[House Report 119-12]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
119th Congress } { REPORT
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVEShr
1st Session } { 119-12
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COMBATING THE LIES OF AUTHORITARIANS IN SCHOOL
SYSTEMS ACT
_______
March 5, 2025.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
State of the Union and ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Walberg, from the Committee on Education and the Workforce,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
together with
MINORITY VIEWS
[To accompany H.R. 1005]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Education and the Workforce, to whom was
referred the bill (H.R. 1005) to prohibit elementary and
secondary schools from accepting funds from or entering into
contracts with the Government of the People's Republic of China
and the Chinese Communist Party, and for other purposes, having
considered the same, reports favorably thereon with amendments
and recommends that the bill as amended do pass.
The amendments are as follows:
Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the
following:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Combating the Lies of Authoritarians
in School Systems Act'' or the ``CLASS Act''.
SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE OF FOREIGN FUNDING AND CONTRACTS.
(a) In General.--As a condition on receipt of Federal financial
assistance under any applicable program by a public elementary school
or a public secondary school, the school, not later than 30 days after
receiving funds in excess of $10,000 in the aggregate from a foreign
source, or entering into one or more contracts with an aggregate value
in excess of $10,000 with a foreign source, shall submit to the
Secretary of Education a written disclosure that identifies--
(1) the name and country of origin of the foreign source;
(2) in a case in which a school receives funds from a foreign
source--
(A) the amount of funds received from that source;
and
(B) any terms or conditions applicable to the receipt
of such funds; and
(3) in a case in which a school enters into a contract with a
foreign source, the terms and conditions of such contract.
(b) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) The term ``applicable program'' has the meaning given
that term in section 400 of the General Education Provisions
Act (20 U.S.C. 1221).
(2) The terms ``elementary school'' and ``secondary school''
have the meanings given those terms in section 8101 of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.
7801).
(3) The term ``Federal financial assistance'' has the meaning
given that term in section 7501(a)(5) of title 31, United
States Code.
(4) The term ``foreign source'' has the meaning given that
term in section 117(h) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 1011f(h)).
Amend the title so as to read:
A bill to require public elementary and secondary schools
to disclose certain funds received from, or contracts with, a
foreign source, and for other purposes.
PURPOSE
The purpose of H.R. 1005, the Combating the Lies of
Authoritarians in School Systems Act, is to require school
districts to disclose the receipt of funding from foreign
governments.
COMMITTEE ACTION
118TH CONGRESS
First Session--Hearings
On September 19, 2023, the Committee on Education and the
Workforce's Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and
Secondary Education held a hearing on ``Academic Freedom Under
Attack: Loosening the CCP's Grip on America's Classrooms.'' The
purpose of the hearing was to examine the covert influence of
foreign governments and organizations, particularly the Chinese
Communist Party, on U.S. K-12 schools. Testifying before the
Subcommittee were Mr. Michael Gonzalez, Senior Fellow, Heritage
Foundation, Washington, D.C.; Ms. Gisela Perez Kusakawa,
Executive Director, Asian American Scholar Forum, New York, NY;
Mrs. Nicole Neily, President, Parents Defending Education,
Arlington, VA; and Mr. Ryan Walters, State Superintendent of
Public Instruction, Oklahoma State Department of Education,
Oklahoma City, OK.
Second Session--Hearings
On May 8, 2024, the Committee's Subcommittee on Early
Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education held a hearing
on ``Confronting Pervasive Antisemitism in K-12 Schools.'' The
purpose of the hearing was to discuss the proliferation of
antisemitism in K-12 schools. During the hearing, then-
Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) asked New York City
Chancellor David Banks if foreign governments donate
significant funding to NYC Public Schools. Chancellor Banks
testified that the Qatar Foundation did donate, and he followed
up after the hearing and confirmed that the Italian government
and the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea also
contributed funding to NYC Public Schools' K-12 schools.
Testifying before the Subcommittee were Mr. David Banks,
Chancellor, New York City Public Schools, New York City, NY;
Ms. Karla Silvestre, President, Montgomery County Board of
Education, Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, MD; Mr.
Emerson Sykes, Senior Staff Attorney, American Civil Liberties
Union, New York, NY; and Ms. Enikia Ford Morthel,
Superintendent, Berkeley Unified School District, Berkeley, CA.
Legislative Action
On September 19, 2023, Representative David Joyce (R-OH)
introduced H.R. 5567, the Combating the Lies of Authoritarians
in School Systems (CLASS) Act, with Representatives Elise
Stefanik (R-NY), Ed Case (D-HI), Brandon Williams (R-NY), Mario
Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), Troy Balderson (R-
OH), Anthony D'Esposito (R-NY), Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Lisa
McClain (R-MI), Mike Carey (R-OH), Ashley Hinson (R-IA), and
Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon (R-PR) as original co-sponsors. The
bill was referred solely to the Committee on Education and the
Workforce. On June 13, 2024, the Committee considered H.R. 5567
in legislative session and reported it favorably, as amended,
to the House of Representatives by a recorded vote of 23-16.
The Committee considered the following amendments to H.R. 5567:
1. Representative Williams offered an Amendment in
the Nature of a Substitute that struck section 2 and
inserted a minimum threshold of $10,000 so as to ensure
nominal gifts do not trigger reporting. The amendment
was adopted by a recorded vote of 23-16.
2. Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA) offered an
amendment that added an authorization of $300 million
per year starting in fiscal year 2025. The amendment
failed by a recorded vote of 16-24.
119TH CONGRESS
First Session--Hearings
On February 5, 2025, the Committee on Education and
Workforce held a hearing titled ``The State of American
Education.'' The purpose of the hearing was to examine the
state of American education, including K-12 education,
postsecondary education, and workforce development. During the
hearing, Representative Mary Miller (R-IL) expressed concerns
with China's influence campaign in K-12 schools. Witness Mrs.
Nicole Neily agreed with Representative Miller's concerns and
testified that Chinese Communist Party propaganda has
infiltrated more than 500 K-12 schools. Testifying before the
Committee were Mrs. Neily, President, Parents Defending
Education, Arlington, VA; Dr. Preston Cooper, Senior Fellow,
American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C.; Mrs. Janai
Nelson, President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense
Fund, Washington, D.C.; and Mr. Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.,
President and CEO, Society for Human Resource Management,
Alexandria, VA.
Legislative Action
On February 5, 2025, Representative David Joyce introduced
H.R. 1005, the Combating the Lies of Authoritarians in School
Systems (CLASS) Act, with Representative Michael Rulli (R-OH)
as an original co-sponsor. The bill was referred solely to the
Committee on Education and Workforce. On February 12, 2025, the
Committee considered H.R. 1005 in legislative session and
reported it favorably, as amended, to the House of
Representatives by a recorded vote of 20-14. The Committee
considered the following amendments to H.R. 1005:
1. Representative Rulli offered an Amendment in the
Nature of a Substitute that struck section 2 and
inserted a minimum threshold of $10,000 to ensure
nominal gifts do not trigger reporting requirements.
The amendment was adopted by voice vote.
2. Ranking Member Scott offered an amendment that
added an authorization of $300 million per year
starting in fiscal year 2026. The amendment failed by a
recorded vote of 14-20.
3. Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) offered an
amendment that stipulated the Department of Education
``shall take such steps as may be necessary otherwise
to enforce'' the bill, which is already implicit in the
bill and redundant with the existing text. The
amendment failed by voice vote.
COMMITTEE VIEWS
INTRODUCTION
Over the last decade, the Chinese Communist Party has
infiltrated American K-12 schools through grants, sister school
partnerships, and other programming called Confucius
Classrooms, which is a trojan horse for Chinese propaganda.
