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Committee adopts amendment to bill expanding transparency on foreign ties at colleges
Summary
A committee heard expert testimony and adopted a technical amendment to H 5504, a bill that would require public reporting and prohibit certain funding or influence from federal-designated foreign adversaries at state public colleges and universities.
H 5504 — a follow-up to earlier agriculture-related legislation — cleared a committee hurdle after supporters described it as a tool to expose and limit foreign influence at South Carolina public colleges.
Sponsor Mister McGinnis told the committee the bill would require public institutions to report foreign funding and cut ties with student groups or entities that coordinate with federally designated foreign adversaries. He said the measure would bar those actors from shaping hiring, curriculum or campus activities and would create oversight mechanisms including audits and legal enforcement.
Three outside witnesses testified in support. Jackie Deal, a Washington-based researcher on the Chinese Communist Party, said academic agreements and student organizations linked to the CCP have sometimes blurred boundaries between civilian and military research and cited a two‑year review she described as showing "just under $27,000,000" in shared grants with China-based researchers. David Collins, a senior research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism and a former FBI agent, voiced concerns about fundraising and coordination by campus organizations and the national networks that may shape campus activity. Aliza Lewin of the Combat Antisemitism Movement said large foreign gifts "inject" influence on campus and cited Department of Education figures she described as $72,100,000,000 in foreign gifts and contracts to U.S. colleges since the 1980s.
Committee members asked whether the bill lists countries by name; McGinnis said the measure relies on the federal government’s evolving designation of "foreign adversaries," and his country examples were illustrative rather than exhaustive.
Members adopted a small technical (Scrivener) amendment by roll call; the clerk recorded "By a vote of 16 aye, 0 nay, and 2 absent. The amendment is adopted." A member then asked unanimous consent to apply that same vote to the bill as a whole; the chair acknowledged the request and moved on to the next item.
Next steps: the transcript records the amendment adoption and the chair’s acknowledgment of consent to apply the vote to the bill; no additional full‑bill roll call appears in the provided segment of the hearing.
