WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) along with Congressmen August Pfluger (TX-11) and Don Davis (NC-01) today introduced the Restricting Ex-Vetted Officials from Knowledge Exploitation (REVOKE) Act, which would require the U.S. Secretary of Defense to suspend and revoke security clearances for any retired or separated member of the Armed Forces or civilian employee of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) who lobbies on behalf of entities associated with the People’s Republic of China (PRC):

“China seizes any and every opportunity to undermine American interests and cannot be trusted,” said Sen. Cornyn.“Any former service member or DOD employee who exploits their access to American intelligence on our defense strategy and warfighting capabilities to behoove China and their own pocketbooks should unquestionably have their security clearance revoked and be held to account for such treachery.” 

“Blacklisted Chinese military companies routinely hire former American officials turned lobbyists to curry favor for them in Washington,” said Sen. Whitehouse. “Congress should make it clear that lobbyists working for an adversary’s military should no longer have access to America’s national security secrets.”

“It is the bare minimum expectation that U.S. government employees work for the betterment of America, both during their service and long after it. Yet far too often, we see individuals leave government only to lobby on behalf of foreign adversaries who wish to see America fail,” said Rep. Pfluger. “This is a dangerous flaw in the incentive structure for those serving at the highest levels of government, and we must fix it to prevent foreign entities from gaining influence from within. By stripping security clearances from any former DOW personnel who lobby for China, this commonsense, bipartisan, bicameral bill moves us one step closer to ensuring that those in Washington are here to serve America, not undermine it.”

“We must stop U.S. federal employees from engaging in lobbying on behalf of adversarial foreign actors,” said Rep. Davis. “It is crucial to protect our political system from harmful foreign influence that could jeopardize national security, economic stability, and our democracy.”

Background:

Sen. Cornyn’s REVOKE Act would require the U.S. Secretary of Defense to suspend and revoke security clearances for any retired or separated member of the Armed Forces or civilian employee of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) who lobbies on behalf of an entity that is listed on the report required per Section 1260H of FY21 NDAA as a Chinese military company, or included in the Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies list published by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

This legislation was included in the House’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026.