CHINA'S ACTIVITY IN U.S. K-12 SCHOOLS
Styled as language and culture programs, Confucius
Classrooms are an important element of the Chinese Communist
Party's (CCP) global influence campaign. The Chinese
government's effort to forge ties with American schools through
its Ministry of Education Office of Chinese Language Council
International, which until recently was known as ``Hanban,'' is
one facet of the CCP's broader soft-power strategy to influence
policy in nations throughout the world. The United States
Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that
expanding Confucius Classrooms in the United States has been a
top priority for the Chinese government.\1\ Many K-12 schools
eagerly accepted CCP-linked grants, which came with perks
including fully funded teacher exchanges, Chinese language
programs, and opportunities for American students to learn in
China.\2\
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\1\https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/imo/media/doc/
PSI%20Report%20China%27s%20Impact%20on%20the%20US%20Education%20System.p
df.
\2\https://defendinged.org/investigations/little-red-classrooms-
china-infiltration-of-american-k-12-schools/.
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Confucious Classrooms are smaller-scale, K-12 versions of
Confucious Institutes that the CCP has pushed for on U.S.
college campuses. These institutes purport to teach Chinese
language and culture. Confucius Institutes are established as
partnerships between a host institution, a Chinese partner
(usually a Chinese university), and a Chinese government
agency. The Ministry of Education Office of Chinese Language
Council International funds each Confucius Institute, often at
around $100,000 per year, and asks host institutions to match
those funds with their own contributions, usually classroom and
office space.
China heavily encouraged the creation of Confucius
Classrooms, and many of these developed as offshoots of a
Confucius Institute. China strategically deployed and rapidly
expanded their Confucius Classrooms, going from very few in
2008 to more than a thousand worldwide by 2017. More than 500
American K-12 schools have hosted Confucius Classrooms, aided
in part by the Asia Society, an American nonprofit that
previously ran a network of 100 Confucius Classrooms before
they ended the partnership in 2021.\3\ A Parents Defending
Education report tracked Chinese affiliation in 143 schools
across 34 states, with at least seven still active as of
publication.\4\
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\3\https://www.heritage.org/homeland-security/commentary/confucius-
institutes-chinas-trojan-horse.
\4\https://defendinged.org/investigations/little-red-classrooms-
china-infiltration-of-american-k-12-schools/.
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Confucius Institute funding comes with strings attached
that compromise academic freedom. The Chinese government
approves teachers, events, and speakers and requires teachers
to sign same contracts pledging they will not damage the
national interests of China. The contracts make clear Chinese
directors or teachers will be terminated if they ``violate
Chinese laws'' or ``engage in activities detrimental to
national interests'' and states that they must
``conscientiously safeguard national interests.''\5\
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\5\https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/imo/media/doc/
PSI%20Report%20China%27s%20Impact%20on%20the%20US%20Education%20System.p
df.
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OTHER COUNTRIES' INFLUENCE IN US K-12 SCHOOLS
While it appears that no other country has a program
similar in scope and size to the CCP's propaganda campaign in
American schools, other countries have also invested in
language and cultural educational programs in American K-12
schools.
One notable example is Qatar. The Qatar Foundation, along
with its subsidiaries like Qatar Foundation International and
the Qatar National Research Fund, has been actively involved in
influencing American K-12 education through financial
partnerships with individual schools.\6\ From 2009 to 2017, the
Qatar Foundation allocated $30.6 million to various schools
across 12 U.S. states. The funds are predominantly directed
towards facilitating Arabic language programs, and they cover
expenses for teacher education, materials, and salaries. These
contributions have taken various forms, from direct funds to
professional development initiatives, such as teacher councils
and language conferences. Additionally, there are instances of
school districts, like the Tucson Unified School District and
New Haven Public Schools, receiving substantial grants over
multiple years.\7\
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\6\https://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/
FARA_Memo_with_Exhibits_R-1.pdf.
\7\Ibid.
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Other countries have also made notable donations to U.S. K-
12 schools. After the May 8, 2024, subcommittee hearing on
antisemitism in K-12 schools, then-New York City Public Schools
Chancellor David Banks informed Committee staff that the
Italian-American Committee on Education, which is connected to
the Italian government, contributed $257,000 to New York City
Public Schools from 2021 to 2024. Chancellor Banks also
reported that the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in
New York contributed $16,000 to support Korean instruction and
programming in New York City Public Schools. It is unclear the
extent to which these foreign ties had been publicized prior to
the Committee's request for information.\8\
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\8\Documentation emailed from New York City Public Schools to
Committee staff on May 22, 2024.
