Targeting intellectual theft

Many American innovations and technological advancements originate with the work of academics and researchers at U.S. colleges and universities. This, unfortunately, has made those universitybacked research projects a target for foreign operatives seeking to steal American intellectual property in recent decades.

Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman has led Senate efforts to crack down on such theft, particularly by China. His latest bipartisan effort, the Safeguarding American Innovation Act, is yet another of example of the way Mr. Portman works across the aisle to solve real problems, even as many in Washington are distracted by hyperpartisan chaos.

As Chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Mr. Portman led an investigation last year that revealed American taxpayers have unwittingly been supporting China’s military and economic gains for years. Foreign agents have become adept, the investigation revealed, at offering money and other incentives to American university researchers in exchange for access to the fruits of their work.

The bill Mr. Portman has put forward would require researchers to disclose any foreign economic ties when they apply for U.S. federal research grants — and those who don’t could face fines and prison sentences. It also would require American institutions that sponsor foreign scholars to alert federal authorities when those scholars have access to sensitive technology.

Finally, it would require federal agencies to better police the intellectual property theft from American institutions and create a governmentwide database of researchers working on federally funded projects.

All of this is pragmatic and long overdue. The Senate investigation revealed that for many years China and other nations were able to leverage connections in the U.S. to access the technology and other intellectual property that enabled its global economic and military rise all while American authorities were lax in noticing or stopping it.

The Senate and House of Representatives should act swiftly to approve this measure and President Donald Trump should sign it so that the U.S. can begin clamping down on the theft of American innovations.