At Least 90 Former Members of US Congress Registered as Foreign Agents since 2000

The Quin­cy Insti­tute for Respon­si­ble State­craft, a US think tank, is report­ing that since 2000 at least 90, for­mer mem­bers of Con­gress have reg­is­tered as for­eign agents, rep­re­sent­ing near­ly half of all coun­tries in the world. The report says the coun­tries most rep­re­sent­ed by for­mer law­mak­ers are in the Mid­dle East and Asia and that this trend has only become more pro­nounced in recent years. Accord­ing to a report by Respon­si­ble Statecraft:

June 28, 2022 It’s no secret that when mem­bers of Con­gress leave office, they turn to one pro­fes­sion above all oth­ers: lob­by­ing. Year in and year out, it’s the same sto­ry of for­mer elect­ed offi­cials sell­ing their con­nec­tions and knowl­edge of how to make things hap­pen (or not hap­pen) in Wash­ing­ton to high-pay­ing spe­cial inter­ests. While this lob­by­ing is often done on behalf of Amer­i­can inter­ests — like big phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal, bank­ing, or weapons firms — for­mer law­mak­ers have been lob­by­ing on behalf of for­eign inter­ests more and more often in recent years.  We ana­lyzed For­eign Agents Reg­is­tra­tion Act (FARA) fil­ings since 2000 and found that at least 90 for­mer mem­bers of Con­gress have reg­is­tered as for­eign agents, rep­re­sent­ing near­ly half (87) of all coun­tries in the world, and the trend has only become more pro­nounced in recent years. This rais­es crit­i­cal­ly impor­tant ques­tions for U.S. nation­al inter­ests and high­lights the impor­tance of leg­is­la­tion to com­bat the poten­tial risks of for­mer mem­bers of Con­gress work­ing for for­eign interests.

Read the rest here.

The report says that Turkey has at least 16 for­mer mem­bers of Con­gress work­ing on its behalf, Chi­na has employed at least eight for­mer mem­bers of Con­gress as lob­by­ists, and Sau­di Ara­bia has ben­e­fit­ed from the ser­vices of at least eight for­mer mem­bers of Con­gress reg­is­tered under FARA.

In June, the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) report­ed that Chi­na had hired 12 for­mer mem­bers of Con­gress to lob­by for the coun­try. Oth­er recent GIOR report­ing on US lob­by­ing efforts by var­i­ous influ­ence actors has included:

• A May report high­light­ing China’s role as top spender on for­eign influ­ence oper­a­tions in the US, with Chi­nese for­eign agent spend­ing sky­rock­et­ing from just over $10 mil­lion in 2016 to near­ly $64 mil­lion in 2020.

• A May report on Qatar’s grow­ing lob­by­ing efforts in the US.

• An April report on an LA busi­ness­man impris­oned over unreg­is­tered lob­by­ing for gov­ern­ments includ­ing Sri Lan­ka, Turkey, and Qatar.