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Floor Speech
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I come to the floor to make a unanimous consent request, but out of courtesy to somebody who may object--since there is nobody here to object--I won't make the motion, but I would like to give my remarks at this point.
Today, I am going to discuss a decades-long priority of mine, and that is reforming the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Around here, it is known by the acronym FARA. This legislation is necessary to give it the teeth that it needs to be effective.
Just a little bit of history about FARA: Until maybe 6, 7 years ago-- now it is 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 really 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 public because we ought to know who is working for foreign countries as they try to influence policy in this country. And now more attention is being paid to it. It is being enforced.
But I come to the floor today, as I am going to explain to you, because we had recent court decisions that have made it even weaker than it should be--is intended to be.
Since 2015--to give you a little history of my involvement with this issue--over four Congresses, I have investigated potential FARA violations to ensure the Justice Department equally enforces FARA without regard to power, party, and 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 on both sides by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee. 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, the 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 that I have sought to advance.
Today, I am here to talk about the bipartisan bill entitled ``Retroactive Foreign Agents Registration Act.'' The purpose of that legislation is to overcome the court decisions that I have 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 is 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, it is pretty simple for them if they don't want to be prosecuted or registered; they just have to sever their representation with that country, and they are off the hook. And, of course, that is not what Congress intended.
My bill, the Retroactive Foreign Agents Registration Act, fixes that problem, overrides the court decisions.
Remember, FARA doesn't prohibit any activity. You are free to do anything you want to. It is a disclosure statute. It simply requires lobbyists and public relations groups on K Street representing foreign interests, which 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. They can do anything they want to, but they have to disclose whom they are working for.
If a lobbyist doesn't want everyone to know that they are working for the communist Chinese Government, then I guess that person shouldn't be working for the communist Chinese Government.
Now, it is pretty simple what the spirit of this FARA legislation is all about. It is all about transparency. And with transparency, you are more apt to get accountability. And who shouldn't want transparency because the public's business ought to be public, and you ought to be accountable for what you are 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.
So now that we have other people on the floor who might want to speak on this, at this point I want to make this request.
2229 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. I would like to speak to this.
This legislation was passed in 1938. You heard me say in my opening remarks that for a long period of time--until about, I think, less than 8 years ago, when we started bringing attention to this legislation not being enforced by the Department of Justice--probably only about a dozen people or less were convicted under this legislation.
I heard what my colleague from Kentucky said about this legislation. I think you could read his remarks to indicate that a violation of freedom of speech is--we might as well repeal the lobbying act or lobbying registration act--whatever the law is--of 1946 that lobbyists have to register if they are going to lobby the Congress of the United States.
It doesn't have anything to do with freedom of speech. What it has to do with is transparency, so we know who is spending money to influence the laws in this country. That has nothing to do with freedom of speech. You can say anything you want to. It is just about transparency and accountability that comes with transparency. I think it is very important.
I don't find a lot of fault with what Senator Rand has said about regulatory criminalization and too much federalization, but this is a law that has been on the books since 1938 and, really, hasn't been enforced until very recently here. I think when you enforce the law, you get respect for the law. And there ought to be respect for a simple little law that says nothing more than: We just want to know who you are; who you are working for; and, particularly, if it is a foreign country, we ought to have a record of who is being hired to influence public policy in the United States as a result of your work. It could be a national security concern. It could be a business concern. It doesn't matter what that concern is. You can do anything you want to lobby Congress, but we ought to know who you are.
I have great respect for Senator Paul. Of course, as you just found out, I happen to disagree with him on his decision not to let this bill move forward.
I know a thing or two about government abuse and weaponization. My investigative staff has been surveilled by the Justice Department, as an example. You find out that from whistleblowers. You don't find out that because there is transparency of what they are doing.
I and my investigative staff have been subject to briefings from the Justice Department that were targeted to interfere in my investigative work. I have seen government weaponization firsthand.
That data point shouldn't be a basis to object to this bill. The due diligence has been done--the oversight, the hearing, the negotiations. This bill is bicameral. This bill is bipartisan. There is no legitimate basis for this bill to not be law.
I thank my colleagues, including the objector, for their giving attention to it even if we couldn't agree on it.
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