Action Alert: Support Key Legislation at SFRC Business Meeting (June 17)

Legislation FDD Action Endorses

FDD Action urges Members to support the following five bipartisan measures at the SFRC’s business meeting on Wednesday, June 17.

• ✔Preventing Adversary Influence, Disinformation, and Obscured Foreign Financing (PAID OFF) Act of 2025 (S. 3050) — Led by Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), this bill would help close gaps in the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA) that have allowed agents of U.S. adversaries like China to lobby without registering.
• ✔Iran Human Rights, Internet Freedom, and Accountability Act of 2026 (S. 3900) — Led by Sens. Dave McCormick (R-PA) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), this bill would take tangible steps to expand Iranians’ access to uncensored communications, hold accountable the regime officials and oligarchs responsible for repression, and expose the foreign networks that finance Tehran’s human rights abuses.
• ✔Eastern Mediterranean Gateway Act (S. 4443) — Led by Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Dave McCormick (R-PA), this bill deepens cooperation with Eastern Mediterranean partners to strengthen defense capabilities and advance the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, reducing dependence on Iranian and Russian energy.
• ✔Eliminate PRC Organized Crime Act (S. 4723) — Led by Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Chris Coons (D-DE), this bill would help strengthen the capacity of law enforcement agencies in Latin America and the Caribbean to prosecute Chinese organized criminal groups and Chinese government-linked organizations engaged in criminal activity.
• ✔BANNED in Latin America Act (S. 4665) — Led by Sen. John Curtis (R-UT), this legislation seeks to counter Iranian and Hezbollah influence operations in Latin America, which have spread anti-American ideology in the region.

FDD Action endorses these five measures and urges Senators to support them at the SFRC’s business meeting on Wednesday, June 17. We unpack what you need to know about these bills below.

1. PAID OFF Act of 2025 (S. 3050)

FDD Action Expert Analysis

“For too long, American adversaries have exploited gaping loopholes in FARA to run influence operations inside the United States while hiding behind commercial and lobbying exemptions designed for legitimate actors. This bipartisan legislation closes those backdoors and ensures that agents serving adversary governments are forced into the light. FDD Action strongly endorses the PAID OFF Act and encourages its passage to bring transparency to the foreign influence threatening our democratic process.”

— Alexandria Paolozzi Moore, Senior Director of Government Relations at FDD Action

The PAID OFF Act of 2025 strengthens FARA against exploitation by U.S. adversaries by:

• Closing existing loopholes. The bill would strip away the exemptions for any agent whose foreign principal is a corporate or government entity owned or controlled by a country of concern.
• Allowing Congress to have a say. The bill provides for a mechanism to add or remove a country’s consideration as a country of concern for the purposes of this legislation. If the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Attorney General, sends a proposal to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, then a change could be made to the list, effective upon passage of a joint resolution of approval.

2. Iran Human Rights, Internet Freedom, and Accountability Act of 2026 (S. 3900)

FDD Action Expert Analysis

“The Iranian regime has killed an estimated 40,000 people while deploying internet shutdowns, pervasive surveillance, and illicit financial networks to crush peaceful dissent. This staggering death toll underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive U.S. response. The Iran Human Rights, Internet Freedom, and Accountability Act of 2026 would expand the Iranian people’s access to uncensored communications, hold accountable the regime officials and oligarchs responsible for repression, and expose the networks that finance Tehran’s human rights abuses.”

— Alexandria Paolozzi Moore, Senior Director of Government Relations at FDD Action

The Iran Human Rights, Internet Freedom, and Accountability Act of 2026 takes a comprehensive approach to countering the Iranian regime’s repression by:

• Expanding internet freedom. This bill extends the Iran Internet Freedom Grant Program through 2030 at $30 million annually and directs the Pentagon to develop low-cost, rapidly deployable tools to break through regime blackouts. It also directs the Defense Innovation Unit to develop rapidly deployable technologies that can circumvent regime-imposed internet shutdowns.
• Disrupting the regime’s financial networks. By creating a dedicated Iran Kleptocracy Initiative within the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the legislation gives Treasury a permanent, focused tool to investigate, expose, and disrupt the corruption, money laundering, and racketeering networks that sustain regime officials, their families, and their proxies.
• Targeting the enablers of repression. The bill establishes a process for senior congressional leaders to identify foreign individuals — including suppliers of surveillance and internet shutdown technology — for potential sanctions, closing gaps that have allowed enablers of the regime’s repression to operate with impunity.
• Amplifying independent voices. The legislation strengthens U.S. broadcasting and human rights programming for Iran, ensuring that independent media, civil society, and uncensored news reach the Iranian people at a moment when the regime is more economically and politically vulnerable than at any point in recent memory.

