(Excerpts from Florida Politics)

• Two bills cracking down on foreign espionage in research and higher education cleared second reading on the House floor and are ready for a final vote.
• One of the bills (HB 1523), sponsored by Lithia Rep. Mike Beltran, takes aim at foreign governments by updating trade secret law. Under the bill, if trade secret theft is committed to benefit a foreign government or company, the offense would be a first-degree felony.
• Beltran’s bill would create the “Combating Corporate Espionage in Florida Act” by amending current trade secret theft definitions and crimes. A trade secret is a formula, process, device, or other business information kept confidential to maintain an advantage over competitors.
• The other bill (HB 7017) requires greater disclosure of where Florida researchers are getting their grant money and prohibits some agreements between government agencies or schools with China and six other countries.
• The bill is meant to address controversies over Chinese money secretly being funneled to research done at Florida universities and other U.S. institutions. An example the Governor used during the unveiling of the legislation is Moffit Cancer Center in Tampa. A federal investigation showed top officials there had questionable ties to China.
• Under the bill, universities and state agencies would be required to disclose to certain state departments foreign donations and grants over $50,000 from the named countries. Applicants for those grants would also be required to disclose all foreign financial connections with any of the seven countries of concern.
• The bill also requires universities with research budgets over $10 million to perform extra screening of foreign applicants for research positions and extra screening for foreign travel and employee activities.
• And the bill prohibits donations “conditioned on a program to promote the language and culture of any of seven countries of concern.”