With Daniel Lippman BIPARTISAN LAWMAKERS UNVEIL FARA MODERNIZATION BILL: A bipartisan group of lawmakers in both the House and Senate unveiled a bill today with the aim of standardizing FARA registrations and making filings more easily accessible — an incremental improvement that falls far short of what FARA experts recommend to modernize the World War II-era law to track foreign influence efforts in the U.S. — The Foreign Agents Registration Modernization, or FARM, Act is sponsored by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.) in the House, and Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) in the Senate — hardly a group in ideological alignment, and not the usual suspects in terms of authoring FARA reform proposals. Though similar bills have been introduced in recent years, including by Khanna and Buck, this is the first time the proposal has been backed by members from both parties in both chambers. — The bill would require the Justice Department to create a standardized and easily searchable electronic database of FARA filings, an improvement over the clunky website the department currently uses. "It's a very minor tweak, to require the department to do something that it has been trying to do for a long time, which is make database information more accessible," said Caplin & Drysdale's Matt Sanderson, who co-chairs FARA reform task force at the American Bar Association. — "It will obviously take a lot more than just this bill to bring a ... pre-World War II-era statute into the 21st century," he told PI, but called the FARM Act "a good development, and hopefully the beginning of many good things to come." The ABA's task force in September proposed a laundry list of more comprehensive reforms to the statute, which DOJ has begun enforcing more aggressively in the last half-decade than it has in years. — "America is in a clash of civilizations with foreign kleptocrats and criminals who use secret channels of influence," Whitehouse told PI in a statement. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant, which is why I'm glad to join this bipartisan effort to modernize FARA and shine the light of transparency on foreign interests." Lummis, in a statement to PI said that the bill "is an easy place to find common ground across the aisle." — "It's 2021, yet FARA filings can still be handwritten and uploaded as is into the FARA database," she said. "This makes it much more difficult for the federal government and American people to understand foreign influence and hold foreign agents accountable. Every American should agree that if a foreign government is trying to lobby our own, we should know about it." — The bill would also require DOJ to implement digital accessibility standards for FARA filings, and introduce a requirement that filings be posted online immediately upon receipt. That's instead of "as soon as technically practicable," as the department is required to now, resulting in dayslong delays in the time between registrations or updates are filed and the time they appear on DOJ's website. — FARA experts didn't deny that the filing process could use a revamp. But there's still a long way to go, they said. "There are more fundamental, critical reforms that are essential to facilitate compliance with the law and understanding of how the Justice Department enforces it," said Wiggin & Dana's David Laufman , a former FARA enforcer and Sanderson's other co-chair on the ABA task force. Brandon Van Grack, a former FARA chief now at the law firm Morrison & Foerster, wrote in a tweet that "there's a lot of other low hanging FARA fruit for Congress to pick." — Khanna, in a statement, acknowledged that further reforms are needed, and called the issue "personal" to him because FARA records revealed Saudi efforts to block a previous bill he'd sponsored. "By digitizing and creating a public database for these records, Americans will be able to better access information and understand efforts by foreign agents to exert influence in our country," he said. — Sanderson told PI that it was worth reading into the FARM Act's sponsors, calling interest from different corners of the Republican conference and Democratic caucus maybe even more important than the substance of the bill, suggesting that it speaks to the "appetite for reform on both sides of the aisle," and the foundation for potential package of other reforms, though such efforts more recently have stalled on the Hill. Good afternoon and welcome to PI. Send lobbying tips: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on Twitter: @caitlinoprysko.
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RETAILERS TELL HOUSE TO GET A MOVE ON WITH BIF: The National Federation of Retailers is launching a six-figure ad campaign aimed at pressuring the House to send the bipartisan infrastructure bill to President Joe Biden 's desk, as the bill gets dragged down by continued haggling over the reconciliation bill. "Retailers depend on a safe, reliable and efficient transportation system to move billions of dollars' worth of merchandise every day," Matthew Shay , the trade group's president and chief executive, said in a statement. "The ongoing supply chain disruptions that retailers and others are facing highlight the need for investment in a truly 21st century infrastructure system." The ad buy includes a 30-second spot calling American infrastructure the country's "weakest link," urging lawmakers to act quickly to fortify the country's roads, bridges, ports and technology. The ad will run across connected TV and radio and on social media platforms.
