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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3989 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>

118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3989

 To prohibit defense contracting with companies that employ lobbyists 
 who represent Chinese military companies or human rights abusers, and 
                          for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 20, 2024

   Mr. Rubio introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
              referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
 To prohibit defense contracting with companies that employ lobbyists 
 who represent Chinese military companies or human rights abusers, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Chinese Communist Party Lobbying 
Divestment Act of 2024''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON CONTRACTING WITH COMPANIES WITH LOBBYING TIES TO 
              CHINESE MILITARY COMPANIES AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSERS.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 363 of title 10, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following new section:
``Sec. 4663. Prohibition on contracting with companies with lobbying 
              ties to Chinese military companies and human rights 
              abusers
    ``(a) Prohibition.--The Secretary of Defense may not enter into a 
contract for the procurement of goods or services with any person 
unless that person certifies to the Secretary of Defense that--
            ``(1) the person does not employ or retain, and will not 
        employ or retain for the duration of the contract, any lobbyist 
        or lobbying firm that is registered to conduct lobbying 
        activities on behalf of a client that is listed on--
                    ``(A) the Department of Defense's Chinese Military 
                Company List;
                    ``(B) the Department of the Treasury's Non-SDN 
                Chinese Military Industrial Complex Companies List;
                    ``(C) the Department of Commerce's Denied Persons 
                List, Entity List, or Military End User List, if the 
                client in question is--
                            ``(i) an agency or instrumentality of the 
                        People's Republic of China;
                            ``(ii) an entity headquartered in the 
                        People's Republic of China; or
                            ``(iii) directly or indirectly owned or 
                        controlled by an agency, instrumentality, or 
                        entity described in clause (i) or (ii); or
                    ``(D) the Department of Homeland Security's Uyghur 
                Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List; and
            ``(2) the person will adopt reasonable procedures to detect 
        and report if any lobbyist or lobbying firm it has employed or 
        retained registers to conduct lobbying activities on behalf of 
        a client described in paragraph (1) during the performance of a 
        contract.
    ``(b) Violations.--Each contract described under subsection (a) 
shall--
            ``(1) include a mechanism for the contractor or third 
        parties to report violations of a requirement under subsection 
        (a);
            ``(2) provide that the Department of Defense may audit or 
        otherwise inspect the records of the contractor to determine if 
        the contractor has violated a requirement under subsection (a); 
        and
            ``(3) provide that, if the head of an agency determines 
        that a contractor has violated a requirement under subsection 
        (a), the Department of Defense may--
                    ``(A) withhold or claw back funds from the 
                contractor until such time as the contractor ceases to 
                employ or retain the lobbyist; and
                    ``(B) rescind the contract if the contractor fails 
                to come into compliance with a requirement under 
                subsection (a) in a timely manner.
    ``(c) Waiver.--The Secretary of Defense may waive the prohibition 
on a case-by-case basis if the Secretary determines and certifies to 
the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on 
Armed Services of the House of Representatives that exercising such 
waiver is necessary to the national security interests of the United 
States.
    ``(d) Lobbyist and Lobbying Firm Defined.--In this section, the 
terms `lobbyist' and `lobbying firm' have the meaning given the terms 
in section 3 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1602).''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of 
chapter 363 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by inserting 
after the item relating to section 4662 the following new item:

``4663. Prohibition on contracting with companies with lobbying ties to 
                            Chinese military companies and human rights 
                            abusers.''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall take 
effect 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>
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