[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 115 (Thursday, July 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4766-S4767]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 2449. Mr. RUBIO submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by 
him to the bill S. 4638, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 
2025 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle B of title VIII, add the following:

     SEC. 829. PROHIBITION ON CONTRACTING WITH COMPANIES WITH 
                   LOBBYING TIES TO CHINESE MILITARY COMPANIES AND 
                   HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSERS.

       (a) In General.--Chapter 363 of title 10, United States 
     Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new 
     section:

     ``Sec. 4663. Prohibition on contracting with companies with 
       lobbying ties to Chinese military companies and human 
       rights abusers

       ``(a) Prohibition.--The Secretary of Defense may not enter 
     into a contract for the procurement of goods or services 
     greater than $5,000,000, including all options, with any 
     person unless that person certifies to the Secretary of 
     Defense that--
       ``(1) the person, including its subsidiaries or parent 
     company, if applicable, does not employ or retain, and will 
     not employ or retain for the duration of the contract, any 
     lobbyist or lobbying firm that is registered to conduct 
     lobbying activities on behalf of a client that is listed on--
       ``(A) the Department of Defense's Chinese Military Company 
     List;
       ``(B) the Department of the Treasury's Non-SDN Chinese 
     Military Industrial Complex Companies List;
       ``(C) the Department of Commerce's Denied Persons List, 
     Entity List, or Military End User List, if the client in 
     question is--
       ``(i) an agency or instrumentality of the People's Republic 
     of China;
       ``(ii) an entity headquartered in the People's Republic of 
     China; or
       ``(iii) directly or indirectly owned or controlled by an 
     agency, instrumentality, or entity described in clause (i) or 
     (ii); or
       ``(D) the Department of Homeland Security's Uyghur Forced 
     Labor Prevention Act Entity List; and
       ``(2) the person will adopt reasonable procedures to detect 
     and report if any lobbyist or lobbying firm it has employed 
     or retained registers to conduct lobbying activities on 
     behalf of a client described in paragraph (1) during the 
     performance of a contract.
       ``(b) Recurring Certifications.--A person awarded a 
     contract for the procurement of goods or services described 
     in subsection (a) shall--
       ``(1) recertify compliance with such subsection to the 
     Secretary of Defense every 180 days until the date that the 
     contract is fulfilled; and
       ``(2) require any subcontractor receiving a subcontract in 
     an amount greater than the simplified acquisition threshold 
     to certify that it does not employ or retain, and will not 
     employ or retain for the duration of the subcontract, any 
     lobbyist or lobbying firm that is registered to conduct 
     lobbying activities on behalf of a client described in 
     subsection (a)(1).
       ``(c) Violations.--Each contract described under subsection 
     (a) shall--
       ``(1) include a mechanism for the contractor or third 
     parties to report violations of a requirement under 
     subsection (a);
       ``(2) provide that the Department of Defense may audit or 
     otherwise inspect the records of the contractor to determine 
     if the contractor has violated a requirement under subsection 
     (a); and
       ``(3) provide that, if the head of an agency determines 
     that a contractor has violated a requirement under subsection 
     (a), the Department of Defense may--
       ``(A) withhold or claw back funds from the contractor until 
     such time as the contractor ceases to employ or retain the 
     lobbyist; and
       ``(B) rescind the contract if the contractor fails to come 
     into compliance with a requirement under subsection (a) in a 
     timely manner.
       ``(d) Waiver.--(1) The Secretary of Defense may waive the 
     prohibition under subsection (a) on a case-by-case basis if 
     the Secretary--
       ``(A) determines that--
       ``(i) exercising such waiver is necessary to the national 
     security interests of the United States;
       ``(ii) the person seeking to enter into a contract for the 
     procurement of goods or services has provided a compelling 
     justification as to why compliance with subsection (a) would 
     impose undue delays or financial costs; and
       ``(iii) there are insufficient alternatives in place to 
     fulfil the needs of the contract in a timely manner; and
       ``(B) submits to the Committee on Armed Services of the 
     Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of 
     Representatives a report on the determination and the reasons 
     for the determination.
       ``(2) The report required under paragraph (1)(B) shall be 
     submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified 
     annex.
       ``(e) Lobbyist, Lobbying Firm, and Lobbying Activities 
     Defined.--In this section,

[[Page S4767]]

     the terms `lobbyist', `lobbying firm', and `lobbying 
     activities' have the meanings given the terms in section 3 of 
     the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1602).''.
       (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the 
     beginning of chapter 363 of title 10, United States Code, is 
     amended by inserting after the item relating to section 4662 
     the following new item:

``4663. Prohibition on contracting with companies with lobbying ties to 
              Chinese military companies and human rights abusers.''.
       (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section 
     shall take effect 30 days after the date of the enactment of 
     this Act.
                                 ______