Follow us on social

2017-09-06t175532z_1995194302_rc1345a148b0_rtrmadp_3_northkorea-missiles-congress-scaled-e1644439849372

One lawmaker's journey from Congress to lobbying for dictators

Former Rep. Ed Royce went from reading Saudi talking points on the House floor to officially doing the Kingdom's bidding.

Analysis | Reporting | Washington Politics

“Iran does want to turn the Houthis into a Yemeni version of Hezbollah, thereby turning Yemen into a second Lebanon, where a militia is constantly holding the government hostage,” argued Representative Ed-Royce (R-Calif.) in an impassioned 2017 speech. Royce was speaking on the House floor in opposition to a bipartisan push in Congress that would have invoked the War Powers Resolution to end U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen.

“The Houthis’ slogan is derived from Iran’s own anti-U.S. slogans,” Royce continued, adding, “Yemen has become another front in Iran’s quest for regional dominance.”

While Royce relayed these and similar arguments for more than 10 minutes, one key fact went unmentioned: he was reading the talking points of Saudi Arabia’s lobbyists, at times verbatim. As first reported by Lee Fang of The Intercept, that morning Royce’s office, and several other congressional offices, received “Facts about the Houthis and Iran” from lobbyists working on the Kingdom’s behalf. Those Saudi lobbyist talking points then formed the basis of a speech from Royce, then Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, at a pivotal juncture in U.S.-Saudi relations. 

Today, Royce is under fire once again for his connections to the Saudi regime, as Democracy for the Arab World, or DAWN, has just released a spotlight, which I provided research for, of the former congressman in its “Lobbyists Hall of Shame,” for his work as a lobbyist on behalf of the Saudi and oppressive Sisi regime in Egypt.

Royce’s path to becoming a lobbyist for dictators was paved while he was still in Congress, and a prime target of Saudi lobbyists. Foreign Agents Registration Act filings analyzed in two previous reports I authored for the Center for International Policy show a pattern of Saudi lobbyists meeting with Royce and his staff during the waning years of his lengthy congressional tenure. This included multiple meetings between Royce and Saudi lobbyists working for Hogan Lovells, the firm that distributed the talking points recited by Royce.

While in Congress, Royce also met, on multiple occasions, with Saudi lobbyists working for the McKeon Group, founded by former Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), who had served as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Within two weeks of one meeting between the McKeon Group and Royce, the congressman’s campaign committee received $2,000 from the “Friends of Buck McKeon,” which was filled with leftover money from McKeon’s own campaigns.

This was indicative of a larger pattern established by Royce while in Congress — receiving contributions from the Saudi lobby. In the two years prior to Royce’s 2018 announcement that he would not seek reelection, his campaign committee received at least $16,000 from FARA- registered firms working on behalf of Saudi Arabia. This included $3,500 from Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Shreck, which would soon be paying Royce much, much more.

The lobbied becomes the lobbyist

When Royce left Congress in early 2019 he did what most former members do — he became a lobbyist. Within two months of leaving government service, Royce was named policy director at BHFS. Though Royce could advise and “consult,” he was technically not a lobbyist, as congressional rules require a one-year “cooling off period” during which former members of Congress are prohibited from lobbying their former colleagues. After Royce’s one-year period was up, however, he wasted no time as he signed up to work first for Liberia, and then for other foreign interests, notably the governments of Egypt and, of course, Saudi Arabia.

The script has been flipped with Royce now playing the role of lobbyist. He has contacted his former colleagues hundreds of times on behalf of these authoritarian regimes and has personally made more than $10,000 in political contributions, principally to to BHFS’s political action committee which has previously, and on multiple occasions, made contributions to members of Congress on the exact same day they or their staff met with BHFS lobbyists representing Saudi Arabia.

DAWN, numerous other organizations, including the Quincy Institute, and more than 5,000 petition signatories are now calling on members of Congress to stop meeting with Royce and other BHFS lobbyists until they cut their ties to the two regimes. Congressional offices refusing to meet with him could also limit Royce’s work for the 27 domestic and international businesses he lobbied on behalf of in 2021, including the defense contractor BAE Systems, COVID-19 vaccine supplier Moderna, China’s tech giant Tencent Holdings, and SalesForce, to name just a few.To be sure, Royce’s post-congressional lobbying career isn’t the exception; it has become the norm. It’s now extraordinarily common for former members of Congress to lobby on behalf of foreign governments. While this phenomenon might be alarming in general, it’s particularly concerning when the lobbying is done on behalf of abusive and aggressive regimes, deepening U.S. involvement in the catastrophic war in Yemen, and entrenching a militarized U.S. Middle East policy that appears increasingly based on multi-billion-dollar arms sales to brutal autocrats. Doing nothing about this revolving door serves only to perpetuate the failed policies of the recent past.


Chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee Ed Royce (R-CA) arrives for a closed classified briefing for members of the House of Representatives on North Korea and Afghanistan on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
Analysis | Reporting | Washington Politics
Havana, Cuba
Top Image Credit: Havana, Cuba, 2019. (CLWphoto/Shutterstock)

Trump lifted sanctions on Syria. Now do Cuba.

North America

President Trump’s new National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) on Cuba, announced on June 30, reaffirms the policy of sanctions and hostility he articulated at the start of his first term in office. In fact, the new NSPM is almost identical to the old one.

The policy’s stated purpose is to “improve human rights, encourage the rule of law, foster free markets and free enterprise, and promote democracy” by restricting financial flows to the Cuban government. It reaffirms Trump’s support for the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, which explicitly requires regime change — that Cuba become a multiparty democracy with a free market economy (among other conditions) before the U.S. embargo will be lifted.

keep readingShow less
SPD Germany Ukraine
Top Photo: Lars Klingbeil (l-r, SPD), Federal Minister of Finance, Vice-Chancellor and SPD Federal Chairman, and Bärbel Bas (SPD), Federal Minister of Labor and Social Affairs and SPD Party Chairwoman, bid farewell to the members of the previous Federal Cabinet Olaf Scholz (SPD), former Federal Chancellor, Nancy Faeser, Saskia Esken, SPD Federal Chairwoman, Karl Lauterbach, Svenja Schulze and Hubertus Heil at the SPD Federal Party Conference. At the party conference, the SPD intends to elect a new executive committee and initiate a program process. Kay Nietfeld/dpa via Reuters Connect

Does Germany’s ruling coalition have a peace problem?

Europe

Surfacing a long-dormant intra-party conflict, the Friedenskreise (peace circles) within the Social Democratic Party of Germany has published a “Manifesto on Securing Peace in Europe” in a stark challenge to the rearmament line taken by the SPD leaders governing in coalition with the conservative CDU-CSU under Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Although the Manifesto clearly does not have broad support in the SPD, the party’s leader, Deputy Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, won only 64% support from the June 28-29 party conference for his performance so far, a much weaker endorsement than anticipated. The views of the party’s peace camp may be part of the explanation.

keep readingShow less
Tucker Carlson Pezeshkian
Top photo credit: The Tucker Carlson show screengrab (TCN)

Tucker Carlson 'platforming' Iranian president is an American tradition

Media

Over the Independence Day holiday, Tucker Carlson announced that he had conducted an interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Dan Crenshaw immediately attacked him. “Nothing screams July 4th like platforming the leader of a terror state that labels us ‘The Great Satan,” the hawkish Republican congressman shared on X. Fellow rightwing hawks and frequent Carlson critics, Senator Ted Cruz and radio host Mark Levin, piled on, admonishing Carlson for daring to do this.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.