H.R. 1018

Congressional Research Service summary, version: Introduced in House (Feb 5, 2025)

Instructing Noteworthy Steps toward Transparency to Rout and Undo Calamitous Transactions Act of 2025 or the INSTRUCT Act of 2025

This bill requires the Department of Education (ED) to share foreign gift and contract reports from institutions of higher education (IHEs) with specified federal agencies.

Under current law, an IHE must disclose to ED a gift from or contract with a foreign source that is valued at $250,000 or more, considered alone or in combination with all other gifts from or contracts with that foreign source. This bill requires ED, within 30 days of receiving a disclosure report from an IHE, to transmit an unredacted copy of the report to 11 listed agencies (e.g., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of State, and the Department of Homeland Security).

The bill also requires ED, within 90 days of the bill's enactment, to transmit additional information to these federal agencies. Specifically, ED must transmit (1) any disclosure report received by ED prior to the bill's enactment; and (2) any report, document, or other record generated by ED in the course of investigating an IHE's compliance with disclosure requirements (and such investigation was initiated prior to the bill's enactment).

The Government Accountability Office must study and report on ways to improve intergovernmental agency coordination for implementing and enforcing disclosure reporting requirements.