3. Eastern Mediterranean Gateway Act (S. 4443)

FDD Action Expert Analysis

“One of the chief drivers of instability in the Middle East and throughout Europe has been the dominance of Russia and Iran in energy markets. The IMEC pushes the region away from the authoritarian regimes in Moscow and Tehran and establishes an energy security grid that benefits all in the region and reduces the leverage of hostile countries. The Eastern Mediterranean Gateway Act will solidify market alternatives to malign actors and promote more stable domestic energy production and supply chains.”

— Tyler Stapleton, Senior Director of Government Relations at FDD Action

The Eastern Mediterranean Gateway Act strengthens U.S. engagement in the Eastern Mediterranean and U.S. energy security by:

• Backing IMEC as a counter to Beijing. The bill supports the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as a strategic alternative to Chinese infrastructure investments and requires the Secretary of State to report to Congress on how IMEC is helping counter Chinese influence among U.S. partners.
• Securing the region’s energy supply. The bill directs the Secretary of State to prioritize the Eastern Mediterranean in U.S. foreign policy, supporting critical energy infrastructure that reduces European dependence on adversary energy sources and improves U.S. energy security.
• Institutionalizing partnerships. The bill institutionalizes multilateral strategic dialogues with IMEC and Eastern Mediterranean partners, reinvigorates the 3 +1 framework with Greece, Israel, and Cyprus, and studies expanding proven U.S.-Israel cooperation models in agriculture, cybersecurity, and science to the broader region.

4. Eliminate PRC Organized Crime Act (S. 4723)

FDD Action Expert Analysis

“Chinese criminal networks in the Western Hemisphere pose a direct threat to U.S. national security, supporting drug trafficking and other illicit activities and destabilizing key U.S. partners. FDD Action is proud to endorse this effort to help Latin American partners build law enforcement capacity to take on this threat.”

— Connor Pfeiffer, Senior Director of Government Relations at FDD Action

The Eliminate PRC Organized Crime Act confronts People’s Republic of China- (PRC) linked criminal networks by:

• Supporting U.S. Partners: The bill creates a program under the Foreign Assistance Act to assist U.S. partners in Latin America in countering PRC-linked criminal networks involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, and other illicit activities.
• Treating the fentanyl crisis as a national security issue. By directly linking Chinese organized crime to the Chinese Communist Party’s strategic use of illicit networks for geopolitical influence, the bill treats fentanyl trafficking and money laundering as the national security threats they are, not merely law enforcement matters.

5. BANNED in Latin America Act (S. 4665)

FDD Action Expert Analysis

“Now more than ever, what is needed is a dedicated strategy to combat Iran and Hezbollah’s ability to conduct influence operations in the Western Hemisphere. FDD Action strongly supports the BANNED in Latin America Act, which signals congressional intent to stop the unchallenged operation of this network leveraged by these malign actors to carry out terror attacks, spread hateful ideology, and establish a foothold in America’s backyard.”

— Tyler Stapleton, Senior Director of Government Relations at FDD Action

The BANNED in Latin America Act responds to Iranian and Hezbollah influence operations across Latin America, which manifest through:

• Al Mustafa University: With a budget of nearly $100 million a year, directly provided by the Office of the Supreme Leader, Al Mustafa has been able to train tens of thousands of emissaries, including many from Latin America, who are now deployed overseas to spread the word of Iran’s sponsored Axis of Resistance and recruit locals to the cause of the regime’s revolution. Establishing mosques and cultural centers is central to this elaborate, global effort to spread Iran’s revolutionary brand. These institutions pose as places of worship and cultural inquiry. In fact, they are propaganda tools in Iran’s extremist war against the West.
• Terrorism in the Western Hemisphere: In November 2023, Brazilian authorities foiled a Hezbollah plot to target Jewish institutions in Brasilia, the country’s capital. The point man in the plot was a Hezbollah member with both Syrian and Brazilian citizenship who sought to recruit Brazilian nationals with a criminal background. He was also instrumental in the establishment of an Iranian cultural center in Brasilia.
• Iran’s HispanTV: HispanTV has routinely normalized terrorism under the rubric of resistance, repeatedly presenting it as the only path open to defend Palestinian rights. Since October 7, Iran has activated HispanTV’s news coverage and commentary to engage in a hateful campaign of incitement and disinformation, whose primary purpose is to influence Spanish-language audiences across Latin America.
• Iran’s ‘missionary’ work: The regime’s missionary work aims to broaden Tehran’s sphere of support within local societies by gaining new converts and indoctrinating them to its revolutionary brand of Shi’a radicalism. Iranian missionaries have purposely sought links with political movements and non-governmental organizations that share an affinity with Iran’s revolutionary ideology, often leveraging existing anti-American sentiment. The network is led by Iranian cleric Mohsen Rabbani, one of the suspects in the bombing of the AMIA Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires in 1994.