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Gallagher: No American Should Lobby on Behalf of a Genocidal Regime

October 28, 2021

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) today released the following statement after reports indicated that Huawei paid Tony Podesta approximately $1 million to lobby the Biden Administration.

"This is only the latest piece of evidence that the Chinese Communist Party is using the swamp against us. Last week, thanks to the bipartisan efforts of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, we found out that from November 2020-April 2021, there were 169 applications for licenses to sell to Huawei. Only two were denied, while licenses totaling more than $61 billion were approved. The Commerce Department is asleep at the wheel at the same time that influence peddlers like Tony Podesta are enabling Huawei's malign activities. Enough is enough. No American should be allowed to lobby on behalf of this genocidal regime and the administration should release detailed information about the decision process that resulted in these licenses being approved."

Rep. Gallagher has introduced legislation that makes it difficult for Americans to lobby on behalf of malign Chinese companies by:

  • Closing loopholes that allow lobbyists for Chinese companies to avoid registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA),
  • Codifying the Trump Administration's ethics pledge which restricted executive branch employees from lobbying for five years and prevented these individuals from lobbying on behalf of foreign governments, and
  • Prohibiting retired members of Congress, senior executive branch officials, and general and flag officers of the Armed Forces from lobbying under FARA.