Senate would crack down on retired military officers seeking foreign work

WASHINGTON (CN) — A pair of senators reached across the aisle Tuesday to roll out new legislation that, if made law, would retool how the government approves certain types of employment for retired service members.

Sponsored by Massachusetts Democrat Liz Warren and Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, the bill would amend a law already on the books that requires retired officers to seek federal approval before accepting a job or other compensation from a foreign government. Service members going to work for a private company contracted by a foreign government would also be covered by the updated law.

According to provisions laid out in the Constitution’s emoluments clause, any foreign employment requires the approval of the head of the former official’s branch of service and the secretary of state. Any service member who fails to secure such approval risks losing retirement pay.

Lawmakers have sounded the alarm, however, about what they say is a lack of scrutiny from federal agencies when reviewing retired officers’ applications for foreign employment, arguing that the U.S. could be allowing vital national security information to fall into the wrong hands.

“The Department of Defense is letting too many retired military officers trade in their military service and experience to foreign governments for cash — creating serious risks to our national security,” Warren said in a statement Tuesday. “This system needs serious transparency and accountability.”

The Massachusetts Democrat, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee’s military personnel panel, pointed to Washington Post reporting that found the State Department grants around 95% of foreign employment applications submitted by former military officers. The Defense Department’s finance and accounting division, by contrast, punished fewer than five people for failing to comply with application guidelines, Warren said.

Grassley argued that the current review process is not sufficient to protect U.S. national security. “It’s no surprise that foreign governments would wish to capitalize on the knowledge and expertise of retired U.S. military members,” the Iowa Republican said, “but it’s critical to our national security that we be judicious in how we allow other countries to leverage their skills and experience.”

If signed, the lawmakers’ proposed legislation would amend current law to create more stringent review guidelines for the State Department and military services, forcing reviewers to explicitly consider whether approving a former officer to work abroad would harm U.S. national security. The measure would bar service members on active duty from seeking employment or being otherwise compensated for work with a foreign government.

The bill would also prohibit retired officers with access to classified information from seeking employment approval for a period of roughly 2 1/2 years after exiting the service — with an exception for U.S. military personnel employed by an allied country such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.

Warren and Grassley’s legislation would further enact provisions aimed at improving the transparency of former military officials working abroad, requiring them to submit annual employment reports to their respective military branch for a five-year period after retirement.

The Department of Defense would have to make such reports publicly accessible within two months and include information about the service member’s name, former office, nature of work and the government employing them, the bill stipulates.

Officials who fail to meet the approval guidelines would face stiffer penalties under the proposed bill, including a fine of at least $100,000 or equal to the value of compensation provided by the service member’s employer government. Violators would also be banned from accepting another foreign job or a position within the U.S. federal government for five years.

Warren and Grassley have for months been calling for increased accountability for military officers working for foreign governments, amid reports that U.S. officials had taken jobs working for repressive governments such as that of Saudi Arabia.

The lawmakers requested in November that the Defense Department provide a list of retired officials who had requested permission to work for foreign countries. When the agency returned with a heavily redacted response, they responded, incensed, in an April letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that such information should be public.

“Congress and the public have a right to know which former DoD personnel have applied for approval to work, or who are currently working, for foreign governments, regardless of their rank,” Warren and Grassley told Austin at the time.

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