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It is imperative to ensure that American students are not
subject to malicious foreign influence in their schools. As
such, the CLASS Act requires school districts to disclose to
the Secretary of Education within 30 days any instance of
receiving funding from or entering into a contract with a
foreign source. The written disclosure must include the name
and country of origin of the foreign source, the amount of
funds received, and any terms and conditions that apply to the
funds.
CONCLUSION
It is unacceptable that foreign adversaries such as the CCP
are attempting to influence U.S. K-12 schools. Congress should
take immediate action to ensure that students are not being
indoctrinated with communist propaganda. Congress should also
take action to ensure that foreign influence is fully
disclosed. The CLASS Act will help ensure that the Chinese
government does not take advantage of local school districts
and that the U.S. Department of Education is aware of all
significant spending by foreign countries in the U.S. K-12
education system.
H.R. 1005 SECTION-BY-SECTION SUMMARY
Section 1--Short Title
Names the bill the Combating the Lies of
Authoritarians in School Systems Act or CLASS Act.
Section 2--Disclosure of Foreign Funding and Contracts
The bill requires that, as a condition of
receiving federal financial assistance under a U.S.
Department of Education program by a public elementary
school or public secondary school, the school shall
report to the Secretary of Education when receiving
foreign funds in excess of $10,000, and such reporting
shall include:
The name and country of origin
of the foreign source.
The amount of funds received
from the source.
The terms and conditions
applicable to the receipt of funds.
The terms and conditions of any
contract with a foreign source.
EXPLANATION OF AMENDMENTS
The amendments, including the amendment in the nature of a
substitute, are explained in the body of this report.
APPLICATION OF LAW TO THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
Section 102(b)(3) of Public Law 104-1 requires a
description of the application of this bill to the legislative
branch. H.R. 1005 requires K-12 school districts to disclose
the receipt of funding from foreign governments. H.R. 1005
applies solely to K-12 schools and therefore does not apply to
the Legislative Branch.
UNFUNDED MANDATE STATEMENT
Pursuant to Section 423 of the Congressional Budget and
Impoundment Control Act of 1974, Pub. L. No. 93-344 (as amended
by Section 101(a)(2) of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of
1995, Pub. L. No. 104-4), the Committee adopts as its own the
cost estimate prepared by the Director of the Congressional
Budget Office (CBO) pursuant to section 402 of the
Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
EARMARK STATEMENT
H.R. 1005 does not contain any congressional earmarks,
limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined in
clause 9 of House rule XXI.
ROLL CALL VOTES
Clause 3(b) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of
Representatives requires the Committee Report to include for
each record vote on a motion to report the measure or matter
and on any amendments offered to the measure or matter the
total number of votes for and against and the names of the
Members voting for and against.
STATEMENT OF GENERAL PERFORMANCE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
In accordance with clause (3)(c) of rule XIII of the Rules
of the House of Representatives, the goal of H.R. 1005 is to
require K-12 school districts to disclose the receipt of
funding from foreign governments.
DUPLICATION OF FEDERAL PROGRAMS
No provision of H.R. 1005 establishes or reauthorizes a
program of the Federal Government known to be duplicative of
another Federal program, a program that was included in any
report from the Government Accountability Office to Congress
pursuant to section 21 of Public Law 111-139, or a program
related to a program identified in the most recent Catalog of
Federal Domestic Assistance.
STATEMENT OF OVERSIGHT FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
OF THE COMMITTEE
In compliance with clause 3(c)(1) of rule XIII and clause
2(b)(1) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives,
the Committee's oversight findings and recommendations are
reflected in the body of this report.
REQUIRED COMMITTEE HEARING
In compliance with clause 3(c)(6) of rule XIII the
following hearing held during the 119th Congress was used to
develop or consider H.R. 1005: On February 5, 2025, the
Committee on Education and Workforce held a hearing on ``The
State of American Education.''
