I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2675
To amend chapter 111 of title 28, United States Code, to increase trans-
parency and oversight of third-party funding by foreign persons, to
prohibit third-party funding by foreign states and sovereign wealth funds,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL7, 2025
Mr. C
LINEintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend chapter 111 of title 28, United States Code,
to increase transparency and oversight of third-party
funding by foreign persons, to prohibit third-party fund-
ing by foreign states and sovereign wealth funds, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Our Courts 4
from Foreign Manipulation Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. TRANSPARENCY AND LIMITATIONS ON FOREIGN 1
THIRD-PARTY LITIGATION FUNDING. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 111 of title 28, United 3
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-4
lowing: 5
‘‘§ 1660. Transparency and limitations on foreign 6
third-party litigation funding 7
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 8
‘‘(1) the term ‘foreign person’— 9
‘‘(A) means any person or entity that is 10
not a United States person, as defined in sec-11
tion 101 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveil-12
lance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1801); and 13
‘‘(B) does not include a foreign state or a 14
sovereign wealth fund; 15
‘‘(2) the term ‘foreign state’ has the meaning 16
given that term in section 1603; and 17
‘‘(3) the term ‘sovereign wealth fund’ means an 18
investment fund owned or controlled by a foreign 19
state, an agency or instrumentality of a foreign state 20
(as defined in section 1603), or an agent of a for-21
eign principal (as defined in section 1 of the Foreign 22
Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended (22 23
U.S.C. 611)). 24
‘‘(b) D
ISCLOSURE OF THIRD-PARTYLITIGATION 25
F
UNDING AND FOREIGNSOURCECERTIFICATION BY 26
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FOREIGNPERSONS, FOREIGNSTATES, ANDSOVEREIGN 1
W
EALTHFUNDS.— 2
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In any civil action, each 3
party or the counsel of record for the party shall— 4
‘‘(A) disclose in writing to the court, to all 5
other named parties to the civil action, to the 6
Attorney General, and to the Principal Deputy 7
Assistant Attorney General for National Secu-8
rity— 9
‘‘(i) the name, the address, and, if ap-10
plicable, the citizenship or the country of 11
incorporation or registration of any foreign 12
person, foreign state, or sovereign wealth 13
fund, other than the named parties or 14
counsel of record, that has a right to re-15
ceive any payment that is contingent in 16
any respect on the outcome of the civil ac-17
tion by settlement, judgment, or otherwise; 18
‘‘(ii) the name, the address, and, if 19
applicable, the citizenship or the country of 20
incorporation or registration of any foreign 21
person, foreign state, or sovereign wealth 22
fund, other than the named parties or 23
counsel of record, that has a right to re-24
ceive any payment that is contingent in 25
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any respect on the outcome of any matter 1
within a portfolio that includes the civil ac-2
tion and involves the same counsel of 3
record or affiliated counsel; and 4
‘‘(iii) if the party or the counsel of 5
record for the party submits a certification 6
described in subparagraph (C)(i), the 7
name, the address, and, if applicable, the 8
citizenship or the country of incorporation 9
or registration of the foreign person, for-10
eign state, or sovereign wealth fund that is 11
the source of the money; 12
‘‘(B) produce to the court, to all other 13
named parties to the civil action, to the Attor-14
ney General, and to the Principal Deputy As-15
sistant Attorney General for National Security, 16
except as otherwise stipulated or ordered by the 17
court, a copy of any agreement creating a con-18
tingent right described in subparagraph (A); 19
and 20
‘‘(C) for a civil action involving an agree-21
ment creating a right to receive any payment by 22
anyone, other than the named parties or coun-23
sel of record, that is contingent in any respect 24
on the outcome of the civil action by settlement, 25
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judgment, or otherwise, or on the outcome of 1
any matter within a portfolio that includes the 2
civil action and involves the same counsel or af-3
filiated counsel, submit to the court a certifi-4
cation that— 5
‘‘(i) the money that has been or will 6
be used to satisfy any term of the agree-7
ment has been or will be directly or indi-8
rectly sourced, in whole or in part, from a 9
foreign person, foreign state, or sovereign 10
wealth fund, including the monetary 11
amounts that have been or will be used to 12
satisfy the agreement; or 13
‘‘(ii) that the disclosure and certifi-14
cation criteria set forth in subparagraph 15
(A)(iii) and clause (i) of this subparagraph 16
do not apply to the civil action. 17
‘‘(2) T
IMING.— 18
