Eight Republican U.S. Senators in Congress sent a joint letter to the Department of Justice questioning a proposed academic amnesty program and calling on the Biden administration to stop moving forward with the decision.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), the ranking Republican member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the ranking Republican member of the Intelligence Committee, led six members of their party in sending a letter Thursday (May 6) to Attorney General Merrick Garland (D-Mass.), calling on the administration to cancel an as-yet-unannounced academic amnesty program that is reportedly still being proposed.
The plan would allow U.S. academic institutions and scholars to disclose foreign funds they have received in the past without fear of prosecution for reporting the contents. It would also mean a reversal of strict measures taken during the Trump administration to combat Chinese infiltration in U.S. academia.
The Republican lawmakers said they are concerned that the amnesty program could lead to an increased risk of theft of U.S. technology development and academic research.
In a joint letter, the lawmakers said research projects funded by U.S. government taxpayers must be protected and should not be stolen, let alone weaponized, to the detriment of U.S. interests.
“This is a complex issue, but an amnesty program that rewards individuals who violate federal law by stealing U.S. taxpayer-funded research projects is by no means the answer to this problem,” the lawmakers wrote in the joint letter.
Portman and Rubio, who led the letter to the Justice Department, worked with Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) last year on a cross-party legislative effort to ensure that the federal government would take decisive action to protect U.S. research and development in the academic and academic fields after the Safeguarding American Innovation Act was introduced in the last Congress. The Act ensures that the federal government takes decisive action to protect innovative U.S. technology and research and development in academia and industry.
The bill is based on a 2019 report by the Senate Permanent Select Committee on Investigations, which Portman led at the time. The report released by that investigative panel stated that China has been offering salaries, research funding, laboratory space and other incentives in exchange for access to U.S. university laboratories and other research institutions since the late 1990s, and then transferring the information to China to provide shortcuts for its economic and military development. Most of these U.S. academic institutions and laboratories are funded by the U.S. government.
The 105-page report also says that China spent 20 years recruiting researchers with access to advanced science and technology, and U.S. agencies failed to respond adequately. For example, the FBI did not respond strongly until 2018.
The Justice Department’s “China Action Plan,” which began in November 2018, combats economic espionage by the Chinese government in the United States. There have been arrests and prosecutions of U.S. academics accused of participating in federally funded research projects while concealing ties to China’s “Thousand Talents Program” or various programs.
The latest judicial case involving a university professor occurred last month. Mingqing Xiao, a mathematics professor and researcher at Southern Illinois University (SIUC), was indicted on charges of concealing ties to the Chinese government and Chinese universities while receiving funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
National Institutes of Health (NIH) officials told lawmakers in congressional testimony last month that since an internal investigation was launched in 2018, more than 100 researchers who received funding from the institute have been removed from the NIH research system for failing to disclose interests with foreign countries, and some have resigned, been terminated or taken early retirement, with about 34 cases referred to the Department of Health’s Office of Inspector General for further investigation Some of these cases were successfully prosecuted or reached civil settlements.
There are also concerns in the U.S. academic community that the harsh judicial crackdown will have a chilling effect and affect normal international scientific exchange.
In January, Gang Chen, a professor of mechanical engineering and nanotechnology expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was arrested. He was accused of failing to disclose his ties to the Chinese government when applying for funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. After Chen’s arrest, his colleagues wrote a joint letter to the president expressing support for Chen Gang. In the letter, the professors said they supported the U.S. government’s efforts to prevent foreign theft of intellectual property, but they claimed that it was the usual practice of these researchers to declare research proposals without indicating that they were involved in certain activities abroad.
According to a Wall Street Journal article in January, the Justice Department is considering an amnesty program that would allow U.S. academic institutions and scholars to disclose receipt of foreign funds without fear of possible penalties. The report said officials have been discussing the plan for months and have begun reviewing a proposed draft of the plan.
However, the Republican lawmakers who proposed the joint letter are concerned that the amnesty plan proposed by the Justice Department would result in scholars and scientists who intentionally deceive confessing to their crimes without being held accountable for prosecution.
“America’s successful research and development enterprise is built on a foundation of reciprocity, integrity and transparency,” the lawmakers said in their letter, “values that promote the free exchange of ideas and ensure that researchers and institutions benefit from their hard work. The United States has thus attracted the best and brightest talent, and it is imperative that the United States continue to do so.”
In their letter, the lawmakers further questioned the Justice Department’s process for advancing the programs in question. Citing the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act last year and the year before, the lawmakers noted that the Justice Department did not consult with Congress on the program, as required by the Act, and did not hold appropriate discussions with relevant oversight bodies, including those of large grant-making agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
The lawmakers finally asked the Justice Department to brief Congress by next Wednesday on the scope, nature and timeline of the amnesty program.
In addition to Portman and Rubio, senators who signed the joint letter include Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), Sen. Sasse, R-NE), Sen. Todd Young, R-IN, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA.
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