By State Sen. Mark Messmer (R-Jasper)
Indiana is home to many great public colleges and universities that have made groundbreaking advancements in scientific, medical and technological research.
As recently as 2021 there were more than 100 public colleges in the U.S. that housed Chinese Communist Party-affiliated institutes until the U.S. Congress banned federal funding to those colleges that year.
Because of the important research at our public colleges, they could become targets of our nation's foreign adversaries like China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela.
To combat this issue, this year I supported House Enrolled Act 1179 to protect public colleges in Indiana from influence by these foreign adversaries, and new ones if they are added to the list by the federal government.
This new law requires state colleges to adopt policies that prevent the transfer of intellectual property created with their resources to any business organization connected to a foreign adversary.
It also requires our public colleges to disclose every gift from and contact with an entity located in a country listed as a foreign adversary by the federal government to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. Federal law already requires colleges and universities to make similar disclosures to the United States Department of Education.
House Enrolled Act 1179 was signed into law by the governor in March and went into effect on July 1.
As always, constituents can reach out to me with any questions or concerns they may have by filling out a "Contact Me" form on the IndianaSenateRepublicans.com/Messmer website or by phone at 800-382-9467.
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State Sen. Mark Messmer (R-Jasper) represents Senate District 48, which
includes Crawford, Dubois, Gibson, Perry, Pike and Spencer counties.
Click here to download a high-resolution photo.
