Democrat lawmakers voted down an amendment to deny federal relief funding to educational institutions that partner with Chinese entities and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) affiliates. The amendment to the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill was proposed by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) on Feb. 8, two weeks after President Joe Biden quietly nixed a proposed regulation that would have required colleges to disclose ties to Confucius Institutes, CCP-funded college partnerships that the Trump administration considered a part of Beijing’s influence network. “The Chinese Communist Party will do everything possible to steal our intellectual property and research, compromise our professors, and even recruit individuals on campus for espionage,” Stefanik said, introducing the measure during the Feb. 9 Education and Labor Committee hearing. “We value our institutions of higher education as forums for open thought and expression and incubators for innovation and learning. The Chinese Communist Party sees them as the opposite: forums …