Texas universities could face outside reviews of how they’re securing research under ideas floated Tuesday during a House hearing where lawmakers heard competing views on how far the state should go to curb foreign influence on college campuses.
The hearing was the day after federal authorities ordered 30 institutions nationwide — including the University of Texas at Austin — to conduct security audits of certain foreign researchers and financial ties.
A state law passed last year bars public universities from accepting most gifts from foreign-adversary governments or affiliated sources, requires screening of foreign researchers and restricts certain partnerships.
Some want limits to go further.
Michael Lucci, founder of the advocacy group State Armor, urged lawmakers to automatically bar broad categories of research partnerships with foreign-adversary countries, rather than assess them case by case.
“There needs to be a change to be willing to just say no on some of these partnerships,” Lucci said before the House Higher Education Committee. “What we’ve seen in other states is that they find a way to get to yes on partnerships that make absolutely no sense.”
House Bill 127 currently restricts partnerships that allow foreign control over a university’s curriculum or values, limit the school’s ability to make its own agreements or threaten safety or security. The law also created a research-security council to set best practices and lets schools assess whether a prospective researcher’s background affiliations pose a security risk.
A foreign adversary is defined as a country that the U.S. director of national intelligence has identified as a national-security risk in one of the three most recent annual threat assessments or one the governor designates after consulting the Texas Department of Public Safety director.
State dollars are on the line. Public universities cannot spend their state appropriations until their boards certify compliance. Those that fail to fix violations found by a state auditor within 180 days can lose out on future funding increases.
To argue that Texas still has gaps, Lucci cited research publications and alleged university ties involving Texas researchers and Chinese institutions, including some he described as connected to China’s military or government.
Lucci also pointed to UT-Austin’s inclusion in the order for audits, which must be done by Aug. 31. Federal officials and UT-Austin spokespeople did not immediately respond to the The Texas Tribune’s request for comment.
University research-security officials from Texas A&M, MD Anderson and Rice signaled openness to outside reviews. However, they cautioned lawmakers against turning the effort into a nationality-based screening or a broad ban on international collaboration.
“We are saying no (to certain partnerships), and we’re saying no more often than most people realize. I don’t want anybody to get the impression that universities aren’t taking this seriously and aren’t actively trying to counter the threat,” said Kevin Gamache, the Texas A&M University System’s chief research-security officer and chair of the state’s new council.
In a 2024 executive order, Gov. Greg Abbott directed state agencies and public universities to protect Texas’ infrastructure, intellectual property and personal information from entities tied to China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela. His order barred employees from accepting gifts or taking work trips paid for by those entities, prohibited participation in their foreign talent-recruitment programs and required agencies and universities to track employees’ personal travel to those places.
In January, Abbott separately told state agencies and public universities to freeze new H-1B visa petitions unless they first received written approval from the Texas Workforce Commission. The directive runs through May 31, 2027.
The H-1B policy received little discussion Tuesday. But the day before, Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, raised it with a Texas State University official after seeing a public notice the university posted in connection with employing a public relations specialist through the H-1B program.
Jayme Blaschke, Texas State’s director of communications, said Monday that the filing is an H-1B extension and amendment for an existing employee, not a new hire. The employee began at the San Marcos school as a student worker in 2022 and moved into a full-time job the following year, he said. Because the application is a renewal, Texas State said it did not require TWC approval.
Texas has 16 universities with the Carnegie Foundation’s top research classification, known as R1, more than any other state. Records previously obtained by The Texas Tribune show 44 public universities, health centers and system offices reported sponsoring 3,332 H-1B workers to the TWC after Abbott issued his directive.
As of Tuesday, no public university or state agency had sought the commission’s permission to file a new H-1B petition, a TWC spokesperson said.
The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
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