Sen. Bob Menendez, charged last week with secretly aiding the Egyptian government in exchange for bribes, single-handedly blocked passage of bipartisan legislation in 2020 that would have strengthened the law regulating foreign influence and lobbying in Washington, Senate records show.
The proposed Foreign Agents Disclosure and Registration Enhancement Act grew out of widespread concerns that the current law regulating foreign lobbying had seldom been enforced and that foreign influence campaigns had infiltrated American politics. Strengthening the law had drawn support from Democrats and Republicans on key committees.
In December 2020, after a Republican senator asked for unanimous consent to bring the bill to the Senate floor for a vote, Menendez, D-N.J., stood and objected. He argued that while enforcement of foreign lobbying rules needed to be strengthened, more thought needed to be put into exactly how to do it.
“It seems shortsighted to provide additional enforcement tools before we have figured out what that regime should look like,” Menendez said on the Senate floor. “The disturbing rise of foreign influence campaigns that use a variety of measures to mask who is the ultimate source or beneficiary should serve as an alarm bell for all of us."
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