17:1826.2

Title 17. Education

Chapter 5. State Colleges and Universities

Part III-C. Higher Education Foreign Security Act of 2022

17:1826.2 Foreign gift reporting

A. As used in this Section, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

(1) “Affiliate organization” means any entity under the control of or established for the benefit of an organization required to report under this Section, including a direct-support organization.

(2) “Contract” means any agreement for the acquisition by purchase, lease, or barter of property or services by a foreign source for the direct benefit or use of any of the parties, and any purchase, lease, or barter of property or services from a foreign adversary.

(3) “Foreign adversary” means any foreign government or foreign nongovernment person determined by the United States secretary of commerce to have engaged in a long-term pattern or serious instances of conduct significantly adverse to the national security of the United States or security and safety of United States persons as listed in 15 CFR 7.4, Determination of Foreign Adversaries, as amended or renumbered.

(4) “Foreign government” means the government of any country, nation, or group of nations, or any province or other political subdivision of any country or nation, other than the government of the United States and its states or political subdivisions, including any agent of the foreign government.

(5) “Foreign source” means any of the following:

(a) A foreign government or an agency of a foreign government.

(b) A legal entity, governmental or otherwise, created solely under the laws of a foreign state or states.

(d) An agent, including a subsidiary or an affiliate of a foreign legal entity, acting on behalf of any source defined in Subparagraph (a), (b), or (c) of this Paragraph.

(6) “Gift” means any contract, gift, grant, endowment, award, scholarship, or donation of money or property of any kind, or any combination thereof, including a conditional or unconditional pledge of a contract, gift, grant, endowment, award, scholarship, or donation. For purposes of this Paragraph, the term “pledge” means a promise, agreement, or an expressed intention to give a thing of value.

(7) “Postsecondary education institution” or “institution” means a Louisiana college or university, a nonpublic postsecondary institution that is a member of the Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and any other entity offering a program of postsecondary education that has a physical presence in the state and is required to report foreign gifts or contracts pursuant to 20 U.S.C. 1011f, or an affiliate organization of any such college, university, institution, or school.

(8) “Research-related support position” means any individual in a support role funded by gifts, grants, or contracts.

B. (1)(a) Each institution shall report any gift received directly or indirectly from a foreign adversary with a value of fifty thousand dollars or more. This report shall be made each January thirty-first and July thirty-first and shall include the gifts made during the six-month period ending on the last day of the month immediately preceding the reporting month. The institution shall include in its report gifts received by all affiliate organizations of the institution.

(b) If a foreign adversary provides more than one gift directly or indirectly to an institution and its affiliate organizations in a single calendar year and the total value of all gifts is fifty thousand dollars or more, then all gifts received from that foreign source shall be reported.

(c) For purposes of this Paragraph, a gift received from a foreign source through an intermediary shall be considered an indirect gift to the institution.

(2) A report required under this Subsection shall be made to the following entities:

(a) The institution’s board of supervisors. The respective board shall file an annual summary of these gifts with the Board of Regents.

(b) Unless already reported to the institution’s board of supervisors, an annual summary of the gifts shall be filed with the Board of Regents for any institution or affiliate organization of the institution.

C. Reports of gifts subject to the requirements of this Section shall include the following information, unless the information is exempt from disclosure under the provisions of this Section or otherwise prohibited or deemed confidential under federal or state law:

(1) The amount of the gift and the date it was received.

(2) The contract start and end date, if the gift is a contract.

(3) The name of the foreign source and, if not a foreign government, the country of citizenship, if known, and the country of principal residence or domicile of the foreign source.

(4)(a) A copy of any gift agreement between the foreign source and the institution, signed by the foreign source and the chief administrative officer of the institution, or their respective designees, which includes a detailed description of the purpose for which the gift is to be used by the institution, the identification of the persons whom the gift is explicitly intended to benefit, and any applicable conditions, requirements, restrictions, or terms made a part of the gift regarding the control of curricula, faculty, student admissions, student fees, or contingencies placed upon the institution to take a specific public position or to award an honorary degree. If an agreement contains information protected from disclosure, an abstract and redacted copy of the disclosure containing information that is not protected shall be submitted in lieu of a copy of the agreement.

(b) Beginning July 1, 2024, the internal auditor of the Board of Regents shall annually inspect or audit a random sample of at least five percent of the total number of gifts disclosed by or gift agreements received from any institution during the previous fiscal year to determine the institution’s compliance with the requirements of this Section.

(c) Upon request by the governor, the president of the Senate, or the speaker of the House of Representatives, the internal auditor of the Board of Regents shall inspect or audit a gift or gift agreement.

D. An institution that knowingly, willfully, or negligently fails to disclose the information required in this Section shall be subject to a civil penalty of one hundred five percent of the amount of the undisclosed gift, payable only from nonstate funds of the institution or the affiliate organization that received the gift. The recovered funds shall be deposited into the state general fund.

Added by Acts 2022, No. 767, § 1, eff. July 1, 2023. Amended by Acts 2023, No. 106, § 1, eff. July 1, 2023.