Protecting Texas research focus of hearing as Abbott eyes limiting foreign influence in education

By Jessica Priest, The Texas Tribune
August 18, 2026

Texas lawmakers will examine Tuesday whether colleges are doing enough to protect research from foreign adversaries, while Gov. Greg Abbott plans to unveil measures aimed at limiting foreign influence in education during a campaign event later that day.

The House Higher Education Committee’s agenda does not name a specific law. However, its focus on screening, reporting, oversight and the Higher Education Research Security Council closely tracks House Bill 127, which committee chair Rep. Terry M. Wilson, R-Georgetown, authored last year. The law created the new council and set safeguards for certain researchers, foreign gifts, academic partnerships and work-related travel.

Texas universities must screen foreign citizens who are not permanent residents, as well as people with certain work, training or institutional ties to a foreign adversary, before hiring them into research jobs or giving them access to research data, according to the law.

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.

HB 127 generally bars state universities and their employees from accepting gifts from foreign-adversary governments or entities, though schools can accept gifts from individual citizens after review. It also requires the colleges to set up an approval process and track some work-related international travel.

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.

At a July 28 Senate hearing, Kevin Gamache, the Texas A&M University System’s chief research-security officer and chair of the new council, said HB 127 was “on the mark” because it gave universities both a framework and flexibility to protect research without being overly restrictive.

Gamache said Texas’ law “must not become nationality-based screening” or a “blanket prohibition on international collaboration.”

The council, he said, had been meeting every two weeks to develop standards and other guidance for schools.

But Kate Bierly of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, who is scheduled to appear with Abbott on Tuesday, has argued that Texas A&M’s record raises questions about whether its research-security office can reliably identify foreign influence on its own. She wants to require detailed annual disclosures from universities and affiliated organizations on foreign gifts, contracts, donations, their purposes, values, beneficiaries, conditions and duration.

Abbott’s focus on foreign influence predates last year’s legislation.

In a 2024 executive order, he 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. The 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.

Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, signaled Monday during the House’s first day of higher education-related testimony that Abbott’s H-1B policy will be part of Tuesday’s discussion.

He told a Texas State University official to ask the school’s leaders to pay attention to Tuesday’s hearing, pointing to 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 after the hearing 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 July 17, 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 asked Monday whether any agency or university had since requested approval but did not receive a response as of deadline.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Disclosure: Open Campus and The Texas A&M University System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in The Texas Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.