NEW BUDGET AUTHORITY AND CBO COST ESTIMATE
With respect to the requirements of clause 3(c)(2) of rule
XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and section
308(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and with respect
to requirements of clause 3(c)(3) of rule XIII of the Rules of
the House of Representatives and section 402 of the
Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Committee adopts as its
own the cost estimate for the bill prepared by the Director of
the Congressional Budget Office.
H.R. 1005 would require all public elementary and secondary
schools that receive funding from the Department of Education
to disclose to the department funds received from or contracts
signed with foreign sources that are more than $10,000.
CBO expects that schools would comply with the new
requirements; thus, enacting the bill would not affect their
eligibility to receive federal funds. Based on the costs of
similar activities, CBO estimates that implementing the bill
would cost the Department of Education less than $500,000 over
the 2025-2030 period. Any related spending would be subject to
the availability of appropriated funds.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Garrett
Quenneville. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss,
Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
Phillip L. Swagel,
Director, Congressional Budget Office.
COMMITTEE COST ESTIMATE
Clause 3(d)(l) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of
Representatives requires an estimate and a comparison of the
costs that would be incurred in carrying out H.R. 1005.
However, clause 3(d)(2)(B) of that Rule provides that this
requirement does not apply when, as with the present report,
the Committee adopts as its own the cost estimate for the bill
prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget Office.
CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED
H.R. 1005, as reported by the Committee, makes no changes
to existing law.
MINORITY VIEWS
INTRODUCTION
H.R. 1005, the Combating the Lies of Authoritarians in
School Systems (CLASS) Act, requires public elementary and
secondary schools to disclose any receipt of funds ``in excess
of $10,000 in the aggregate from a foreign source, or entering
into one or more contracts with an aggregate value in excess of
$10,000 with a foreign source'',\1\ to the Secretary of
Education within 30 days of receiving funds as a condition of
receiving federal funds. The Majority claims the only way to
tackle ``nefarious foreign influence'' in K-12 classrooms is by
``ensuring no federal education funds go to schools that
collaborate with, receiving funding from or otherwise engage in
agreements with the People's Republic of China.''\2\ Yet, it
has not proven foreign influence exists in public schools,
leaves raises a number of administrative questions and concerns
for public schools, and ignores real issues facing public
education.
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\1\Combating the Lies of Authoritarians in School Systems, H.R.
1005, 119th Cong. Sec. 2.
\2\Quoted from the Markup Rep. Kevin Kiley (CA).
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SUMMARY OF CONCERNS
Foreign influence has not posed a threat to K-12 classrooms
Confucius Classrooms, which are affiliated with Confucious
Institutes, are centers for Chinese culture and language
established at public and private elementary and secondary
schools--either to bolster a Chinese language program already
at the school or to start a new one. Many countries around the
world lack quality Chinese language and culture resources and
Confucious Institutes and Classrooms provide those resources
for free.\3\ However, over nearly five years, the number of
U.S. Confucius Classrooms has dropped from more than 500 to
currently no more than 16.\4\ Experts have summed up the
current state of these programs, saying ``[t]he harsh reality
is that Confucius Institutes/Confucius Classrooms stepped up to
fulfill a need that governments were not--and they were happy
to accept a `freebie,' . . . . Now that Confucius Institutes
have been tainted by wider distaste and suspicion of the
Chinese government, this `freebie' now has a cost.''\5\
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\3\Lin Yang, Controversial Confucius Institutes Returning to U.S.
Schools Under New Name, VOA News, (June 27, 2022) https://
www.voanews.com/a/controversial-confucius-institutes-returning-to-u-s-
schools-under-new-name/6635906.html.
\4\Confucius Institutes Around the World--2024, Dig Mandarin (Mar.
