Foreign Lobbying Overhauls Stall as Manafort Goes to Trial
This Congress has a crush on the idea of overhauling the nation’s foreign lobbying regulations, but lawmakers apparently can’t seem to find the one bill they want to commit to.
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Brendan Fischer, director of federal reform for the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog group, said the biggest difference between Kaptur’s and other measures is that her bill also focuses on the campaign finance aspect, something his group supports.
That’s a growing concern not only because of the Manafort case but also the recent arrest of Maria Butina, a Russian gun rights activist who was charged with working as a foreign agent.
“It looks to close the many loopholes that foreign actors have used to secretly influence American democracy both during elections and after,” Fischer said.