H.R.10166 - The Foreign Propaganda Disclosure Act.

H.R. 10166 was introduced on August 27, 2026 by Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL-13). It is currently pending before the House Committee on Judiciary and has 15 co-sponsors.

Related legislation:

Bill Summary: H.R. 10166, the Foreign Propaganda Disclosure Act, would amend section 1 of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. § 611). The Bill inserts "a social media influencer or" after "includes" in the definition of "publicity agent" at subsection (h). It adds two new definitions: "social media influencer," defined as "any person who has a monetized social media account on any social media platform," and "social media platform," which takes the meaning given that term in section 124 of the Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022 (42 U.S.C. 1862w). 

Context: The Israeli government has spent more than $1 billion on public diplomacy since October 2023, including over $100 million disclosed under FARA, and is on track to become the single largest FARA spender in 2026. Seventeen new firms registered to represent Israeli interests in 2024 and 2025. Among them is Bridges Partners LLC, a Washington firm retained by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and paid through Havas Media Group Germany, which budgeted $900,000 between June and November 2025 for an influencer campaign known as the Esther Project. FARA filings show the campaign recruited 14 to 18 influencers to produce 75 to 90 posts through mid-September 2025; reporting based on those filings estimates payments of roughly $7,000 per post once production and administrative costs are subtracted. Not one participating influencer has registered or attached the conspicuous statement FARA requires, and Bridges Partners' own filing identifies a single foreign agent. In November 2025, Public Citizen and the Quincy Institute wrote to the Department of Justice (DOJ) arguing that the influencers are engaged in political activities within the United States on behalf of a foreign government and must register.  That matter is still pending before the DOJ.

American Values Analysis: FARA was enacted in 1938 against Nazi propaganda operations in the United States on a premise that has held for nearly ninety years: Americans are entitled to know who is paying for the political persuasion directed at them, and need to be able to weigh that information based on the fact of who is paying for it.  H.R. 10166 applies that principle to the new medium through which Americans now receive political information, and it does so without regard to which government is paying. 

American Interest Analysis: Undisclosed foreign influence operations distort the information environment in which Americans form views on questions of war, arms transfers, and the use of U.S. resources abroad. When a government spending more than any other foreign actor in Washington purchases favorable content without attribution, the resulting shift in public opinion registers in Congress as authentic rather than purchased. That is a direct injury to American self-government, and it is one the United States has an interest in preventing regardless of the purchasing government's relationship to Washington. 

A New Policy’s Recommendation: SUPPORT 

A New Policy supports H.R. 10166. Making the application of FARA to paid influencers explicitly strips away the ambiguity that registrants have used to justify silence. Americans learn who is paying for the content they are shown and judge it themselves. 

For more information please contact Josh Paul, info@anewpolicy.org, (202) 770-0055