H.R. 7616 — Transatlantic Academic Security and Risk Mitigation Act

This section requires the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, not later than 180 days after the date of enactment, to submit to the appropriate congressional committees (i.e., House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Senate Committee on Foreign Relations) an unclassified strategy, with a possible classified annex, on covered European institutions (i.e., higher education or research institutions in Europe) that maintain academic, financial, research, governance, programmatic, data-sharing, or other relationships with covered entities of concern (i.e., primarily Chinese entities involved in military-civil fusion, defense industrial base, national security support, malign influence, or foreign talent programs). The strategy must include (1) the Department of State's approach to identifying, evaluating, and mitigating risks to U.S. foreign policy interests from such relationships; (2) an assessment of the scale, scope, and activities of covered entities of concern in Europe, disaggregated by country; (3) an evaluation of vulnerabilities, threats, and national security risks to the United States and European allies; (4) recommendations for U.S. bilateral and multilateral diplomatic engagement with European governments and institutions to mitigate such risks; and (5) other relevant matters as determined by the Under Secretary. This section also requires a concurrent briefing on the strategy.