SW News: Sen. James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma, introduced a bill to stop Department of Education K–12 funds from going to universities connected to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The new Countering Adversarial and Malicious Partnerships at Colleges and Schools Act aims to prohibit the use of funds for universities that provide support to the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

Lankford introduced the bill on Tuesday. Lankford said the CCP is working to undermine and challenge the US not just internationally, but even inside the US. He said they are creeping into the education system at the university and K-12 level to destabilize, misinform, hack, steal, and propagandize. The Oklahoma senator said they have identified Confucius Institutes as dangerous connection points between US universities and Beijing. He said his bill would keep them away from sensitive national security information.

According to the proposed legislation, the director of national intelligence is required to identify each higher education institution located in the People's Republic of China that provides support to the PLA, including institutions involved in the implementation of the Military-Civil Fusion strategy promoted by the CCP. This identification is to be done in consultation with the Secretary of Defence. Within 180 days of the bill's passage, the defense secretary and director of national intelligence would have to submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a list of each entity identified under the provision.

The bill states: "No funds may be provided to an elementary or secondary school that maintains a contract with an entity domiciled in the People's Republic of China. No funds may be appropriated or otherwise made available to the Department of Education for K-12 education." No money may go to a company that has a contract with one of the institutions listed in section 2 of the act.

The director of defense counterintelligence is prohibited by Lankford's bill from concluding that a facility of an entity is eligible to host or store classified information unless the entity certifies to the director that it does not have an active research partnership with an institution listed under the bill.

The legislation also gives the secretary of state the authority to deny the application for a visa for a nonimmigrant who is associated with the CCP's Military-Civil Fusion program.

Lankford introduces his measure as Congress tightens its controls over the CCP's influence in American education.