Interested in finding out who's acting as a paid representative of a foreign government here in the United States? Want to know how many people are lobbying for the United Kingdom, or Mexico, or Iran? You'll want to consult the new online portal for the Foreign Agents Registration Act, just posted by the Department of Justice:

Initial searches of the database show it does link to substantial documents, such as contracts between lobbyists and foreign governments as well as advocates’ reports listing contacts between them and policymakers.

The records are compiled under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Passed in 1938 to register propaganda by German Nazi agents before World War II, the act now keeps track of lobbying and public relations efforts by foreign governments and politicians.

Users are invited to offer feedback at the website. Once it is complete, Boyd expects DoJ will put out a press release to announce the new feature.

The interface for the library is pretty user-friendly, allowing you to search by country, by lobbyist, by status of the contract (active or terminated) as well as other criteria. For those interested in how foreign governments navigate the American political system, the database is quite useful.