Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. CHU. Mr. Chairman, as chair emerita of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, I rise in strong opposition to the DETERRENT Act.

For now, the American university research system is the envy of the world, but the DETERRENT Act would burden our higher education institutions and Federal agencies with massive amounts of reporting of a gift of any value from foreign countries and will cast a chilling effect disproportionately on the Asian-American academic community.

From the incarceration of Japanese Americans in World War II to the racial profiling of Chinese-American scientists under Trump's failed first term China Initiative, countless Asian Americans have had their lives destroyed because our government falsely accused them of being spies.

Already, 72 percent of Asian-American academic researchers report feeling unsafe. By publicizing the private, personal information of certain faculty and staff on databases, this bill would make the problem worse, making them much easier targets for xenophobic attacks.

Safeguarding national security can be done through commonsense reforms Democrats have offered that don't come at the expense of U.S. scientific innovation, global collaboration, and the Asian-American community. As if we needed another reason to oppose this bill, it would create enormous new responsibilities for the Department of Education at the same time that Trump is attempting to illegally dismantle that very Department.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

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