Today, I’m going discuss a decades-long priority of mine – and that’s reforming the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Around here it’s known by the acronym ‘FARA.’ This legislation is necessary to give it the teeth that it needs to be effective.
Just a little history about FARA, until maybe six or seven years ago – now it’s being enforced a little more often by the Department of Justice –but prior to that, a law that had been on the books for decades was not being enforced.
So that means people could be hired to lobby for a foreign country before the Congress of the United States, and we didn’t even know who they were.
Well, the FARA Act, passed decades ago, was supposed to make that [information] public, because we ought to know who’s working for foreign countries as they try to influence policy in this country.
Now, there’s more attention paid to [FARA] and it’s being more enforced, but I come to the floor today, as I’m going to explain to you, because we had a recent court decision that has made [FARA] weaker than it should be, and that it’s intended to be.
Since 2015, to give you a little history of my involvement with this issue –over four Congresses –I’ve investigated potential FARA violations to ensure the Justice Department equally enforces FARA without regard to power, party or privilege.
In 2017, as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I held a FARA oversight hearing, which contributed to the Disclosing Foreign Influence Act that year.
I also introduced the bipartisan Foreign Agents Disclosure and Registration Enhancement Act in 2019, which was supported by both sides of the Senate Judiciary and the Senate Intelligence Committees.
The Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee also signed off on that legislation.
So then, Senator Cornyn and I requested unanimous consent to pass that bill at that time. However, then-Ranking Member of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Menendez, objected.
The Foreign Agents Disclosure and Registration Enhancement Act is one of several FARA bills I’ve sought to advance.
Today, I’m here to talk about the bipartisan bill entitled Retroactive Foreign Agents Registration Act. And the purpose of that legislation is to overcome the court decisions that I’ve already spoken about.
Chairman Peters, my Democratic co-lead, and Senators Warren, Rubio and Young are cosponsors of the bill that goes by the number S.2229.
The bill overturns a recent court ruling that held a person doesn’t have to register as a foreign agent if their relationship with a foreign principal has stopped.
It’s understood that FARA imposes a continuing obligation for persons to register as foreign agents.
Otherwise, once a lobbyist for a foreign country is caught not reporting, they just have to sever their representation, and they’re off the hook! Of course, that’s not what Congress intended.
My bill, the Retroactive Foreign Agents Registration Act, fixes that problem and overrides the court’s decision.
Remember, FARA doesn’t prohibit any activity. You’re free to do anything you want to.It’s a disclosure statute.
It simply requires lobbyists and public relations groups on K Street representing foreign interests – that might be friendly to the United States or unfriendly to the United States – in the halls of Congress, all they have to do is disclose, just disclose [who they’re working for].
They can do anything they want to, but they have to disclose who they’re working for.
If a lobbyist doesn’t want everyone to know they’re working for the communist Chinese government, then I guess that person shouldn’t be working for the communist Chinese government.
Now, it’s pretty simple what the spirit of this FARA legislation’s all about. It’s all about transparency, and with transparency, you’re more apt to get accountability. And who wouldn’t want transparency, because the public’s business ought to be public, and you ought to be [held] accountable for what you’re doing.
My retroactive FARA fix is supported by almost a decade of oversight, hearings, legislative vetting and discussions with the Department of Justice.
Congress must send a crystal clear message to foreign actors that they can’t hide in the shadows.
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