Stop Foreign Funds in Elections Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MORELLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, this bipartisan bill, the Stop Foreign Funds in Elections Act, will close a loophole, as my colleague and friend, Mr. Steil, the chairman of the Committee on House Administration, has indicated, that currently allows foreign nationals to contribute to State and local ballot initiatives, as well as recall referenda.

This change is needed because the Federal Elections Commission previously determined that the Federal Election Campaign Act's foreign national prohibition does not actually reach ballot initiatives that do not appear to be linked to an office-seeking candidate at the Federal, State, or local level.

The FEC often sends legislative recommendations to Congress, adopted on a bipartisan basis, to update and strengthen our campaign finance regime. This very bill has been included in their recent recommendations. In fact, this bill is among the highest priority legislative recommendations from the FEC.

I thank the bill's sponsor, Congressman Fitzpatrick, as well as the bill's co-lead, Congressman Golden, for their important work on this issue.

I am glad to see the House taking seriously the risk of foreign interference in domestic elections. In that spirit, I encourage my colleagues to consider other comprehensive democracy reforms to close loopholes.

House Democrats' Freedom to Vote Act, which includes the DISCLOSE Act, would crack down on foreign campaign spending, and I think it is well past time for Congress to do something to stem the tide of dark money, including foreign money, in American elections.

This bill is a start, and I think I would continue to urge us to do more.

Madam Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. MORELLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I concur with my colleague about the importance of making sure that we don't have involvement of foreign entities into our politics.

If I can just opine for a minute, I do think in many ways one of the real challenges facing this country right now is a lack of faith in their government and Americans losing trust and losing faith. Part of that is because of the broad influence of money just generally in our politics. You see billionaires contributing hundreds of millions of dollars. We see the influence of dark money, of super-PACs.

I am looking forward to over the next several months working with my colleagues, and over the next several years, if need be, to repair some of the damage to those relationships and let the people of this country know that the democracy which we celebrated 250 years of this month that it is in their hands, that they are ultimately the sovereigns, and that there weren't outside influences. But I think that is becoming harder and harder to be able to make that point and to convince people of that without dramatic changes in the way we finance our campaigns and the way that the public dialogue engages.

Frankly, I am disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision just this month related to coordination between super-PACs and party committees and individual candidates. I think there is much to do. If we are going to have the ability to persuade American citizens that their government is theirs, we are going to have to take out the influence of all manner of people. Certainly, this bill is a step in the right direction.

I see my colleague, the sponsor of the bill, has arrived, so I will certainly let him address the House.

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Mr. MORELLE. Madam Speaker, again, I reiterate my support for the bill, and I want to thank the bill's sponsors, Mr. Fitzpatrick as well as Mr. Golden, for their work on this bill and continue to believe that there is much we can do and much that we need to do. This is an important step along the way.

I thank my colleague and my friend Chairman Steil for bringing this bill before us.

Madam Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to vote in favor of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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