U.S. elections are “under attack” from foreign influence by both individuals and hostile state actors, experts told a House panel on Wednesday.
Although foreign individuals and entities already are prohibited from contributing to American elections, foreign actors find a way, House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., says.
“Foreign adversaries still have loopholes they can exploit to influence American elections,” Steil said.
Steil’s committee held the hearing Wednesday on foreign influence in U.S. elections.
Earlier this year, the committee advanced legislation to ban direct or indirect foreign contributions to state ballot initiatives, which has been one of the biggest loopholes.
“We have legislation to ban this at the federal level, and we continue to get caught up in the gobbledygook,” Steil later said. “But when you look at the impact that these [foreign] funds are having directly on U.S. elections, I think most Americans would be shocked.”
Currently, it is legal for foreign nationals to funnel money indirectly to elections through 501(c) nonprofit organizations, the Wisconsin Republican said. Such nonprofits then may channel that foreign money to help a candidate, influence a policy, or support or oppose a ballot initiative.
The designation 501(c) is the Internal Revenue Service’s category for a nonprofit, which also may include 501(c)(3) educational organizations or 501(c)(4) advocacy organizations.
“Does anyone have an argument that we should not ban foreign funds from coming into ballot initiatives?” Steil asked the four witnesses who appeared before his committee. “Any of our witnesses?”
After a pause, he said: “Let the record reflect that all of them agree that we should work to ban this.”
Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of the watchdog group Americans for Public Trust, talked specifically about Switzerland’s Hansjörg Wyss, who runs two nonprofits—The Wyss Foundation, a 501(c)(3), and Berger Action Fund, a 501(c)(4).
“Hansjörg Wyss, who is a Swiss billionaire and not a U.S. citizen, has contributed around a quarter of a billion dollars to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund then turns around and spends it on a whole host of activities,” Sutherland said during questioning.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund is a progressive advocacy nonprofit managed by Arabella Advisors.
Sutherland said Americans for Public Trust detailed accounting of publicly available records to show how the Wyss donations to the Sixteen Thirty Fund are distributed.
“His foreign money has been traced to all these ballot initiatives—through the Sixteen Thirty Fund, we’ve seen over $130 million in 25 states over the last several election cycles,” Sutherland said.
A spokesperson for The Wyss Foundation and Berger Action Fund pushed back on this in a statement to The Daily Signal.
“Mr. Wyss resides in Wyoming [and] has lived in this country for nearly a half-century,” the spokesperson said. “And both the Wyss Foundation and Berger Action Fund comply with laws and rules governing their activities and prohibit their grants from being used to support or oppose political candidates or parties or otherwise engage in electoral activities.”
Sixteen Thirty Fund mocked the House committee’s hearing.
“Sixteen Thirty Fund is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that uses a fiscal sponsorship model to support organizations advancing progressive causes like economic equity, reproductive rights, and voting access,” the organization said in an emailed statement to The Daily Signal. “Today’s hearing is motivated by ideological disagreement, not genuine concerns about foreign interference in U.S. elections. We will follow all rules and regulations as we continue to fight for progressive causes.”
Information warfare by hostile state actors also poses a significant threat to U.S. elections, warned Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
“China, Russia, and Iran are waging an information war against the United States that includes a focus on the U.S. electoral process, yet many Americans do not realize we are under attack.”
Bowman stressed that Republicans and Democrats alike faced an onslaught of foreign money in the 2024 presidential race.
“During this election cycle, Russia sought to undermine Vice President [Kamala] Harris’ campaign and Iran attacked President Trump’s campaign,” Bowman said. “China, for its part, attacked both candidates in addition to some congressional candidates who are critical of China.”
“In short,” he said, “both parties were attacked and all three adversaries sought to undermine the faith in Americans of our electoral process.”
Bowman called for the United States to launch its own information warfare against its adversaries.
“So, what’s to be done? In addition to strengthening our electoral defenses at home, the United States should go on the information warfare offensive against China, Russia, and Iran to begin to shift their cost-benefit analysis as they attack our democracy,” he said.
“If Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran don’t like having to fend off offensive information warfare operations in their respective countries, perhaps they should stop attacking us,” Bowman added later.
