Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) has called for an investigation into foreign gifts given to the university that hosts President Joe Biden’s think tank in Washington, D.C., where classified documents were recently found in Biden’s private office, the Daily Caller reported.
In a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Gooden raised concerns about reports that since Biden became president, as much as $51 million has flowed from foreign countries into the University of Pennsylvania, the think tank’s parent institution.
That total includes $14 million from unnamed sources in China and Hong Kong, as well as $2.4 million from Saudi Arabia, according to a Washington Free Beacon report cited by Gooden.
Gooden requested that DOE investigate any foreign donations or gifts to the University of Pennsylvania or Biden’s think tank, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.
“This administration continues to jeopardize our national security by disregarding crucial policies that protect the American people,” Gooden told the Daily Caller. “We must investigate the damage caused by President Biden’s negligence.”
Attention has turned to the University of Pennsylvania’s foreign funding in the wake of about 10 classified documents from Biden’s vice presidency being discovered in his think tank office.
Fewer than 10 additional documents were also found later at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware. The handling of the documents is now being investigated by a special counsel.
Gooden said the discoveries and the foreign funding “rais[e] questions about potential foreign influence.”
The Texas Republican urged the Department of Education to go back to a policy, apparently abandoned under the Biden administration, of disclosing the names of foreign donors. He said not disclosing their names “raises concerns of malign foreign influence and encourages a toxic web of dark money and corruption.”
Colleges and universities are legally required to report contracts and gifts from foreign sources worth at least $250,000 alone or combined within a calendar year, according to DOE.
The DOE’s press office did not immediately return a request for comment.
