Brown has received over $185 million in reported foreign gifts and contracts over the past five years, according to data released by the Department of Education. The Deterrent Act, introduced in Congress for the first time in 2023, would bring foreign gifts under stricter scrutiny by the federal government — a move Brown is opposing.
Citing national security concerns, the Deterrent Act proposes to lower the minimum mandatory reporting threshold for foreign contributions received by higher education institutions to $50,000 from its current $250,000. In March, the bill was passed by the House. It has yet to be brought to a vote in the Senate.
Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 mandates universities report all foreign contracts and gifts they receive above $250,000 “aggregated from a single source over a year,” according to Martin Scholtz, deputy vice president for research at Brown.
The new version of the bill would also require colleges to disclose all gifts and contracts of any dollar amount received from “countries of concern” — potentially including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — and receive annual approval from the U.S. Secretary of Education to work with such countries.
The University has been consistently lobbying around the Deterrent Act since 2023, according to public filings reviewed by The Herald.
While Brown supports compliance measures that promote transparency, “the Deterrent Act would impose duplicative requirements” that would not “strengthen research security or transparency, but instead divert resources from effective safeguards and international collaboration,” University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald.
Mandatory disclosures would “add administrative burden” to Brown’s operations, Scholtz said.
Foreign funding received through contracts allows the University “to collaborate internationally on research activities and other engagements, in compliance with U.S. regulations,” Clark wrote.
Of the $185 million accumulated over the past half decade, about $146 million was in gifts. The remaining $39 million was in contracts, including those that began before 2020 but ended within the past five years.
Donors from England and China provided the highest amount of foreign gifts to Brown, with $55 million and $22 million in contributions, respectively.
“We’re fortunate to have alumni, donors and other Brown community members all over the world, many of whom give to Brown,” Clark wrote.
Gifts from foreign donors are used to support initiatives from “student scholarships and professorships to academic programs, high-impact research, educational initiatives, athletics and campus life priorities,” he added.
Both the American Council on Education and the American Association of Universities — higher education organizations of which Brown is a member — have addressed letters to House leadership in opposition to the Deterrent Act.
The proposed bill is “unhelpful to advancing the national and research security interests of the United States,” the AAU wrote in their letter, calling the expanded reporting requirements “excessive” and “counterproductive.”
For the ACE, the bill contains “problematic provisions” that would significantly expand the authority of the Department of Education.
Roma Shah is a senior staff writer covering University Hall and higher education. She's a freshman from Morgan Hill, CA and studies Neuroscience. In her free time, she can be found doing puzzles, hiking or curled up with a book.
