Georgia lawmakers have nearly passed legislation that could lead to hefty fines against businesses, colleges and nonprofits when they accept contributions or donations funneled from countries deemed to be foreign adversaries.

The debate fell along party lines before Senate Bill 177 passed the House 98-65 Monday with only two Democrats in favor.

It returns to the Senate for agreement on a few changes.

“All this does is require transparency,” said Joseph Gullett, R-Dallas, who presented the bill on the House floor.

The measure requires recipients of support by agents from hostile nations to register with the state ethics commission.

Among the House amendments was language identifying those hostile nations. The Senate version targeted North Korea, Iran, China and Russia.

The House changed that to whichever countries were designated by the U.S. commerce secretary.

Rep. James Burchett, R-Waycross, the majority whip, said the current countries on that list are those four, plus Cuba and “and the Venezuelan politician Nicolas Maduro.”

Violations could lead to a $10,000 fine, or as much as $200,000 for “willful” or repeat violations.

The only Republican to raise concerns was Rep. Mike Cameron, R-Rossville, who went on to vote for the bill.

He said a company in his district asked questions because it is owned by a former subsidiary of General Electric that was sold to a Chinese conglomerate. He said another major company asked about constitutional issues.

Democrats said they agreed that the countries on Burchett’s list were a risk. But they also offered critiques that have become common with similar legislation in other states.

They said SB 177 could violate constitutional protections for speech, it could conflict with federal law containing similar requirements, and it would add bureaucracy, perhaps discouraging companies from locating in Georgia.

“It creates heavy compliance costs,” said Rep. Long Tran, D-Dunwoody.

Rep. Jasmine Clark, D-Lilburn, noted that House members were issued laptops by the Chinese company Lenovo, and she wondered if Amazon shoppers could be implicated.

Others said exemptions in the registration requirement seemed political.

SB 177 exempts TikTok per a September executive order by President Donald Trump. It also exempts trade associations and advocacy organizations founded before Jan. 2, 1950, leading one Democrat to note that the National Rifle Association, founded in the 19th century, would not have to comply.

Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, D-Smyrna, said the legislation was a distraction.

“If you want to talk about foreign influence, how about the fact that Israel, along with the military industrial complex, just dragged us into an unnecessary war that no one wants and no one voted for,” he said.

Several states have adopted legislation like SB 177 and at least a half dozen more are considering it this year, according to the International Center for Not-For-Profit-Law headquartered in Washington, D.C.

The group noted that such legislation had been rejected or allowed to die in more than a dozen states.

Some of the concerns raised in the past include lack of foreign policy expertise at the state level, and a patchwork of schemes among the states that could undermine U.S. foreign policy and complicate compliance for organizations.

“It is still unclear how states will enforce these types of laws,” the organization said in an analysis last summer, “but for now they create a regulatory minefield for nonprofits and others.”

SB 177 now returns to the Senate for agreement to the House changes. Should the Senate agree, the bill would head to the desk of Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature. He vetoed a similar Senate bill in 2024 involving foreign adversary political contributions, noting they were already prohibited under federal law.