Foreign Agents Registration Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, recently, the Biden administration withdrew a proposed Trump administration rule that would have required universities and K-12 schools to identify their connections with Confucius Institutes, which are very much connected to the country of China and, I would even say, to the Communist Party of China, which may be one and the same. I have asked the Biden administration about that move, but the administration has failed to respond to date. So I am here today to discuss four areas wherein the administration must be tough with China as well as with other countries.
Since April 2015, I have conducted oversight on several key aspects of foreign efforts to influence Members of Congress and the American public. First, I have focused on the equal, fair, and aggressive enforcement of transparency laws. An example of one transparency law that I will focus on is the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
I first raised concerns about the Foreign Agents Registration Act in April 2015, when it became very apparent that it wasn't being used hardly at all. Historically, it hasn't been used very much, and people have been getting away without registering under that act. It may be OK to represent a foreign country or a foreign interest, but at least we in Congress ought to know about it, and, in turn, the American people ought to know who you are and whom you are speaking for.
In 1938, Congress passed that law for the purpose then of exposing Nazi propaganda and identifying foreign attempts to influence policymakers as well as the American public. Last updated in 1966, the Foreign Agents Registration Act requires those who lobby on behalf of foreign governments and foreign interests to register their affiliations and activities with our Justice Department.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act reflects the fundamental principle that transparency brings accountability. Until recently, however, the law has been seldom used. The Foreign Agents Registration Act ought to be better enforced and also be equally enforced. That is why I worked to expose holes in the existing law and then find ways through additional legislation to shore it up or even use oversight to see that the Justice Department takes its use with more certainty and with more force.
As a result of those efforts, last session, I introduced a bipartisan bill that goes by the title of ``Foreign Agents Disclosure and Registration Enhancement Act.'' Since it wasn't passed in the last Congress, I will be reintroducing it this session. The bill requires the Justice Department for the first time to craft a comprehensive enforcement strategy and to release advisory opinions to promote that transparency. It gives investigators new tools, including civil investigative demand authority, to help identify violations.
Last Congress, the bill had support from Chairman Graham and Ranking Member Feinstein of the Judiciary Committee and Chairman Rubio and Vice Chairman Warner of the Intelligence Committee. It also had bipartisan support on the Foreign Relations Committee, including from Senators Shaheen, Rubio, Murphy, and Young, who have all worked to shine a light on foreign influence. We also had the signoff from the chairman of that committee, also with support from the Trump administration.
Unfortunately, when Senator Cornyn and I joined on the floor just before Christmas to ask for unanimous consent for the passage of this bill that had such broad bipartisan support, the Democrats objected even though it had this bipartisan, multicommittee support.
So I strongly urge the Biden administration to join my efforts in making commonsense, bipartisan reforms to the Foreign Agents Registration Act and to make it a priority. My bill gets the job done.
The second point I want to raise is that I have focused my oversight on increasing nontraditional espionage activities and foreign threats targeting taxpayer-funded research.
When I was chairman of the Judiciary Committee in 2018, I convened a hearing regarding Chinese nontraditional espionage against the United States. In that hearing, both DOJ and FBI officials made very clear that the threat to our universities and taxpayer-funded research from foreign governments, especially China, is real and it is ongoing. For example, the Department of Justice witness stated:
We need to adapt our enforcement strategy to reach non- traditional collectors, including researchers in labs, universities, and the defense industrial base, some of whom may have undisclosed ties to Chinese institutions and conflicting loyalties.
The FBI witness stated that China's talent recruitment programs are effectively ``brain gain programs'' that ``encourage theft of intellectual property from U.S. institutions.''
In June of 2019, when I was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I held a hearing on foreign threats to taxpayer-funded research which focused heavily on China's theft and China's espionage within our research community here in the United States.
After the hearing, I organized a classified committee briefing on the topic from the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general, and the Department of Homeland Security.
