DEFEND Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4703 To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit certain foreign nationals from making disbursements to compensate persons en- gaging in internet activity promoting, supporting, attacking, or opposing the election of a candidate for public office. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 16, 2019 Mr. LAMB introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration A BILL To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit certain foreign nationals from making disburse- ments to compensate persons engaging in internet activ- ity promoting, supporting, attacking, or opposing the election of a candidate for public office. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Defending Elections 4 From Foreign Efforts to Negate Democracy Act’’ or the 5 ‘‘DEFEND Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:10 Oct 23, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4703.IH H4703 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 4703 IH SEC. 2. PROHIBITING DISBURSEMENTS BY CERTAIN FOR- 1 EIGN NATIONALS TO COMPENSATE PERSONS 2 ENGAGING IN INTERNET ACTIVITY PRO- 3 MOTING, SUPPORTING, ATTACKING, OR OP- 4 POSING THE ELECTION OF A CANDIDATE FOR 5 PUBLIC OFFICE. 6 (a) DISBURSEMENTS DESCRIBED.—Section 7 319(a)(1) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 8 (52 U.S.C. 30121(a)(1)) is amended— 9 (1) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of subparagraph 10 (B); and 11 (2) by striking subparagraph (C) and inserting 12 the following: 13 ‘‘(C) an expenditure; 14 ‘‘(D) an independent expenditure; 15 ‘‘(E) a disbursement for an electioneering 16 communication (within the meaning of section 17 304(f)(3)); or 18 ‘‘(F) a disbursement by a covered foreign 19 national (as defined in subsection (c)) to com- 20 pensate any person for internet activity that 21 promotes, supports, attacks or opposes the elec- 22 tion of a clearly identified candidate for Fed- 23 eral, State, or local office (regardless of whether 24 the activity communication contains express ad- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:10 Oct 23, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4703.IH H4703 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 4703 IH vocacy or the functional equivalent of express 1 advocacy); or’’. 2 (b) DEFINITION.—Section 319 of such Act (52 3 U.S.C. 30121) is amended by adding at the end the fol- 4 lowing new subsection: 5 ‘‘(c) COVERED FOREIGN NATIONAL DEFINED.— 6 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In this subsection, the term 7 ‘covered foreign national’ means— 8 ‘‘(A) a foreign principal (as defined in sec- 9 tion 1(b) of the Foreign Agents Registration 10 Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. 611(b)) that is a gov- 11 ernment of a foreign country or a foreign polit- 12 ical party; 13 ‘‘(B) any person who acts as an agent, 14 representative, employee, or servant, or any per- 15 son who acts in any other capacity at the order, 16 request, or under the direction or control, of a 17 foreign principal described in subparagraph (A) 18 or of a person any of whose activities are di- 19 rectly or indirectly supervised, directed, con- 20 trolled, financed, or subsidized in whole or in 21 major part by a foreign principal described in 22 subparagraph (A); or 23 ‘‘(C) any person included in the list of spe- 24 cially designated nationals and blocked persons 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:10 Oct 23, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4703.IH H4703 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 4703 IH maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets 1 Control of the Department of the Treasury pur- 2 suant to authorities relating to the imposition 3 of sanctions relating to the conduct of a foreign 4 principal described in subparagraph (A). 5 ‘‘(2) CLARIFICATION REGARDING APPLICATION 6 TO CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES.—In the case 7 of a citizen of the United States, subparagraph (B) 8 of paragraph (1) applies only to the extent that the 9 person involved acts within the scope of that per- 10 son’s status as the agent of a foreign principal de- 11 scribed in subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1).’’. 12 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 13 this section shall apply with respect to disbursements 14 made on or after the date of the enactment of this Act. 15 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:10 Oct 23, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4703.IH H4703 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS