Broken foreign lobbying laws are unfairly labeling environmental groups as foreign agents.
"It is not at all clear where this is headed," said Sam Worthington, CEO of InterAction, a large coalition of U.S.-based nonprofits that work internationally. He warns that thousands of American nonprofits could find themselves in the same predicament as the Natural Resources Defense Council.
"An alliance of more than 40 nongovernmental organizations called InterAction has urged lawmakers to repair vague and outdated provisions in the current law before passing a new one that strengthens the government's hand."
“It is not at all clear where this is headed,” said Sam Worthington. He warns that thousands of American nonprofits could find themselves in the same predicament as the Natural Resources Defense Council."
Amid partisan clashes and pushback from foreign-owned companies, the push to strengthen the Foreign Agents Registration Act appears to be going nowhere fast.
"A broad spectrum of civil society groups that work internationally fear they could face a new legal threat — being pressured to register as foreign agents, a designation that could severely damage an organization."
"Given the vague and broad scope of FARA, its increased enforcement – without fixing the underlying Act – will chill nonprofits from carrying out beneficial cross-border activities."
As written, FARA is unsuitable for our contemporary world – a world in which global interconnectivity is increasing and the roles of state and non-state actors are blurring.
