Senators seek increased scrutiny of lobbying by ex-defense officials.

Report Reveals Over 500 Retired US Military Veterans Worked for Foreign Governments

According to a report by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), more than 500 retired US military veterans, including high-ranking former flag officers, worked as paid contractors and consultants for over 50 foreign governments between 2010 and 2020. While Congress addresses the ethics of Pentagon brass pursuing lucrative post-retirement posts with defense contractors, the increasing frequency of military veterans receiving waivers that exempt them from Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) disclosures is spurring calls for a similar scrutiny of these exemptions granted under the Lobbying Disclosure Act.

Proposed Foreign Agents Disclosure and Registration Enhancement Act

Senator Chuck Grassley and four GOP co-sponsors are seeking to impose more oversight on the waiver program in Senate Bill 1364, their proposed Foreign Agents Disclosure and Registration Enhancement Act. The bill proposes several FARA reforms aimed at ensuring public awareness of lobbying campaigns pushed by foreign powers. Introduced on April 27, read twice, and sent to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, among SB 1364’s prospective provisions is requiring the US Government Accountability Office to study the extent to which the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) exemption “is being used to circumvent registration under FARA.”

Emoluments and Evade and Elude

Under the Emoluments Clause in Article I, section 9 of the US Constitution, US officeholders are prohibited from accepting “any present, emolument, office, or title” from a foreign country. An emolument in this context is compensation, profit, personal benefit in exchange for performance of official duties. Critics such as POGO say that permission system, or waiver program, is outdated and not transparent since the military branches and State Department refused to make them public citing privacy concerns.

Concerns about Former Military Leaders

Concerns about former military leaders not revealing their post-retirement employment affiliations when engaged with Congressional or administration officials surfaced in June 2022 when an FBI investigation revealed former four-star Marine Corps general and Brookings Institute president John Allen did not disclose to federal investigators in 2020 about his work on behalf of the Qatari government. But Allen is hardly unusual. Retired four-star Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly who served as Homeland Security Secretary before being named Trump’s White House chief of staff, was an instructor with Australia’s Defense Joint Task Force Commanders Course, and, retired three-star Army Gen. Mike Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, was being paid by the Turkish government throughout the 2016 presidential campaign and never filed for a FARA exemption at all.

Conclusion

While Congress addresses the ethics of Pentagon brass pursuing lucrative post-retirement posts with defense contractors, the increasing frequency of military veterans receiving waivers that exempt them from Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) disclosures is spurring calls for a similar scrutiny of these exemptions granted under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. Senator Chuck Grassley and four GOP co-sponsors are seeking to impose more oversight on the waiver program in Senate Bill 1364, their proposed Foreign Agents Disclosure and Registration Enhancement Act.

• More than 500 retired US military veterans worked for over 50 foreign governments between 2010 and 2020
• Proposed Foreign Agents Disclosure and Registration Enhancement Act aims to impose more oversight on the waiver program
• Emoluments Clause prohibits US officeholders from accepting compensation, profit, or personal benefit from a foreign country
• Concerns about former military leaders not revealing their post-retirement employment affiliations when engaged with Congressional or administration officials