Murphy Reintroduces Legislation Cracking Down on Foreign Espionage in Colleges and Universities

Washington, D.C. – On Thursday, February 18, 2021, Higher Education and Workforce Investment Subcommittee Ranking Member Congressman Greg Murphy, M.D. (NC-03) reintroduced the Intelligence on Nefarious Foreign Leaders Using Education Networks for Corrupt Enrichment (INFLUENCE) Act. The legislation aims to limit intellectual property theft by foreign nationals at colleges and universities.

The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property estimates foreign actors steal $300 billion in American intellectual property annually. The Intellectual Property Commission estimates China is responsible for 70 percent of that theft – or $210 billion annually.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies compiled a list of 152 publicly reported cases of Chinese espionage seeking to acquire information from military, government, civilian and academic institutions. Some examples of these instance are listed below:

• In November 2020, a professor of internal medicine at Ohio State University and Penn State University pled guilty to neglecting to disclose his ties to a Chinese university when securing grants. Investigators believed this was an effort to share federally funded research with China.
• In August 2020, a Texas A&M professor was charged with wire fraud, making false statements and conspiracy while secretly working with the Chinese government while conducting research for NASA.
• In May 2020, an engineering professor from the University of Arkansas was arrested for wire fraud as a result of his failure to disclose ties to Chinese institutions.
• In January 2020, the Chairman of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University was charged with making false statements about his ties to the Chinese government.

Existing law requires any gift or contract from a foreign source given to institutions of higher learning valued at $250,000 or more to be reported to the Department of Education. If passed, the INFLUENCE Act would lower that threshold to $50,000. The bill would also require schools to report to the Department of Education on the nature of any contracts with foreign nationals on sensitive projects.

In addition, the measure would establish interagency coordination on the enforcement of any violations exposing U.S. national security projects, and the Secretary of Education would report on best practices moving forward regarding these types of breaches and how best to protect sensitive information. Enforcement mechanisms of the bill include civil action, revoking Title IV funding, and fines.

Murphy released the following statement:

"China is an American adversary – they are not simply ‘competitors' as President Joe Biden recently stated," said Murphy. "We have evidence the Chinese government will stop at nothing to steal American secrets and intellectual property. To stop this, we need to take a closer look at foreign involvement on colleges and universities, which is where a large portion of American research takes place.

"Although we have caught many Chinese spies in the act of espionage, who knows how often this practice goes undetected? By lowering the gift and contract threshold to $50,000, we can cast a larger net and catch more foreign operatives in the act of stealing. It is my hope this bill can become law so we can crack down on China's malicious theft of our secrets and intellectual property."

The text of the bill can be found here.