DOJ PROPOSES CHANGES TO FOREIGN AGENTS REGISTRATION ACT
February 26, 2025
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On January 2, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) seeking to modernize the administration and enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”). Since FARA regulations were last amended in 2007, DOJ published an ANPRM in December 2021 soliciting public comments on 19 questions pertaining to revisions. The recently issued NPRM addresses previously received comments to better understand how DOJ can clarify and modernize existing regulations. For instance, DOJ proposes new exemptions to FARA’s registration requirement pertaining to the commercial exemption, the exemption for persons whose activities do not serve predominantly a foreign interest, and the exemption for persons qualified to practice law.
The NPRM would also, for the first time, define “informational materials” in the regulations as “any material that the person disseminating it believes or has reason to believe will, or which the person intends to in any way, influence any agency or official of the Government of the United States or any section of the public within the United States, with reference to formulating, adopting, or changing the domestic or foreign policies of the United States or with reference to the political or public interests, policies, or relations of a government of a foreign country or a foreign political party.” This definition would include materials distributed in print, online, or by any other method.
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