FDD JOINS BRANDEIS CENTER TO URGE FEDERAL COURT TO ALLOW DISCLOSURE OF FOREIGN FUNDERS OF U.S. UNIVERSITIES

WASHINGTON, DC, October 19, 2026 — The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) joined the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law to file an amicus brief on October 16 urging a federal court to reject efforts by the Association of American Universities (AAU) to block the public release of previously undisclosed identities of foreign donors reported by AAU member institutions.

The filing argues that identifying foreign companies, research institutions, foundations, and other institutional counterparties is essential to uncovering potential national security threats, examining foreign financial influence, and holding universities and federal regulators accountable.

The dispute centers on Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, which requires universities to report significant foreign gifts and contracts and makes those disclosure reports public records. On October 1, AAU, which represents 71 research universities, sued the Departments of Education and State to prevent the release of foreign donor and counterparty identities its members had reported. The court granted a temporary restraining order the same day. The Department of Justice has since opposed AAU’s request for a preliminary injunction.

The FDD-Brandeis brief identifies three major concerns:

China’s access to American research. The brief examines university relationships involving Chinese military-linked research institutions and companies on federal security lists. It cites FDD research identifying approximately $405 million in reported university transactions involving counterparties appearing on federal restricted-entity and research-security lists. The filing also examines Georgia Tech’s former partnership with China’s Tianjin University, which the Commerce Department placed on its Entity List, illustrating why the identities and affiliations of foreign research partners matter.

Opaque Qatari funding and campus influence. The brief identifies nearly $9 billion in reported gifts and contracts attributed to Qatar, with the foreign source’s name missing from public records accounting for more than $4 billion. It examines contractual conditions governing university operations and concerns about whether foreign financial relationships may influence university policies, including responses to campus antisemitism.

Longstanding failures in federal oversight. Congressional investigations and the Department of Education’s own inspector general have documented serious weaknesses in university foreign-funding reporting and enforcement. The brief argues that public access to counterparty identities allows independent researchers, journalists, and policymakers to examine relationships that aggregate country-level figures cannot reveal.

“China has exploited academic partnerships to gain access to American research and technology, yet the public still lacks basic visibility into the foreign entities financing our universities,” said Craig Singleton, FDD China Program senior director and senior fellow. “That opacity is unacceptable. Congress made Section 117 disclosure reports public records for a reason. We should not have to rely on piecemeal investigations and litigation to uncover foreign financial relationships that could put our research enterprise at risk.”

The brief also challenges AAU’s broad confidentiality arguments, distinguishing the privacy concerns of individual foreign donors from the public interest in identifying foreign institutional funders. It urges the court to deny the requested injunction or, at minimum, limit any restrictions on disclosure to individual donors.

Judge Tanya Chutkan has scheduled a hearing on the preliminary injunction for October 21 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Read the full amicus brief at https://brandeiscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/LDB-amicus-re-Section-117-10.15.pdf.

To contact FDD media relations, please email [email protected].

##

About the Foundation for Defense of Democracies: 

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies is a Washington, DC-based nonpartisan policy institute focusing on foreign policy and national security. For more information, please visit fdd.org. Follow FDD on X @FDD.