Chinese Communist Party Influence Transparency Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4843 To amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 to repeal the exemp- tion from registration under such Act for persons providing private and nonpolitical representation of trade and commercial interests, and the exemption from registration under such Act for persons filing disclo- sure reports under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, in connection with the representation of business organizations organized under the laws of or having their principal place of business in the People’s Repub- lic of China, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES OCTOBER 22 (legislative day, OCTOBER 19), 2020 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 repeal the exemption from registration under such Act for persons providing private and nonpolitical rep- resentation of trade and commercial interests, and the exemption from registration under such Act for persons filing disclosure reports under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, in connection with the representation of business organizations organized under the laws of or having their principal place of business in the People’s Republic of China, and for other purposes. VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:35 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\S4843.IS S4843 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4843 IS 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 ‘‘Chinese Communist 4 Party Influence Transparency Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. REPEALING CERTAIN EXEMPTIONS FROM REG- 6 ISTRATION UNDER FOREIGN AGENTS REG- 7 ISTRATION ACT OF 1938 BY AGENTS REP- 8 RESENTING CHINESE BUSINESS ORGANIZA- 9 TIONS. 10 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Foreign Agents Registration 11 Act of 1938, as amended (22 U.S.C. 611 et seq.) is 12 amended by inserting after section 3 the following: 13 ‘‘SEC. 3A. SPECIAL RULES FOR AGENTS REPRESENTING 14 CHINESE BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS. 15 ‘‘(a) REPEAL OF EXEMPTION FROM REGISTRATION 16 FOR PERSONS PROVIDING PRIVATE AND NONPOLITICAL 17 REPRESENTATION OF BONA FIDE TRADE OR COMMER- 18 CIAL INTERESTS.—Section 3(d)(1) shall not apply to an 19 agent of a covered Chinese business organization. 20 ‘‘(b) REPEAL OF EXEMPTION FROM REGISTRATION 21 FOR PERSONS FILING DISCLOSURE REPORTS UNDER 22 LOBBYING DISCLOSURE ACT OF 1995.— 23 ‘‘(1) REPEAL.—Section 3(h) shall not apply to 24 an agent of a covered Chinese business organization. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:35 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4843.IS S4843 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4843 IS ‘‘(2) TIMING FOR FILING OF REGISTRATION 1 STATEMENTS.—In the case of an agent of a covered 2 Chinese business organization who has registered 3 under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 4 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), after the agent files the first 5 registration required under section 2(a) in connec- 6 tion with the agent’s representation of the covered 7 Chinese business organization, the agent shall file all 8 subsequent statements, information, or documents 9 required under section 2 at the same time, and in 10 the same frequency, as the reports filed with the 11 Clerk of the House of Representatives or the Sec- 12 retary of the Senate (as the case may be) under sec- 13 tion 5 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 14 U.S.C. 1604) in connection with the agent’s rep- 15 resentation of the covered Chinese business organi- 16 zation. 17 ‘‘(c) COVERED CHINESE BUSINESS ORGANIZATION 18 DEFINED.—In this section, the term ‘covered Chinese 19 business organization’ means— 20 ‘‘(1) an entity described in section 1(b)(3) 21 which is organized under the laws of, or has its prin- 22 cipal place of business in, the People’s Republic of 23 China (including any subsidiary or affiliate of such 24 an entity), except that such term does not include a 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:35 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4843.IS S4843 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4843 IS subsidiary or affiliate of an entity which is organized 1 under the laws of, and has its principal place of 2 business in, a country other than the People’s Re- 3 public of China; or 4 ‘‘(2) an entity designated by the Attorney Gen- 5 eral as subject to the extrajudicial direction of the 6 Chinese Communist Party.’’. 7 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 8 (1) REPEAL OF EXEMPTION.—Section 3 of such 9 Act (22 U.S.C. 613) is amended— 10 (A) in subsection (d)(1), by striking ‘‘in 11 private’’ and inserting ‘‘except as provided in 12 section 3A(a), in private’’; and 13 (B) in subsection (h), by striking ‘‘Any 14 agent’’ and inserting ‘‘Except as provided in 15 section 3A(b), any agent’’. 16 (2) TIMING OF FILING OF REGISTRATION 17 STATEMENTS.—Section 2(b) of such Act (22 U.S.C. 18 612(b)) is amended in the first sentence by striking 19 ‘‘six months succeeding such filing’’ and inserting 20 ‘‘six months succeeding such filing (except as pro- 21 vided in section 3A(b)(2))’’. 22 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:35 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4843.IS S4843 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 4843 IS (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 1 this Act shall take effect 180 days after the date of enact- 2 ment of this Act. 3 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:35 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S4843.IS S4843 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS