailed how American taxpayers have been funding the rise of China’s military and economy for more than 20 years with little deterrence.
A letter from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of the General Counsel stated how Section 117 of the Higher Education Act requires colleges and universities to disclose their acceptance of any foreign money or entrance into any contracts with foreign governments, companies, persons, or their agents. Compliance investigations into six universities showed they collectively failed to report in excess of $1.3 billion from foreign sources (including China, Qatar, and Russia) over the past seven years.
Portman was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, according to his website. From 1993 to 2005 he served as the U.S. Representative for Ohio's Second District. He sits on the Senate Committees for Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Finance, and Foreign Relations.
