New Rules for Foreign Donors
ActBlue attorneys sent a letter to the House on Monday. They announced a new passport verification program for donors living abroad. This update comes after Republicans found serious holes in the old screening rules. The platform now requires actual passport images instead of just typing in a number. ActBlue says this change helps secure donations from people outside the United States. The move follows a hearing where the CEO refused to answer questions about foreign money.
ActBlue suspended contributions from outside the U.S. in 2025 due to intense scrutiny. Their new system lets U.S. citizens abroad resume giving to candidates they support. The attorneys claim this is part of their ongoing investment in security. They state the new protocol adds passport-based identity verification to their fraud prevention approach. This allows eligible donors to prove who they are with a valid U.S. passport.
Republicans Say It Confirms Failure
House Republicans argue this sudden change proves their long-standing points. Rep. Bryan Steil told Fox News Digital that the decision confirms what they have been saying. He observed that ActBlue did not confirm the citizenship status of donors sending funds from overseas. Steil called that failure unacceptable. He further stated that this fresh policy ought to have been implemented from the very first day. He pointed out that far too many questions remain unanswered about illegal foreign sources.
The old system only checked if an entry had the right number of characters. It did not check if the passport number was actually valid. Republicans said in a recent committee report that this was a major weakness. The new program uses better technology to verify identity properly. Such a transition occurs following a June hearing on fraud conducted by the House Administration Committee.
Leadership Dodged Questions
During the June meeting, ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones invoked her Fifth Amendment rights. She did this repeatedly while facing questions from Rep. Jim Jordan. She refused to answer about alleged foreign donations and fraud controls. Her legal team had also left the company around that time. Rep. Jim Jordan said ten out of ten executives took the Fifth Amendment during the hearing. He noted that they only came up with this new plan after the investigation started.
Jordan informed the Washington Examiner that their inquiry was the sole reason this situation came to pass. He said they took the Fifth, and then out of the blue, the new rules appeared. The letter from ActBlue attorneys claims the update helps with security of contributions. They say it enables U.S. citizens located abroad to participate in the political process again. This follows the exodus of the legal team and the CEO’s silence.
The new checks require images rather than simple number entries. This addresses the flaws Republicans identified in the previous screening procedures. The letter states the program adds a further enhancement to their multi-layered approach. It aims to prevent foreign contributions that are not allowed by law. The timing suggests the pressure from Congress worked to force a change.
