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Committee advances bill to bar foreign nationals from financing or directing Georgia ballot campaigns; amendment to cut $100,000 threshold fails
Summary
Representative Martin’s bill would forbid foreign nationals from directing, soliciting or certifying funds for ballot questions and requires committees to certify no foreign-sourced funds above a reporting threshold. The committee rejected an amendment to lower the $100,000 threshold to $15,000 and voted 6–4 to advance the bill.
Representative Martin introduced LC 473851 as a measure to extend prohibitions on foreign nationals — already applied to candidate campaigns under federal law — to state and local ballot questions. Martin said the bill prevents foreign nationals from directing or controlling ballot-question campaigns, soliciting donations for those campaigns, or certifying funds that originated from foreign sources. ‘‘We're trying to do at the state level what we already do at the federal and state level for candidates,’’ Martin said.
The bill uses the federal definition of 'foreign national' and applies it broadly to individuals, foreign governments, foreign political parties and foreign‑organized business entities. Martin said corporate donations generated in the U.S. and…
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