GOP Rep. Kat Cammack pitches mandatory background checks for Congress staffers amid claims foreign agents running wild

WASHINGTON — Rep.Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) is calling for all congressional staff to undergo background checks and dishing on growing foreign influence campaigns that she describes as “the worst kept secret on Capitol Hill.”Cammack has introduced a resolution that would also mandate disclosure of staffers’ nationalities as well as any payments by foreign governments to current or new Capitol hill Hires.The proposal comes after reports emerged last month that the FBI has been investigating a senior GOP aide for allegedly acting as a foreign agent on behalf of Qatar, as well as revelations that spies for Cuba and China have been working in members’ offices.In an interview Tuesday, Cammack told The Post that her fellow Floridians — Republican Mario Diaz-Balart and Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz — are just two of the members who have been subject to foreign influence campaigns.Over the past decade, Diaz-Balart has been targeted by Qatar over his support for a bill designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization — and also discovered Cuban spies working to gain the trust of his staff and even place an informant in his office.“Foreign interference and spying in congressional offices is absolutely a real thing and an ongoing threat,” said Diaz-Balart’s chief of staff, Cesar Gonzalez.“We know it first-hand.

The Cuban regime has attempted multiple times to infiltrate both the office of Congressman Diaz-Balart [and] his brother [Lincoln Diaz-Balart] when he was a member of Congress [from 1993 to 2011].”Wasserman Schultz, meanwhile, caught a member of her staff who was found later to be taking cash from a foreign government “stealing different files,” according to Cammack, who revealed that the Justice Department will soon release a report cataloging “the issues with staff being placed that are actually foreign agents.”Rep.Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) similarly claimed on social media last week that “disturbing declassified file...