Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: The promotion of democratic institutions and free and fair elections is a key foreign policy initiative of the United States, carried out by the Department of State through its embassies, diplomats, programs, and policies around the world. Meeting with and building relationships with a range of political parties in foreign countries are appropriate and important functions consistent with the duties of any United States Ambassador or representative of the United States Government abroad.
It is the longstanding and bipartisan practice of the United States to encourage democratic norms, free and fair elections, rule of law, and free speech abroad, without regard for political party or affiliation. The use of United States embassy or consulate grounds, or the grounds of any other United States diplomatic post, to raise funds for any foreign political party or candidate in a foreign democratic electoral process is inappropriate and distinct from longstanding Department of State efforts to engage with foreign persons, including democracy activists and representatives of political parties, to advance democratic institutions and universal values around the world.
On September 10, 2020, United States Ambassador to the Netherlands Pete Hoekstra held a private event for a Dutch political party and its donors at the United States Embassy in The Hague. The invitations to the event asked guests to join the United States Embassy at the invitation of the Forum for Democracy and Pete Hoekstra, and included contact details for the Head of Fundraising of that foreign political party. Prior donors to the political party were invited and attended the event at the United States Embassy.
The leader of the foreign political party used the event at the United States Embassy to speak about campaign strategy and to display a video made ahead of the 2021 electoral campaign in the Netherlands. Following news reports highlighting the similarities between the September 10, 2020, event held at the United States Embassy and a political fundraiser, Dutch lawmakers raised concerns, with one member of parliament calling on the Dutch Foreign Ministry to investigate whether Ambassador Hoekstra had facilitated a fund raising event for a political party .
Such behavior is part of a pattern in which Department of State officials under President Donald J. Trump have publicly engaged in political activities that break with the longstanding practice of not using one’s official position to lend support to particular parties or candidates, domestic or foreign, with whom one shares a partisan affinity. In 2018, United States Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell said, from his official residence in Berlin, I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe and praised the leader of an Austrian political party, leading multiple German political figures to publicly rebuke the United States Ambassador for political interference.