New portal for Section 117 foreign gift and contract reporting underscores continued focus on foreign influence in U.S. higher education

On December 3, ED confirmed via a Supplemental Electronic Announcement that existing Section 117 guidance “initially remains unchanged” and “all existing and future guidance and information,” including the new portal, will be housed at a new webpage (www.ForeignFundingHigherEd.gov). These actions are consistent with the federal government’s continued focus on alleged foreign influence in higher education.

Section 117 developments

Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, codified at 20 U.S.C. § 1011f, was first enacted nearly 40 years ago. Section 117 requires an “institution” to file a disclosure report when it “receives a gift from” or “enters into a contract with” a “foreign source” that is valued at US$250,000 or more, either alone or when combined with other gifts and contracts with the same foreign source in the same calendar year. “Institutions” also must report when they are owned or controlled by a “foreign source.” Reports are due twice per year on January 31 and July 31. Certain data from the reports are subsequently posted by ED for public inspection.

Since the first Trump Administration, ED has increasingly used Section 117 as a tool to scrutinize alleged foreign influence in higher education. Of note:

• No regulations, but extensive subregulatory guidance. Although the statute authorizes ED to promulgate regulations related to Section 117 compliance, no proposed or final regulations have ever been issued. Instead, ED has published subregulatory guidance and related materials, most of which are located on ED’s current Section 117 webpage (housed within Federal Student Aid). Section 117 continues to be listed as a topic on ED’s Spring 2025 Agency Rule List of intended rulemaking.
• Increased ED enforcement. Since 2019, ED has initiated 23 Section 117 compliance reviews, eight of which are still open investigations. Of those eight, half were initiated around or since the time of President Trump’s April 2025 Executive Order, “Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities” (EO 14282). Among other things, the Executive Order asserts that Section 117 “has not been robustly enforced” and states it is an Administration priority “to end the secrecy surrounding foreign funds in American educational institutions, protect the marketplace of ideas from propaganda sponsored by foreign governments, and safeguard America’s students and research from foreign exploitation.” The Executive Order instructs ED Secretary McMahon to take certain actions, including to work with other federal government units “to conduct audits and investigations” and to “seek enforcement through appropriate action by the Attorney General.” One such collaborative effort is the August 2025 joint bulletin “Safeguarding Academia: Protecting Fundamental Research, Intellectual Property, Critical Technologies, and the U.S. Research Ecosystem” issued by ED, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, and other federal partners; the accompanying ED press release references recent Section 117 enforcement.¹
• Potential penalties for noncompliance.
  • The statute itself authorizes the Attorney General of the United States (i.e., the U.S. Department of Justice) to bring a civil action at the ED Secretary’s request “to compel compliance” “[w]henever it appears that an institution has failed to comply with the requirements of [Section 117], including any rule or regulation promulgated under [Section 117].” 20 U.S.C. § 1011f(f)(1).
  • In 2020 ED issued a Notice of Interpretation “to clarify the Department’s enforcement authority” as a Title IV matter. The Notice of Interpretation asserts both that Section 117 compliance is a required component of an institution’s Program Participation Agreement to participate in the federal student financial aid programs and that a Section 117 violation can result in “fines, limitations, suspensions, or termination of the institution’s Title IV participation.”
  • The current reporting portal requires institutions to confirm acknowledgment that Section 117 reports are subject to 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which prohibits the knowing and willful provision of materially false or fraudulent information to the federal government. Violations may result in fines or imprisonment.
  • The April 2025 Executive Order instructs Secretary McMahon and other federal government units “to prospectively ensure that certification of compliance” with Section 117 and other foreign funding disclosure requirements is “material for purposes of 31 U.S.C. 3729 [(the False Claims Act)] and for receipt of appropriate Federal grant funds.” Noncompliance could result in treble monetary damages if liability were established under the False Claims Act. (“Other foreign funding disclosure requirements” include, for example, the National Science Foundation’s Foreign Financial Disclosure Report.)

Aspects of new reporting portal

According to ED, the new portal incorporates “functional and user experience improvements” based on feedback from institutions since the June 2020 launch of the current Section 117 portal. The announcement also follows a February 2025 ED Office of Inspector General Report that made recommendations regarding portal and other improvements related to Federal Student Aid’s oversight of Section 117 reporting.

ED’s December 1 press release states that the portal was “meaningfully updated” and has “undergone careful internal and external testing by universities.” The press release references the Executive Order described above and confirms that the new portal “is an important step by the [ED] Secretary to deliver on that promise to the American people” – i.e., “to end the secrecy surrounding foreign funds in American educational institutions and safeguard America’s students and research from foreign exploitation.”

The new portal was beta tested by nine institutions and includes key updates such as bulk upload capability – a “highly requested feature.” In addition, ED asserts that the new portal addresses several other identified concerns, including: “(1) automatic log off; (2) duplicative and onerous submission requirements concerning identifying information for the IHE; (3) save-as-draft capability; (4) ease of review of prior draft and final submissions; (5) capacity to self-correct prior submissions (for reports submitted through the new portal); (6) ability to review and revise another institutional user’s submission; (7) summary page of entries to allow final review; (8) publication of a reporting portal user’s guide; and (9) system functionality to allow an institutional user to download the full set of records that were submitted rather than print each individual submission.”

Resources and training will be provided in connection with the launch of the new portal. ED describes that it is “developing comprehensive Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and a suite of new training resources, including dedicated video tutorials designed to support user proficiency and efficient Section 117 reporting.”

Key dates include the following –

• December 15: ED will host a “Using the New Section 117 Reporting Portal” training webinar at 2:30 PM ET. According to a December 5 Electronic Announcement, pre-registration is required and the link is available here. The training webinar includes “a welcome and introduction from Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent, brief comments from Deputy General Counsel/Chief Investigative Counsel Paul Moore, an explanation of the access authorization process for the new portal, a detailed demonstration of the new portal and a moderated question-and-answer chat session.”
• December 18: ED will make the training webinar publicly available, along with related resources. These materials will be housed on the current Section 117 webpage (https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/topics/section-117-foreign-gift-and-contract-reporting).
• January 2: The new portal will launch and will be available at www.ForeignFundingHigherEd.gov.
• January 31: This is the statutorily-prescribed due date for Section 117 reports.
• February 2: ED has confirmed that Section 117 reports are timely if submitted no later than February 2, since January 31 falls on a weekend.

ED also has confirmed that existing Section 117 guidance “initially remains unchanged,” and “all existing and future guidance and information will be published at the new portal’s address” after the January 2 launch.

Next steps

Section 117 compliance is an institution-wide effort, and investigations require substantial time and dedicated institutional resources. Although no Section 117 investigations to date have resulted in the penalties described above, such broad enforcement authority underscores the increased importance of this topic to the federal government and the ways in which noncompliance may lead to significant financial and other exposure.

Our Education practice regularly helps institutions comply with foreign gift and contract reporting requirements, including Section 117 and the National Science Foundation’s Foreign Financial Disclosure Report. Please contact a member of our team if you have questions.

Authored by Stephanie Gold, Joel Buckman, Megan Wilson, and John Powers.