House Proposal Would Require Think Tanks to Disclose Foreign Funding

Source: New York Times

House Proposal Would Require Think Tanks to Disclose Foreign Funding
By ERIC LIPTON
SEPT. 17, 2014

WASHINGTON — Expressing concern that prominent think tanks may be covertly trying to push the agendas of foreign government donors, the House of Representatives is considering a rule that would require that their scholars testifying on Capitol Hill disclose any such support — a proposal that won an immediate bipartisan endorsement on Wednesday.

Representative Jackie Speier, Democrat of California, who drafted the proposal, said lawmakers had a right to know when a foreign government was financing a scholar’s research, even if the foreign government does not control the scholars’ recommendations.

“The American people have a reasonable expectation that these links will be transparent and allow for no appearance of a conflict of interest,” she told the a House Rules subcommittee, which has started the process of preparing new guidelines that will govern conduct during the next Congress, which starts in January.

The proposal came in response to an article in The New York Times this month, which found that at least 64 foreign governments, state-controlled entities or government officials had contributed a minimum of $92 million to a group of 28 major United States-based research organizations in the last four years. The total is certainly more, as only those donations made public by the think tank or foreign government could be counted.



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