A bill to amend the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act to require each institution of higher education to certify as part of an application for a research and development award that such institution does not operate certain branch campuses, and for other purposes.

Key Points

• This bill would require colleges and universities applying for federal research grants to certify they do not operate branch campuses in certain restricted countries, including China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Turkey, and Qatar.
• A branch campus is defined as a permanent, geographically separate unit of a university that offers degrees or certificates and has its own faculty, administration, and budget. Temporary programs or study-abroad arrangements would not count.
• Federal research agencies would have two years after the law's enactment to start enforcing this new certification requirement, giving universities time to close affected campuses or find alternative funding.
• The Secretary of State could add more countries to the restricted list beyond the eight already named, giving the executive branch flexibility to respond to future national security concerns.
• The bill is framed as a research security measure. By cutting off federal research funding to schools with campuses in adversarial or high-risk nations, it aims to reduce the chance that sensitive American research ends up benefiting those countries.