U.S. Sen. Peters reintroduces bill to increase scrutiny of foreign influences

The Disclosing Foreign Influence in Lobbying Act was reintroduced last week by U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) in a continued push to open up the Lobbying Disclosure Act and close loopholes that would increase awareness of foreign lobbying in the federal government.

Peters noted that the bill would seek to keep foreign adversaries, including the Chinese government, from concealing their roles in influencing the U.S. political process. While similar legislation made it through the Senate last Congress, it went no further than that. The Disclosing Foreign Influence in Lobbying Act would mandate that lobbying organizations disclose when foreign government and political parties participate in the planning, supervision, direction, or control of their lobbying efforts.

In recent years, Peters led similar reforms of protections for Inspectors General and in identifying and eliminating potential conflicts of interest in federal contracting.

“Adversaries could take advantage of loopholes in current lobbying regulations to advance agendas that are not in the best interest of Michiganders and the American people,” Peters, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said. “This bipartisan bill will close these loopholes, increase transparency in foreign lobbying practices, and strengthen national security by blocking efforts by foreign adversaries to influence our political process.”

Current lobbying law requires lobbyists and the organizations that use them to register their activities involving the government and provide transparency of their efforts to influence policy. However, some governments and other organizations have used alternative means to push their interests in the government, sometimes using companies not necessarily registered under the law as proxies.

The Disclosing Foreign Influence in Lobbying Act would crack down on this, requiring lobbying organizations to reveal when foreign governments and political parties participate in any aspect of their influence efforts, regardless of financial contributions to the process.