20, 2024), https://www.digmandarin.com/confucius-institutes-around-the-
world.html; Beth Wallis, Tulsa Public Schools ended Chinese language
program weeks before Oklahoma Superintendent's Congressional testimony,
National Public Radio KOSU (Sept. 29, 2023) https://www.kosu.org/
education/2023-09-29/tulsa-public-schools-ended-chinese-language-
program-weeks-before-oklahoma-superintendents-congressional-testimony;
Little Red Classrooms China's Infiltration of American K-12 Schools,
Defending Ed. (Jul. 26 , 2023) https://defendinged.org/investigations/
little-red-classrooms-china-infiltration-of-american-K-12-schools/.
\5\Id.
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Parents Defending Education (PDE), a right-wing non-profit
organization, published a report in July 2023 entitled,
``Little Red Classrooms: China's Infiltration of American K-12
Schools.'' The report cites the mere presence of Confucius
Institutes, Confucius Classrooms, and related ``programming''
(including local programming that may have pre-dated the
establishment of a Confucius Classroom), sometimes in areas
near U.S. military bases, to allege the Classrooms exert undue
Chinese influence in America.\6\ Despite the claims in the
report, Committee Democratic staff have been unable to locate
credible evidence to support either the claims made by the
Majority or PDE that there is inappropriate and undue foreign
influence in our nation's K-12 public schools currently as a
result of Confucius Classrooms. In 2019, the Senate Committee
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' (HSGAC)
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing
entitled ``China's Impact on the U.S. Education System''. The
hearing was held the day after the HSGAC released a bipartisan
staff report with the same title.\7\ While the staff report
made recommendations that schools should ensure that Chinese
partnership organization's ``vetting, screening and interview
processes are aligned with their own hiring protocols and
procedures''\8\ and that ``the State Department should demand
reciprocal and fair treatments of its diplomats and employees
in China.'',\9\ the Committee did not find security risks or
curriculum vulnerability, as claimed by the Majority.
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\6\Little Red Classrooms China's Infiltration of American K-12
Schools, Defending Ed. (Jul. 26, 2023) https://defendinged.org/
investigations/little-red-classrooms-china-infiltration-of-american-K-
12-schools/.
\7\China's Impact on the U.S. Education System: hearing Before the
Subcomm. on Investigations of the S. Comm. on Homeland Security &
Governmental Affairs, 116th Cong., 80 (2019).
\8\Id. at 91.
\9\Id. at 92.
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H.R. 1005 Will Raise Administrative Questions and Concerns for Public
Schools
Republicans argue schools should come into compliance with
H.R. 1005 without additional financial resources to fund staff,
monitor programs, and provide other necessary support to ensure
such compliance. The overwhelming majority of K-12 schools are
not equipped to identify where their donors are from. For
example, a parent who is not yet a U.S. citizen could
potentially be ``foreign source'' or a donation from a local
business that is owned by someone who is not a U.S. citizen
also could be a ``foreign source''. Additionally, many
construction and other infrastructure related businesses a
school might have common interaction with (e.g., roofing, HVAC)
could be ``foreign sources'' as defined in the bill. However,
citizenship information is not a consideration taken by most
schools when receiving donations, planning to purchase
materials to update buildings, or contracting with companies.
If H.R. 1005 were to become law, schools may establish a formal
process to ascertain this data. But, without resources to
support such formal processes, we can expect to see a general
disincentive to contract with, or accept donations from anyone
who looks or sounds ``foreign'', for fear of losing federal
financial assistance.
Additionally, the bill does not mention the roles of local
educational agencies (LEAs) and state education agencies (SEAs)
in this process. Typically, LEAs and SEAs distribute Federal
financial assistance to schools in the form of services after
they receive funds from ED. The main pathway that has funds
move directly from ED to schools is Title I-A, adding to the
confusion this bill would bring.\10\
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\10\Fast Facts Title I, Nat'l Cntr For Ed. Statistics https://
nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=158 (last visited Jun. 14, 2024).
