ActBlue, the primary fundraising platform for Democrats, has been forced to admit it is strengthening its donor verification standards, an action coming mere days after House GOP investigators publicly accused it of potentially funneling illicit foreign donations into U.S. political campaigns.

Attorneys for ActBlue sent a letter to the House of Representatives on Monday, unveiling a new "passport verification program." This move, the letter claims, is part of an "ongoing investment in the security of contributions processed from donors located abroad." This sudden policy shift follows years of Republican warnings about ActBlue's lax verification protocols.

For years, House Republicans have raised serious questions about ActBlue's insufficient standards for preventing illegitimate campaign donations. The platform, a colossal engine for Democratic fundraising, has been under intense scrutiny from conservative lawmakers who allege it has been a conduit for foreign cash into American elections.

Adding to the suspicion, ten top figures within ActBlue, including executives and founders, have invoked their Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering questions in both public and private hearings before GOP-led committees. This widespread refusal to cooperate has only fueled Republican demands for transparency and accountability.

A recent report, initially broken by Fox News Digital, further exposed ActBlue's vulnerabilities, appearing to show employees actively approving donations despite internal concerns about their origin. At the core of the GOP's concerns was ActBlue's previous "passport number verification" system, which allegedly required only the correct number of characters for a U.S. passport number, rather than a valid, authentic code for a donation to be accepted. This rendered the "verification" an essentially meaningless facade.

However, the Monday letter from ActBlue now states its new program "adds passport-based identity verification as a further enhancement to ActBlue’s multi-layered approach to fraud and foreign-contribution prevention."

"In doing so, it also enables U.S. citizens located abroad—who have been unable to contribute on the ActBlue platform since 2025—to resume participating in the political process by supporting the candidates and causes of their choice," the letter declared. "The new program uses the best available technology to allow eligible donors located abroad to verify their identity using a valid U.S. passport. It reflects substantial engineering investments by ActBlue to ensure that, as it resumes processing contributions from foreign addresses, its compliance systems can withstand scrutiny."

Committee on House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., did not mince words, calling ActBlue's new policy an outright confession.

"This decision to implement a NEW passport verification program only confirms what we've been saying: ActBlue failed to verify the citizenship of individuals who made donations from abroad. That's unacceptable," Steil told Fox News Digital. "This new policy should have been in place on day one. Right now, far too many questions remain unanswered, including what percentage of the billions of dollars that have flowed through ActBlue came from illegal foreign sources. Chairman Jordan, Chairman Comer, and I will continue to seek answers for the American people."

The ongoing probe is a joint effort led by Chairman Steil's panel, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.

A spokesperson for Chairman Jordan echoed Steil's sentiment, telling Fox News Digital, "This action confirms that the platform's fraud prevention measures were not as robust as [ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones] told Congress. We will continue to demand answers."

The GOP's earlier bombshell report specifically highlighted a letter from Wallace-Jones to Steil, in which she claimed that donations made on the platform from individuals with addresses outside the U.S. required a passport number for verification. However, Republicans countered that this "verification" merely ensured a specific character count, not a valid U.S. passport number, rendering it effectively useless against foreign influence.

ActBlue previously dismissed the serious allegations, telling Fox News Digital at the time, "There’s nothing to see here. After we released findings of a third-party forensic analysis that completely undermined a central claim that they have made against ActBlue, Republicans are refusing to move on." The platform painted the congressional investigation as a "political stunt" designed to "silence organizations they believe threaten their agenda."

In a blog post announcing the policy update, ActBlue claimed that in 2025, "amid unprecedented attacks from President Trump and his allies, our organization took the proactive step of temporarily suspending all contributions from outside the United States." The statement went on to say ActBlue has "further enhanced its verification process to allow eligible Americans with a U.S. Passport who are located abroad to participate through the platform while maintaining the robust security and compliance standards that donors, campaign, and the public expect." They also maintained ActBlue "accurately described" its vetting process to Congress.

This latest development underscores the critical importance of election integrity and holds those accountable who undermine the public's trust in fair and transparent elections. The American people deserve to know that their political process is free from foreign influence, and the relentless pursuit of truth by House Republicans is a vital step in safeguarding the nation's democratic foundations.