WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recently joined Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in introducing the Preventing Adversary Influence, Disinformation and Obscured Foreign Financing (PAID OFF) Act, which would help close Foreign Agents Registration Act loopholes that allow unregistered agents of foreign adversaries to lobby in the United States:
“For years, the United States’ biggest adversaries have exploited loopholes in U.S. lobbying laws to influence senior government officials and advance their geopolitical goals. Well-known examples include Russia’s efforts to prevent sanctions against its Nord Stream 2 pipeline and Chinese surveillance firm Hikvision’s attempts to avoid sanctions,” said Risch. “This bill will close key loopholes to ensure transparency and accountability of malign foreign lobbying efforts in the United States.”
“For too long, America’s adversaries have taken advantage of loopholes in our lobbying system to influence policymaking through multimillion-dollar disinformation campaigns,” said Cornyn. “This bipartisan legislation closes those loopholes by requiring foreign agents from countries like China and Russia to register and disclose political activity to the Department of Justice.”
“When foreign adversaries skirt loopholes to lobby Congress, they directly threaten our democracy,” said Whitehouse. “This bipartisan amendment is long overdue and will help prevent unregistered foreign agents from putting a thumb on the scale of American policy.”
In addition to Risch, Cornyn, and Whitehouse, this legislation is also cosponsored by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.).
Background:
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) has not been amended since the 1990s, and the law has not kept up with modern foreign adversary influence campaigns using commercial activities and registration loopholes as subterfuge to spread disinformation. Currently, agents representing foreign adversaries are able to avoid FARA registration by taking advantage of the commercial activities and Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) exemptions to avoid disclosing their lobbying efforts to the Department of Justice. This legislation would make it easier for the U.S. government to catch these unregistered agents in the act by removing the commercial activities and LDA registration exemptions that make it easy for foreign agents to lobby for America’s adversaries without having to disclose that they are being paid off by a foreign adversary government. This legislation would apply to agents lobbying on behalf of countries of particular concern, defined in statute as China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Syria.
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