Title: Foreign Influence Transparency Act
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Foreign Influence Transparency Act
This bill amends the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 to limit the exemption from foreign agent registration with the Department of Justice for a person engaging in activities in furtherance of religious, scholastic, academic, or scientific pursuits or of the fine arts to only those activities that do not promote a foreign government's political agenda.
The Higher Education Act of 1965 is amended to require institutions to report to the Department of Education a gift or contract from a foreign source whose annual value is $50,000 or more. The fair market value of in-kind-gifts is included in such limit. (Currently, a report is due if the annual value is $250,000 or more, considered alone or in combination with all other gifts from or contracts with a foreign source.)
A report shall: (1) include the contents of any such contracts, and (2) make such contents available for public disclosure.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2583 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2583

   To amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 to limit the 
 exemption from the registration requirements of such Act for persons 
     engaging in activities in furtherance of bona fide religious, 
   scholastic, academic, or scientific pursuits or the fine arts to 
   activities which do not promote the political agenda of a foreign 
 government, to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to clarify the 
 disclosures of foreign gifts by institutions, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 21, 2018

 Mr. Rubio (for himself and Mr. Cotton) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 to limit the 
 exemption from the registration requirements of such Act for persons 
     engaging in activities in furtherance of bona fide religious, 
   scholastic, academic, or scientific pursuits or the fine arts to 
   activities which do not promote the political agenda of a foreign 
 government, to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to clarify the 
 disclosures of foreign gifts by institutions, 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 ``Foreign Influence Transparency 
Act''.

SEC. 2. LIMITING EXEMPTION FROM FOREIGN AGENT REGISTRATION REQUIREMENT 
              FOR PERSONS ENGAGING IN ACTIVITIES IN FURTHERANCE OF 
              CERTAIN PURSUITS TO ACTIVITIES NOT PROMOTING POLITICAL 
              AGENDA OF FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS.

    (a) Limitation on Exemption.--Section 3(e) of the Foreign Agents 
Registration Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. 613(e)) is amended by striking the 
semicolon at the end and inserting the following: ``, but only if the 
activities do not promote the political agenda of a government of a 
foreign country;''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply with respect to activities carried out on or after the date of 
the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 3. DISCLOSURES OF FOREIGN GIFTS.

    (a) In General.--Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 
(20 U.S.C. 1011f) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) by striking ``the value of which is $250,000 or 
                more, considered alone or in combination with all other 
                gifts from or contracts within'' and inserting ``the 
                value of which is $50,000 or more for such gift from or 
                contract with that foreign source within''; and
                    (B) by striking ``alone or'';
            (2) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), in the first sentence, by 
                inserting before the period at the end the following: 
                ``, and the content of each such contract''; and
                    (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting before the 
                period the following: ``, and the content of each such 
                contract'';
            (3) in subsection (e), by inserting ``, including the 
        contents of any contracts,'' after ``reports''; and
            (4) in subsection (h)(3), by inserting before the semicolon 
        at the end the following: ``, or the fair market value of an 
        in-kind gift''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall 
apply with respect to gifts received or contracts entered into, or 
other activities carried out, on or after the date of the enactment of 
this Act.
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