Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, much ink has been spilled the past few years over the threat of foreign influence in our politics. It is a topic I have spoken about many times on this floor. This issue has become highly politicized, but it requires bipartisan agreement to address.

It is increasingly clear that our adversaries will stop at nothing to influence political discourse in our country. We can all agree that there is a real need to improve our Nation's foreign influence laws. Fortunately, the Senate has a real opportunity today to finally do something about it.

In 1938, Congress passed the Foreign Agents Registration Act, referred to by the acronym ``FARA.'' It did this in 1938 to expose Nazi propaganda and identify foreign attempts to influence policymakers and the American public. The bill was last updated in 1966. And it now requires those who lobby on behalf of foreign governments and interests to register their affiliations and activities with the Justice Department.

FARA reflects the fundamental principle that transparency brings accountability. Until recently, however, the law had been seldom used, and few on K Street paid much attention to the necessity of registering under this act if they were lobbying for a foreign country. Of course, that was not due to a lack of foreign influence efforts.

Given FARA's important transparency provisions, its lack of enforcement was shocking to me, and that is the problem that these several legislators sponsoring this legislation are trying to correct.

I first raised concerns about lackluster FARA enforcement in April 2015 when a former Clinton White House staffer and a lawyer for a Georgian political party failed to register as foreign agents. I also raised concerns about work for Ukrainians by Paul Manafort and the Podesta Group. I raised concerns when the firm behind the discredited Steele dossier failed to register for its lobbying work to repeal U.S. sanctions against Russia. I even subpoenaed Manafort to testify at a Judiciary Committee hearing on lax FARA enforcement. I praised Mueller for dusting off the law that had been ignored for so long.

I have conducted FARA oversight without regard to power, party, or privilege. Americans expect equal application of the law no matter which political party someone is affiliated with. I am an equal opportunity overseer. FARA ought to be better enforced and equally enforced. That is why my office worked thoroughly to expose holes in the existing FARA law and found ways to shore it up.

My bipartisan Foreign Agents Disclosure and Registration Enhancement Act is the product of years of oversight and policy work. The bill requires the Justice Department, for the first time, to craft a comprehensive FARA enforcement strategy and to release advisory opinions to promote transparency. It gives FARA investigators new tools, including civil investigative demand authority, to help identify violations.

The bill appropriately limits those in the Justice Department who can use this authority, and it provides essential due process protections. In fact, it is based on identical authorities in the False Claims Act, which I sponsored now 35 years ago, which for years has helped to root out waste, fraud, and abuse.

The bill also enhances penalties for FARA violations to deter future abuses. It requires foreign agents to immediately disclose their clients. That way, policymakers know the true sources and can make the most informed decisions.

Finally, it requires a review of the Lobbying Disclosure Act exemption to determine whether it has been abused to conceal foreign influence efforts.

Legitimate interests engaging in legitimate conduct shouldn't bear an unnecessary burden. That is why our bill strikes a real and right balance. But we must also ensure that FARA's exemptions haven't created loopholes for foreign governments to hide their true intentions.

I am pleased to have support from the chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and the chairman and vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee. We have bipartisan support on the Foreign Relations Committee, including from Senators Shaheen, Rubio, Murphy, and Young, who have all worked to shine light on foreign influence, and we now have the signoff of the chairman of that committee, along with support from this administration. Groups like the Project on Government Oversight and another group that goes by the name of Issue One endorse the measure, saying it ``directly addresses structural weaknesses of FARA.''

This is a truly bipartisan bill with common ground where it is usually tough to find it. The Senate should send a clear signal today that it is serious about shining a light on foreign influence by passing this bill.

Before I make a UC request, I would like to ask one of the leaders in this area, Senator Cornyn, to make comments. Then I will make the UC request

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I have two sentences before I ask unanimous consent.

I think by passing the bill, this will give the Senate an opportunity to send a clear signal that it is serious about shining a light on foreign influence. Opposing it, in fact, would only help our foreign adversaries continue to hide what they are really doing.

1762 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Of course I am disappointed, but I know that Senator Menendez is a serious legislator, and if what we have to do to do something in this area is work into the next Congress on this issue, I look forward to continuing to work for it.

The reason I am kind of disappointed is the fact that we had two Democratic bills and two Republican bills. I introduced my first bill in 2017, and it took a lot of work to put together the bill that I asked unanimous consent on, to work out the differences with several different approaches, and I thought that we had taken everything into consideration, particularly bringing together people from the Intelligence Committee and the Judiciary Committee that had interest in this legislation as well.

Maybe another reason I am disappointed out of that hard work that so many people put into this is the fact that on the part of particularly our Democratic colleagues, we have heard so much over the years, lecturing about foreign influence, and that is why I thought it would be easy to move forward today, and I am sorry it is not, but I look forward to January and starting over again and working with Senator Menendez to get this job done. Hopefully, it will not take 3 years more to get something done.

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