Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., introduced legislation Wednesday to bar companies with certain foreign ownership levels from making campaign contributions.
Dubbed the Get Foreign Money out of U.S. Elections Act, it had more than 65 Democratic cosponsors in the House and 11 in the Senate upon introduction on Wednesday, and it faces an unlikely path to passage this Congress with Republicans in control of both chambers.
"The Roberts Court's reckless decision in Citizens United continues to spell disaster for American democracy, allowing oligarchs and autocrats around the world to wield their influence over our elections and undermine our institutions," Raskin said in a statement, referring to Chief Justice John Roberts and the ruling that enabled corporations and outside groups to spend unlimited sums on U.S. elections.
The proposal would establish foreign ownership thresholds to determine which U.S. corporations should be barred from contributing to campaigns, ballot initiatives and referendums. For example, business entities located outside the U.S. in which 50% of voting shares, total equity or membership units are owned by foreign nationals would be banned from making political contributions, as would those located within the U.S. in which a single foreign national outside the U.S. owns or controls 1% of voting shares, total equity, or membership units.
It's already illegal for foreign nationals to contribute to U.S. elections, but Raskin and Whitehouse's proposal would extend existing laws to some companies registered in the U.S. with foreign ownership over certain thresholds.
"We should get rid of the damned stuff entirely, but this bill would at least safeguard our democracy from foreign adversaries influencing American elections from the shadows," Whitehouse said in a statement.
The proposal comes on the heels of House passage earlier this month of a bipartisan bill led by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Jared Golden, D-Maine, that seeks to prohibit foreign contributions in flooding local ballot initiatives, referendums and recall elections. "The ballot is the instrument by which a free people govern themselves. No foreign government, foreign national, or foreign interest should have a hand in deciding the laws Americans live under," Fitzpatrick said in a statement after passage. The Senate has not yet voted on the measure.
The measure also follows a June Supreme Court decision that struck down limits on the amount political parties can spend in coordination with candidates, comes as foreign equity in U.S. companies has shot up since the 1990s, and mirrors a nearly identical bill Raskin and Whitehouse led in the 118th Congress that did not get a vote in either chamber.