# Foreign Influence Transparency Act

This bill requires people and organizations working on behalf of foreign governments or foreign political parties to publicly disclose their activities to the U.S. government. Think of it as a transparency requirement—if you're being paid by or working for a foreign entity to influence American politics, policy, or public opinion, you need to register and report what you're doing.

The law applies to a wide range of activities, including lobbying Congress, meeting with government officials, running public relations campaigns, organizing events, or conducting research aimed at shaping American policy or public attitudes. It also covers work done on behalf of foreign political candidates or parties. The idea is that Americans should know who is trying to influence their government and whose interests are actually being represented behind the scenes.

People and organizations covered by this law must file detailed reports explaining who they're working for, how much money they're receiving, what specific activities they're conducting, and what they're trying to accomplish. These reports become public records, so citizens and journalists can look them up. Violations can result in fines and potentially criminal penalties. The bill essentially closes loopholes and strengthens existing foreign agent registration requirements to make sure foreign influence operations are transparent rather than hidden.

For most Americans, this won't directly affect daily life, but it could matter if you care about knowing whether foreign governments are secretly trying to influence U.S. policy decisions that affect you. It's designed to protect American democracy by shining a light on foreign influence attempts rather than letting them happen behind closed doors.

Foreign Influence Transparency Act

Rubio, Marco

Foreign Influence Transparency Act This bill addresses foreign influence in higher education and in certain other academic, religious, and artistic pursuits. Current law exempts from foreign agent registration requirements a person engaging in activities in furtherance of religious, scholastic, academic, or scientific pursuits or of the fine arts. The bill specifies that this exemption applies only to those activities that do not promote the political agenda of a foreign government. Under current law, an institution of higher education (IHE) must disclose to the Department of Education (ED) a gift or contract that is from a foreign source and is valued at $250,000 or more, considered alone or in combination with all other gifts from or contracts with the foreign source. The bill instead requires an IHE to disclose such a gift or contract that is valued at $50,000 or more, considered alone or in combination with all other gifts or contracts. An IHE must include in its disclosure report the contents of any such contract and make the contents available for public disclosure. Additionally, an IHE that enters into an agreement with a Confucius Institute (i.e., a cultural institute directly or indirectly funded by the Chinese government) must immediately make available the full text of the agreement to the public, ED, and Congress. Finally, the bill prohibits an IHE that does not comply with these disclosure requirements from enrolling foreign students under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program.