The PAID OFF Act of 2025 tightens rules about who has to register as a foreign agent working in the United States. Currently, the Foreign Agents Registration Act has some exemptions that let certain people skip registration requirements. This new bill removes those exemptions for anyone working on behalf of foreign governments or companies that are owned or controlled by countries the U.S. considers adversaries or countries of concern.

Right now, if you're lobbying or doing public relations work for a foreign government, you typically have to register and disclose who you're working for. This bill says that if you're representing certain hostile countries—the specific list comes from existing State Department rules—you can't use the normal exemptions anymore. You have to register, period. This means Americans will have better visibility into who is being paid by foreign adversaries to influence U.S. policy or public opinion.

The bill also gives the Secretary of State the power to add or remove countries from the "countries of concern" list, but only if Congress approves the change through a special joint resolution. This prevents the executive branch from making these changes alone. The new rules last for five years, after which Congress would need to renew them if they want to keep them in place. Essentially, this is about making sure foreign adversaries can't hide their influence operations in America behind legal loopholes.