Dive Brief:

• A group of House Republicans wants the U.S. Department of Education to detail how much money it has earmarked for monitoring colleges’ largest donations and contracts with foreign entities in the time since President Joe Biden took office.
• The lawmakers, in a letter Wednesday to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, demanded to know what the Education Department budgeted and spent on enforcement of the federal law requiring colleges to report foreign gifts and contracts totaling $250,000 or more in a year, known as Section 117. The letter was spearheaded by Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican and chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
• Republicans also asked how much staff time the Education Department has devoted to Section 117-related duties, as well as whether the agency is investigating if certain institutions are compliant with the law. Lawmakers requested answers within two weeks.

Dive Insight:

Section 117 was at one point an obscure piece of the Higher Education Act, the main policy vehicle for postsecondary education. Colleges sometimes did not comply with reporting mandates or were unclear on the law’s requirements. 

However, the Trump administration made a point of ramping up oversight on Section 117. It opened investigations into high-profile universities over whether they were in compliance. And it issued a report in October 2020 alleging colleges failed to disclose billions of dollars in foreign money.

A month later, the administration threatened to pull federal funding from colleges that didn’t follow Section 117.

The Education Department has said little about Section 117 since Biden took office. According to the House lawmakers’ letter, agency officials promised to close outstanding Section 117 investigations into colleges and address “concerns and issues” with the online portal through which colleges report their gifts and contracts. 

Republicans are now asking whether that portal is functional. They also are seeking a detailed explanation of enforcement actions the Education Department has taken on Section 117.

And they want more information on which part of the Education Department is overseeing Section 117, specifically whether it’s the Office of Student Aid.