S.Amdt. 2449

SA 2449. Mr. RUBIO submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 4638, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2025 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle B of title VIII, add the following:

SEC. 829. PROHIBITION ON CONTRACTING WITH COMPANIES WITH
LOBBYING TIES TO CHINESE MILITARY COMPANIES AND
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSERS.

(a) In General.--Chapter 363 of title 10, United States
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new
section:

``Sec. 4663. Prohibition on contracting with companies with
lobbying ties to Chinese military companies and human
rights abusers

``(a) Prohibition.--The Secretary of Defense may not enter
into a contract for the procurement of goods or services
greater than $5,000,000, including all options, with any
person unless that person certifies to the Secretary of
Defense that--
``(1) the person, including its subsidiaries or parent
company, if applicable, does not employ or retain, and will
not employ or retain for the duration of the contract, any
lobbyist or lobbying firm that is registered to conduct
lobbying activities on behalf of a client that is listed on--
``(A) the Department of Defense's Chinese Military Company
List;
``(B) the Department of the Treasury's Non-SDN Chinese
Military Industrial Complex Companies List;
``(C) the Department of Commerce's Denied Persons List,
Entity List, or Military End User List, if the client in
question is--
``(i) an agency or instrumentality of the People's Republic
of China;
``(ii) an entity headquartered in the People's Republic of
China; or
``(iii) directly or indirectly owned or controlled by an
agency, instrumentality, or entity described in clause (i) or
(ii); or
``(D) the Department of Homeland Security's Uyghur Forced
Labor Prevention Act Entity List; and
``(2) the person will adopt reasonable procedures to detect
and report if any lobbyist or lobbying firm it has employed
or retained registers to conduct lobbying activities on
behalf of a client described in paragraph (1) during the
performance of a contract.
``(b) Recurring Certifications.--A person awarded a
contract for the procurement of goods or services described
in subsection (a) shall--
``(1) recertify compliance with such subsection to the
Secretary of Defense every 180 days until the date that the
contract is fulfilled; and
``(2) require any subcontractor receiving a subcontract in
an amount greater than the simplified acquisition threshold
to certify that it does not employ or retain, and will not
employ or retain for the duration of the subcontract, any
lobbyist or lobbying firm that is registered to conduct
lobbying activities on behalf of a client described in
subsection (a)(1).
``(c) Violations.--Each contract described under subsection
(a) shall--
``(1) include a mechanism for the contractor or third
parties to report violations of a requirement under
subsection (a);
``(2) provide that the Department of Defense may audit or
otherwise inspect the records of the contractor to determine
if the contractor has violated a requirement under subsection
(a); and
``(3) provide that, if the head of an agency determines
that a contractor has violated a requirement under subsection
(a), the Department of Defense may--
``(A) withhold or claw back funds from the contractor until
such time as the contractor ceases to employ or retain the
lobbyist; and
``(B) rescind the contract if the contractor fails to come
into compliance with a requirement under subsection (a) in a
timely manner.
``(d) Waiver.--(1) The Secretary of Defense may waive the
prohibition under subsection (a) on a case-by-case basis if
the Secretary--
``(A) determines that--
``(i) exercising such waiver is necessary to the national
security interests of the United States;
``(ii) the person seeking to enter into a contract for the
procurement of goods or services has provided a compelling
justification as to why compliance with subsection (a) would
impose undue delays or financial costs; and
``(iii) there are insufficient alternatives in place to
fulfil the needs of the contract in a timely manner; and
``(B) submits to the Committee on Armed Services of the
Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of
Representatives a report on the determination and the reasons
for the determination.
``(2) The report required under paragraph (1)(B) shall be
submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified
annex.
``(e) Lobbyist, Lobbying Firm, and Lobbying Activities
Defined.--In this section,

[[Page S4767]]

the terms `lobbyist', `lobbying firm', and `lobbying
activities' have the meanings given the terms in section 3 of
the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1602).''.
(b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the
beginning of chapter 363 of title 10, United States Code, is
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 4662
the following new item:

``4663. Prohibition on contracting with companies with lobbying ties to
Chinese military companies and human rights abusers.''.
(c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall take effect 30 days after the date of the enactment of
this Act.
______