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The disclosure and 19
certification required by paragraph (1) shall be 20
made not later than the later of— 21
‘‘(i) 30 days after execution of any 22
agreement described in paragraph (1); or 23
‘‘(ii) the date on which the civil action 24
is filed. 25
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‘‘(B) PARTIES SERVED OR JOINED 1
LATER.—A party that enters into an agreement 2
described in paragraph (1) that is first served 3
or joined after the date on which the civil action 4
is filed shall make the disclosure and certifi-5
cation required by paragraph (1) not later than 6
30 days after being served or joined, unless a 7
different time is set by stipulation or court 8
order. 9
‘‘(3) F
OREIGN SOURCE DISCLOSURE AND CER -10
TIFICATION FORMAT.— 11
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—A disclosure required 12
under paragraph (1)(A) and a certification re-13
quired under paragraph (1)(C) shall— 14
‘‘(i) be made in the form of a declara-15
tion under penalty of perjury pursuant to 16
section 1746 and shall be made to the best 17
knowledge, information, and belief of the 18
declarant formed after reasonable inquiry; 19
and 20
‘‘(ii) be provided to all other named 21
parties to the civil action, to the Attorney 22
General, and to the Principal Deputy As-23
sistant Attorney General for National Se-24
curity by the party or counsel of record for 25
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the party making the disclosure and cer-1
tification, except as otherwise stipulated or 2
ordered by the court. 3
‘‘(B) S
UPPLEMENTATION AND CORREC -4
TION.—Not later than 30 days after the date 5
on which a party or counsel of record for the 6
party knew or should have known that the dis-7
closure required under paragraph (1)(A) or a 8
certification required under paragraph (1)(C) is 9
incomplete or inaccurate in any material re-10
spect, the party or counsel of record shall sup-11
plement or correct the disclosure or certifi-12
cation. 13
‘‘(c) P
ROHIBITION ONTHIRD-PARTYFUNDINGLITI-14
GATION BYFOREIGNSTATES ANDSOVEREIGNWEALTH 15
F
UNDS.— 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any 17
party to or counsel of record for a civil action to 18
enter into an agreement creating a right for anyone, 19
other than the named parties or counsel of record, 20
to receive any payment that is contingent in any re-21
spect on the outcome of a civil action or any matter 22
within a portfolio that includes the civil action and 23
involves the same counsel of record or affiliated 24
counsel, the terms of which are to be satisfied by 25
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money that has been or will be directly or indirectly 1
sourced, in whole or in part, from a foreign state or 2
a sovereign wealth fund. 3
‘‘(2) E
NFORCEMENT.—Any agreement entered 4
in violation of paragraph (1) shall be null and void. 5
‘‘(d) F
AILURETODISCLOSE, TOSUPPLEMENT; 6
S
ANCTIONS.—A disclosure, production, or certification 7
under subsection (b) is deemed to be information required 8
by rule 26(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and 9
subject to the sanctions provisions of rule 37 of the Fed-10
eral Rules of Civil Procedure.’’. 11
(b) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.— 12
The table of sections chapter 111 of title 28, United 13
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-14
lowing: 15
‘‘1660. Transparency and limitations on foreign third-party litigation funding.’’.
SEC. 3. REPORT TO CONGRESS.
16
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 17
of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Attorney General 18
shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Sen-19
ate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 20
Representatives a report on the activities involving foreign 21
third-party litigation funding in Federal courts, including, 22
if applicable— 23
(1) the identities of foreign third-party litiga-24
tion funders in Federal courts, including names, ad-25
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dresses, and citizenship or country of incorporation 1
or registration; 2
(2) the identities of foreign persons, foreign 3
states, or sovereign wealth funds (as such terms are 4
defined in section 1660 of title 28, United States 5
Code, as added by section 2 of this Act) that have 6
been the sources of money for third-party litigation 7
funding in Federal courts; 8
(3) the judicial districts in which foreign third- 9
party litigation funding has occurred; 10
(4) an estimate of the total amount of foreign- 11
sourced money used for third-party litigation fund-12
ing in Federal courts, including an estimate of the 13
amount of such money sourced from each country; 14
and 15
(5) a summary of the subject matters of the 16
civil actions in Federal courts for which foreign 17
sourced money has been used for third-party litiga-18
tion funding. 19
SEC. 4. APPLICABILITY. 20
The amendments made by this Act shall apply to any 21
civil action pending on or commenced on or after the date 22
of enactment of this Act. 23
Æ
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