[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4551 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4551

 To amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 to prohibit any 
 individual who served as the head of any element of the intelligence 
  community from acting as the agent of a foreign principal, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            December 5, 2017

Mr. Castro of Texas (for himself and Mr. Carson of Indiana) introduced 
    the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the 
    Judiciary, and in addition to the Permanent Select Committee on 
   Intelligence (Permanent Select), for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 to prohibit any 
 individual who served as the head of any element of the intelligence 
  community from acting as the agent of a foreign principal, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Intelligence Directors Lobbying 
Prevention Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) President Donald J. Trump issued an Executive order on 
        January 28, 2017, entitled ``Ethics Commitments by Executive 
        Branch Appointees'', paragraph (4) of which requires executive 
        branch appointees to contractually commit to the following: ``I 
        will not, at any time after the termination of my employment in 
        the United States Government, engage in any activity on behalf 
        of any foreign government or foreign political party which, 
        were it undertaken on January 20, 2017, would require me to 
        register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as 
        amended.''.
            (2) To the extent that paragraph (4) of this Executive 
        order has no time restriction, the Executive order amounts to a 
        lifetime ban on lobbying on behalf of a foreign principal by 
        employees of the executive branch.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) The United States intelligence community provides the 
        backbone of security for the United States, and its members 
        contribute daily to the safety, security, and well-being of 
        Americans worldwide.
            (2) Leaders of the intelligence community, whether 
        political or civilian appointees, should be held to the highest 
        of ethical standards.
            (3) Given recent revelations regarding previous heads of 
        elements of the intelligence community lobbying on behalf of 
        foreign principals, Congress should codify and expand the 
        Executive order signed by President Trump on January 28, 2017, 
        so that it applies to the heads of elements of the intelligence 
        community.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITING HEADS OF ELEMENTS OF INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY FROM 
              ACTING AS AGENTS OF FOREIGN PRINCIPALS.

    (a) Prohibition.--The Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (22 
U.S.C. 611 et seq.), as amended is amended by adding at the end the 
following new section:

``SEC. 12. PROHIBITING REGISTRATION BY FORMER HEADS OF ELEMENTS OF 
              INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY.

    ``(a) Prohibition.--No individual may register under this Act or 
otherwise serve as the agent of a foreign principal, including by 
engaging in lobbying activity on behalf of a foreign entity under the 
Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), if the 
individual at any time served as the head of an element of the 
intelligence community.
    ``(b) Annual Report.--On an annual basis, the Director of National 
Intelligence, in coordination with the head of each element of the 
intelligence community, shall submit to Congress a report on the 
compliance of former heads of such elements with respect to the 
prohibition under subsection (a).
    ``(c) Definition.--In this section, the term `element of the 
intelligence community' means each agency included in paragraph (4) of 
section 3 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003(4)), and 
includes the National Counterterrorism Center and the National 
Counterproliferation Center.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply with respect to any individual who, on or after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, serves as the head of an element of the 
intelligence community as described in section 12 of the Foreign Agents 
Registration Act of 1938, as amended, as added by subsection (a).
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