Lobbyists must say if they claim foreign-agent exemptions.
S. 865 — Lobbying Disclosure Improvement Act · Filed by Gary Peters (D-MI) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Mar 5, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
The bill adds one new question to lobbyist forms. Lobbyists must say whether they claim an exemption from registering as foreign agents. This information goes on public forms. The bill does not change exemption rules themselves.
Who it affects
Lobbyists who are already registered must answer the new question. The public and Congress can see the answers.
One thing to notice
The bill does not explain what the exemption means. Lobbyists must figure this out on their own.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Mar 5, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 5, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs”
- Jul 30, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably”
- Dec 16, 2025 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S8794; text: CR S8794)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- lobbyists — People paid to talk to lawmakers about laws and rules.
- foreign agents — People who work for a foreign government or country and must register.
- exemption — Permission to skip a rule that normally applies to everyone.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (587 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-18.
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