House China Committee Demands NSF Freeze $67M in Research Security Grants
March 11, 2026 · 2 min read
Jared Klein
The chairman of the House Select Committee on China has demanded that the National Science Foundation immediately suspend award funding to Texas A&M University and the University of Washington — a move that could freeze tens of millions in research security grants and send a chill through university research offices nationwide.
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) sent a letter to NSF on March 10, demanding the agency pause funding and investigate both universities' participation in the SECURE initiative — a five-year, $67 million program designed to protect American research from foreign exploitation.
The Irony at the Heart of the Dispute
The SECURE initiative — Safeguarding the Entire Community of the U.S. Research Ecosystem — was created specifically to help universities identify and mitigate foreign influence risks. Texas A&M received $17 million and the University of Washington received $50 million under the program. Now Moolenaar argues that several researchers at both institutions have collaborated with entities tied to the Chinese military, undermining the very mission the grants were meant to support.
The letter cites five specific collaborations, including a 2024 University of Washington partnership with Beihang University on deep learning technology and a 2025 Texas A&M collaboration with a Chinese military university involving GPS data. Beihang University appears on multiple U.S. government restricted entity lists.
What This Means for PIs and Research Offices
Moolenaar has given NSF until March 31 to respond. While the demand targets two specific universities, the signal it sends is broader: research offices at any institution receiving federal funding should expect increased scrutiny of international collaborations, particularly those involving Chinese institutions.
Principal investigators with active NSF awards should review their collaboration agreements and ensure full compliance with disclosure requirements. Universities that have not yet implemented robust research security protocols may want to accelerate those efforts before the political pressure intensifies further.
For grant seekers navigating this shifting landscape, tools like Granted can help identify alternative funding sources and track policy changes that affect eligibility. In-depth analysis of this story is available on the Granted blog.