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H.R. 1005 Does Nothing to Address Current Issues in Public Education
There are real issues facing public education that
Americans are concerned about, such as inadequate early
childhood education, achievement gaps, teacher shortages, and
unfettered access to guns. For example, according to the Kaiser
Family Foundation, guns are the leading cause of death among
children and teens.\11\ According to data provided by
Everytown--a gun violence prevention organization--``[i]n 2023,
there were at least 158 incidents of gunfire on school grounds,
resulting in 45 deaths and 106 injuries nationally.''\12\
However, the Majority chooses to spend its time focusing on
issues that do not present challenges for students or the
public education system. Foreign influence is not mentioned as
a top concern in the National Center for Education Statistics
(NCES) Report on the Condition of Education 2024.\13\ This sort
of legislation does not address the root cause of issues that
are harming students or assist with helping our students learn.
Similar to H.R. 1049, the Promoting Responsible Oversight to
Eliminate Communist Teachings (PROTECT) Act, and H.R. 1069, the
Transparency in Reporting Adversarial Contributions to
Education (TRACE) Act--two bills also considered in the same
markup with H.R. 1005--this bill is a solution in search of a
problem and does nothing to benefit students or the public
education system.
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\11\Matt McGough et al., Child and Teen Firearm Mortality in the
U.S. and Peer Countries, Kaiser Family Foundation (Jul. 18 2024)
https://www.kff.org/global-health-policy/issue-brief/child-and-teen-
firearm-mortality-in-the-u-s-and-peer-countries/.
\12\Gunfire on School Grounds in the United States, Everytown for
Gun Safety, https://everytownresearch.org/maps/gunfire-on-school-
grounds/ (last visited Jun. 14, 2024).
\13\Veronique Irwin, Report on the Condition of Education 2024,
Nat'l Cntr for Ed. Statistics (May 2024) https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2024/
2024144.pdf.
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DEMOCRATIC AMENDMENT OFFERED DURING MARKUP OF H.R. 1005
Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA) put forward an amendment
to provide funds to assist with the administrative burden of
complying with the bill. Significant effort may need to be
expended to investigate existing and new contracts, to
determine whether existing or potential business partners are
foreign governments or ``foreign entities of concern'', to
create and maintain systems to keep track of all the new
information and respond to inquiries and to train staff in each
school on on the reporting and compliance requirements of the
bill. This amendment authorized $300 million for fiscal year
2025 and each subsequent fiscal year to carry out the
requirements in the bill--providing on average approximately
$3,000 to every public school in America to assist with coming
into compliance with H.R. 1005.\14\ Committee Republicans
rejected this amendment.
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\14\According to the National Center for Education Statistics in
the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of
Education, there were 99,388 public elementary and secondary schools
for the 2022-2023 school year. NCES, Digest of Education Statistics
tbl. 216.10 (2023), https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d23/tables/
dt23--216.10.asp. Three hundred million dollars would provide $3000 per
year to each of those schools to offset the costs of compliance. In
reality, the administrative burden this bill poses could easily require
a full time administrative staff person at each school. Providing a
modest salary of $50,000 to each of those schools for such a position
would cost approximately 5 billion dollars.
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Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) put forward an
amendment designed to ensure the Department of Education, and
no other agency, is responsible for overseeing the enforcement
of this legislation. Over the past several weeks, President
Trump has suggested he will have a plan soon to eliminate the
Department of Education, calling into question how this bill
would be administered. Yet H.R. 1005 specifically calls for
funds that are administered by the Department of Education to
be withheld if schools do not comply. Therefore, the Bonamici
amendment sought to ensure that the Department be the sole
agency empowered to enforce the bill. However, Committee
Republicans rejected this amendment on a party-line vote.
CONCLUSION
H.R. 1005 is a solution in search of a problem. While the
Majority claims adversarial governments are abusing U.S. laws
due to exerting influence through shady financial contributions
to public schools; it has not proven any foreign influence even
exists. Furthermore, the bill raises a number of administrative
questions and concerns for public schools, while doing nothing
to address real issues facing public education. For the reasons
stated above, we urge the House of Representatives to oppose
H.R. 1005.
Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott,
Ranking Member.
Mark DeSaulnier,
Summer L. Lee,
Members of Congress.
[all]