INSTRUCT Act of 2025

Instructing Noteworthy Steps toward Transparency to Rout and Undo Calamitous Transactions Act of 2025 or the INSTRUCT Act of 2025

This bill requires the Department of Education (ED) to share foreign gift and contract reports from institutions of higher education (IHEs) with specified federal agencies.

Under current law, an IHE must disclose to ED a gift from or contract with a foreign source that is valued at $250,000 or more, considered alone or in combination with all other gifts from or contracts with that foreign source. This bill requires ED, within 30 days of receiving a disclosure report from an IHE, to transmit an unredacted copy of the report to 11 listed agencies (e.g., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of State, and the Department of Homeland Security).

The bill also requires ED, within 90 days of the bill's enactment, to transmit additional information to these federal agencies. Specifically, ED must transmit (1) any disclosure report received by ED prior to the bill's enactment; and (2) any report, document, or other record generated by ED in the course of investigating an IHE's compliance with disclosure requirements (and such investigation was initiated prior to the bill's enactment). 

The Government Accountability Office must study and report on ways to improve intergovernmental agency coordination for implementing and enforcing disclosure reporting requirements.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1018 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1018

    To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require additional 
information in disclosures of foreign gifts and contracts from foreign 
                                sources.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 5, 2025

 Mr. Messmer introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                  Committee on Education and Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require additional 
information in disclosures of foreign gifts and contracts from foreign 
                                sources.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Instructing Noteworthy Steps toward 
Transparency to Rout and Undo Calamitous Transactions Act of 2025'' or 
the ``INSTRUCT Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. INTERAGENCY INFORMATION SHARING.

    (a) Public Records and Sharing of Reports.--Section 117(e) of the 
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1011f(e)) is amended to read as 
follows:
    ``(e)(1) Public Inspection.--All disclosure reports required by 
this section shall be public records open to inspection and copying 
during business hours.
    ``(2) Interagency Information Sharing.--Not later than 30 days 
after receiving a disclosure report from an institution in compliance 
with this section, the Secretary shall transmit an unredacted copy of 
such report (that includes the name and address of a foreign source 
disclosed in such report) to the Director of the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of 
the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secretary of State, the Secretary 
of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Commerce, the 
Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Energy, the Director 
of the National Science Foundation, and the Director of the National 
Institutes of Health.''.
    (b) Interagency Information Sharing.--Not later than 90 days after 
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Education shall 
transmit to each individual listed in section 117(e)(2) of the Higher 
Education Act of 1965, as amended by this Act--
            (1) any report received by the Department of Education 
        under section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 
        U.S.C. 1011f) prior to the date of enactment of this Act; and
            (2) any report, document, or other record generated by the 
        Department of Education in the course of an investigation--
                    (A) of an institution with respect to the 
                compliance of such institution with such section; and
                    (B) initiated prior to the date of enactment of 
                this Act.
    (c) GAO Study and Report.--
            (1) Study.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
        enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United 
        States shall initiate a study to identify ways to improve 
        intergovernmental agency coordination regarding implementation 
        and enforcement of sections 117 of the Higher Education Act of 
        1965 (20 U.S.C. 1011f), as amended by this Act, including 
        increasing information sharing, increasing compliance rates, 
        and establishing processes for enforcement.
            (2) Report.--Not later than 3 years after the date of 
        enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United 
        States shall submit to Congress, and make public, a report 
        containing the results of the study described in paragraph (1).
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