CLUB FOR GROWTH TARGETS MODERATES: Huddle's Katherine Tully McManus reports, meanwhile, that the conservative Club for Growth is launching a $2.5 million digital media buy targeting nine key moderate House Democrats and urging their constituents to encourage the lawmakers to vote against the reconciliation bill. — "We are asking people from these key nine Congressional Districts to ask their U.S. House Members to take a stand against the out-of-control spending and new taxes. Prices are skyrocketing for American families, and the so-called solutions proposed by Democrats will just take a bad situation and make it worse," the group's president David McIntosh told Katherine in a statement. The blitz will go after Reps. Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia, Ed Case of Hawaii, Cindy Axne of Iowa, Jared Golden of Maine, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Kurt Schrader of Oregon and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia. COALITION PUSHES TO KEEP IMMIGRATION ELEMENTS IN RECONCILIATION: Immigration advocates are pressing Democrats in the House and Senate to retain a key immigration provision in their reconciliation bill as negotiations draw on, even if a path to legalization for millions is ultimately ruled out by the Senate parliamentarian. — In a letter to Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary committees led by the Niskanen Center, American Immigration Lawyers Association, National Immigration Forum and American Immigration Council , more than 100 immigration advocacy groups argue that even if the parliamentarian strikes down a path to legalization for DACA recipients or those with Temporary Protected Status, Democrats should keep in the bill language that would allow immigration officials to recapture more than 1 million green cards already authorized by Congress that have gone unused since 1992, while offering an early adjustment of status for immigrants. — The groups sought to counter concerns by some Democrats that those provisions alone would be too narrow to include or that they primarily favor businesses, pointing to House draft text the groups say would guarantee work authorization to those employees' spouses and children. — "As we continue to fight for legalization, these provisions will prevent more people from losing status and may also help existing Dreamers, essential workers, and TPS/DED recipients who are beneficiaries of approved immigrant visa petitions," the groups wrote, arguing that the parliamentarian's previous immigration rulings have left the door open for other immigration reforms. DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK: "A group that fueled attacks on critical race theory during Virginia's hotly contested gubernatorial race has ties to several of former President Donald Trump's allies, including Newt Gingrich and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson," per CNBC's Brian Schwartz. "The group, 1776 Action, is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit 'dark money' organization that isn't required to publicly disclose its donors. Gingrich and Carson themselves aren't listed among the group's leaders, although people close to them, including family members and former top aides, have leadership roles. — "Before this year, it was known as the American Legacy Center. It targeted Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election and congressional Democrats during the 2018 midterms. The organization, which says it is committed to stopping 'anti-American indoctrination,' is positioned to continue pushing its message during next year's midterms and then perhaps the 2024 race as conservative forces increasingly take aim at critical race theory." FLYING IN: The Farm Credit Council hit the Hill both in person and virtually on Wednesday, when more than 500 farmers, ranchers and leaders of the trade group held hundreds of meetings with lawmakers, the group said. Members spent time speaking with lawmakers about agriculture, climate change and how Farm Credit had supported members during the pandemic (they also brought a smattering of their products, including orchids, beef jerky, spice mixes, protein shakes, pumpkins, Christmas trees, wool socks, fruits and vegetables, wine, beer and more). — A later reception was attended by Reps. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), Jim Baird (R-Ind.), Michael Cloud (R-Texas), Yvette Herrell (R-N.M.), Trey Hollingsworth (R-Ind.), Fred Keller (R-Pa.), Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.), Dan Meuser (R-Pa.), Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Blake Moore (R-Utah), August Pfluger (R-Texas), John Rose (R-Tenn.), Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.), and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). BIDEN ROLLS OUT VACCINE MANDATE DETAILS: "The Biden administration's forthcoming vaccine mandates for millions of private employers , certain health care workers and federal contractors will not be enforced until after the holiday season, following weeks of pressure from business leaders who complained the rules would wreak havoc on the supply chain and aggravate worker shortages," POLITICO's Rebecca Rainey writes. "The administration released two new rules on Thursday that will be enforced starting Jan. 4 — one setting up new vaccination-or-test requirements for businesses with more than 100 workers and another implementing a vaccine mandate for health care workers at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid. Together, the rules are expected to affect over 1 million workers." |
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