Utah bill would help reduce foreign influence moving forward

SALT LAKE CITY — A newly proposed bill would work to reduce foreign influence from state ballots and elections.

HB393 includes several measures to ban and deter foreign nationals and foreign governments from financially contributing to a candidate or ballot initiative.

Measures proposed in the bill include:

• Prohibiting foreign nationals from contributing to an individual or entity subject to campaign reporting requirements
• Prohibiting those subject to campaign reporting requirements form knowingly soliciting, accepting, or receiving a contribution from a foreign national
• Establishes a criminal penalty for any person facilitating a violation of this bill

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Any contributions received from a foreign national would need to be reported to the lieutenant governor. Then, the value of the contribution would be dispersed to the state’s general fund.

There already is a federal law prohibiting foreign nationals from financially contributing to political candidates. This bill would expand that ban to ballot initiatives.

Bill sponsor, Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Salt Lake, presented this bill in a Utah House Government Operations Committee on Thursday, explaining that this is a nationwide issue.

“We’ve seen $130 million come into 25 different states over the past decade,” she said. “Individuals abroad have found a way to be effective in our democratic process by donating to initiatives or really controversial issues.”

She continued, “If you are not here as an American citizen, you should not be donating to candidates and you should not be donating to ballot initiatives.”

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The idea behind this bill has national support, with 78% of Americans agreeing that foreign nationals should not be influencing our elections.

“The idea behind this bill is, if you can vote, you can donate,” Pierucci said.

Several public commentators also expressed favor of the bill.

“I believe that decisions as important as amending a state’s constitution should be left to the citizens of our country, and to the voters of our state,” said Jason Snead, Executive Director of Honest Elections Project. “Banning foreign contributions into that process would bring protections that already apply through federal law and the law in most states, to candidates, into the ballot measure process and preserve the integrity of that process.”

“We’ve already discussed that it’s illegal for foreign nationals to donate to candidates, but that prohibition does not extend to groups promoting or opposing ballot propositions. HB393 is a simple, common-sense measure to close this foreign influence loophole,” said Caitlin Sutherland, Founding Executive Director of Americans for Public Trust.

The bill was unanimously passed with a favorable recommendation.

Additional items clarified by committee members

These clarifications were discussed in the meeting and may be subject to change with further work on the bill.

The “knowingly” component of the bill is important. Those who accept donations without knowing or understanding that the money came from a foreign national or foreign government would not be subject to the class B misdemeanor charge.

If a donation received is over $500, it must be paid to the state general fund.

Handing out flyers, volunteering, or participating at a campaign or ballot initiative event is not subject to these charges. Only financial donations from foreign nationals will be banned.

Those who are temporarily in the country legally, such as those with green cards, are not permitted to financially donate to campaigns or ballot initiatives.

This bill applies to financial donations given both directly or indirectly, banning foreign nations from giving donations through things like shell companies. Pierucci explained they are working on further clarifying what “indirect payments” will look like.

More consideration will be given to whether family members of candidates who hold green cards or who are temporarily in the states legally would be able to financially donate to a candidate’s initiative.

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