House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green and Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence Chairman August Pfluger have expressed approval following the House’s passage of H.R. 881, known as the “DHS Restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese Entities of Concern Act.” This legislation aims to restrict Department of Homeland Security funding for higher education institutions that maintain ties with entities backed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), such as Confucius Institutes.
Chairman Pfluger has been a leading advocate for this legislation since the 117th Congress, with a similar bill passing in the House of Representatives in 2024. According to Chairman Green, “Beijing’s malign influence should never have been allowed to reach American campuses.” He emphasized that the legislation is intended to protect universities from CCP efforts to appropriate American research and innovation.
Chairman Green also stated his anticipation for advancing the bill through the Senate and securing President Trump’s signature into law. He stressed the importance of preventing American taxpayer dollars from supporting what he described as a geopolitical adversary’s ambitions.
Chairman Pfluger commented on the implications of CCP involvement in American academic settings: “The Chinese Communist Party has proven to be an untrustworthy, adversarial actor by continually undermining American interests at every turn––in no world should they have a front-row seat in our classrooms funded by our own taxpayer dollars.”
He further remarked that the passage of this legislation sends a clear message about safeguarding national security: “America’s universities and research labs will no longer be used to steal critical research, recruit talent for Military-Civil fusion enterprises, conduct espionage, commit transnational repression, and influence academic institutions to the benefit of the CCP.”
This legislative move is seen as a significant step towards protecting national security and future generations from foreign influence within educational institutions.
