House committee passes Foreign Funding Transparency Act to expose foreign donations to nonprofits

Lawmakers are seeking to expose foreign nationals who may be funneling money and donations through tax-exempt organizations to political committees as the House Ways and Means Committee passed a bill that would revise reporting requirements for tax-exempt groups.

The Foreign Funding Transparency Act, which passed 23-18 in the committee last Wednesday, would require tax-exempt organizations to collect and report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) donations received from foreign nationals.

"For far too long, foreign influence and interference have plagued our tax-exempt sector," committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., said in a statement. "Foreign donations have no place in American politics, particularly when the sole goal is to manipulate our public discourse, promote propaganda and support violence."

Smith noted that many of the protests and demonstrations that take place across the U.S. appear to be grassroots but are actually well-organized and well-funded, often by groups within what he described as "shadowy networks."

"As the Ways and Means Committee conducted its investigation into the nation’s tax-exempt sector, it became clear that shadowy networks of well-funded organizations have been enjoying lucrative tax benefits for decades, while simultaneously accepting donations and direction from foreign nationals," Smith added. "From the outside, it looks like a movement, but once you see how the money flows, it becomes clear that this is a machine," he added. 

The bill’s passage came just a week after Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for global cooperation at a summit in Washington to combat far-left political terrorism.

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"For far too long, however, our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot – a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left," Rubio said. "Even today, the very idea that far-left terrorism could be a serious threat is treated as a right-wing fever dream, or worse, as a dangerous fascist conspiracy."

While Rubio didn’t mention any organizations or individuals by name, the House Ways and Means Committee noted Marxist Neville Roy Singham in a statement about the bill’s passage.

Singham, a 72-year-old American now based in Shanghai and who sold his tech company for $785 million in 2017, is known to fund pro-Chinese Communist Party groups operating in the U.S. He has funneled $278 million into the broad network of nonprofits since 2017, according to a Fox News Digital investigation.

The funneling of funds through nonprofit networks has been a key point of concern for lawmakers and the Trump administration. Major contributors, including Singham, often have dispersed funds through shell 501(c)(3) nonprofits, which subsequently contributed to various tax-exempt organizations.

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During his address to more than 60 countries earlier this month, Rubio noted that networks have been coordinating across multiple countries, providing training instructions and using encrypted communication to facilitate unrest. He said international cooperation was critical to disrupting the financing of dangerous organizations, some of which were working with hostile foreign states.

Singham did not respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.