Political Quotes

“I come to the floor to make a unanimous consent request, but out of courtesy to somebody who may object--since there is nobody here to object--I won't make the motion, but I would like to give my remarks at this point. Today, I am going to discuss a decades-long priority of mine, and that is reforming the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Around here, it is known by the acronym FARA. This legislation is necessary to give it the teeth that it needs to be effective. Just a little bit of history about FARA: Until maybe 6, 7 years ago-- now it is being enforced a little more often by the Department of Justice, but prior to that, a law that had been on the books for decades was not really being enforced. So that means people could be hired to lobby for a foreign country before the Congress of the United States and we didn't even know who they were. Well, the FARA act, passed decades ago, was supposed to make that public because we ought to know who is working for foreign countries as they try to influence policy in this country. And now more attention is being paid to it. It is being enforced. But I come to the floor today, as I am going to explain to you, because we had recent court decisions that have made it even weaker than it should be--is intended to be.…”