The Trump administration ramped up government efforts to investigate and prosecute researchers for stealing intellectual property and research. The Biden administration must continue those aggressive efforts if they want to be taken seriously. Those efforts are more important now than ever. For example, during the COVID pandemic, China has used cyber attacks to try to steal COVID-related research.
Third, another focus of mine has been on propaganda efforts within our schools and universities. Specifically, that concerns China's Confucius Institutes. As an extension of the Chinese Government, the Confucius Institutes are a foreign principal for purposes of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. According to reporting, the strategic goal of the Chinese Government is to place its institutes within existing colleges and universities in order to influence perceptions of the Communist government in China under the guise of teaching Chinese language, Chinese culture, and Chinese history. In other words, we have to see this problem with open eyes.
In light of these factors, in October of 2018, I wrote to the Justice Department and asked why it had yet to require individuals working for Confucius Institutes to register as foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Then, in March of 2020, I wrote to dozens of schools asking that they get a briefing from the FBI on the threats Confucius Institutes bring to the academic environment.
I have also strongly backed Senator Kennedy's Confucius Act--that is the title of the bill--which passed the Senate just last week. In part, that bill mandates that if a school wants an institute on campus, that school must have full managerial and academic control, not control from the Chinese Government.
China's threats to our security are very real. They are known and show no sign of stopping. It is a very good sign that in the past couple of years, many universities and colleges have cut ties with Confucius Institutes. Probably some of those were on those respective campuses for a long period of time.
The Biden administration must use every tool at its disposal to protect and defend our national security from this Communist threat, which is why I wrote to the Biden Department of Homeland Security on February 11 this year regarding its withdrawal of the Confucius rule, which I thought was a very good step forward from the previous administration.
Among the questions I asked of the Department, two relate to whether the Biden administration considers the Confucius Institute to be an extension of the Communist Chinese Government as well as being purveyors of Communist Chinese propaganda. That ought to be easily recognized, and I imagine our President does recognize it, but I want to have him tell me so. So far, that Department has thus far failed to respond.
The Biden administration would be wise to answer both in the affirmative to clearly state to the country and the world where it stands regarding China's gigantic propaganda machine, of which the Confucius Institutes are only a small part. In other words, besides going after the Confucius Institutes, we have to have our eyes open to every way that the Communist Chinese and their government is trying to influence things in this country, as well as stealing things from our country.
Lastly, I want to highlight a very important issue that has recently been brought to my attention. Upon entering office, President Biden fired all U.S. Executive Directors at multilateral development banks who were currently serving out their terms. Some of these multilateral development banks are the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
It has been U.S. tradition for incoming Presidents to allow these nonpartisan U.S. Executive Directors to serve in their positions until their term ends regardless of whatever administration put them in those positions. This tradition is meant to ensure that the United States maintains a consistent authoritative presence and engagement within those multilateral institutions.
In the last administration, the United States was tough on China through these development banks, and we were hoping that these people would be left in place so they could continue that tough-on-China approach. The Executive Directors who were in their respective positions made it a point to defend U.S. strategic interests by building coalitions aimed at eroding Chinese influence, which has been allowed to grow at an alarming extent. There is quite a push by the Chinese Communist Government to get involved in the highest levels of almost every international organization, not just these banks that I am talking about.
Removing these U.S. leaders from their positions prior to their terms expiring and with no replacements even nominated isn't an example of the United States leading; this is an example of our country ceding its duties and responsibilities on the world stage.
In addition to my unanswered letters, the Biden administration should inform Congress as to why it removed all Executive Directors from their positions prior to their terms expiring.
I hope President Biden knows China is aggressively growing its influence in these multilateral organizations, so now isn't the time to abandon the field. There is no time to be weak with China. We must work tirelessly to protect our way of life and our national security from the ever-present threat of the Communist Chinese Government. At the same time, we must build on the foundation that the Trump administration created to protect American taxpayers from foreign theft and espionage and propaganda.
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