What to Know About the Anti-Bribery Law Trump Is Targeting

President Trump has paused enforcement of a federal law he has long bemoaned: the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits companies from bribing foreign officials.

The law, enacted in 1977, makes it illegal for companies that operate in the United States to pay foreign government officials to secure business deals. Mr. Trump’s order on Monday bars federal prosecutors from launching new investigations or enforcement actions for 180 days. The Trump administration also said it would review existing investigations to “restore proper bounds” on the law.

The law, which is enforced by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, has been leveraged heavily over the past two decades to crack down on bribery, including in countries where it is a common business practice.

It is unclear how Mr. Trump’s executive order, which pauses criminal investigations, will apply to the S.E.C., which often brings civil actions in tandem with the Justice Department. Civil and criminal penalties can include millions of dollars in fines and prison time for individuals.

Here’s what to know about the anti-corruption law:

Why is Mr. Trump pausing enforcement of the law?

In ordering the pause, Mr. Trump argued that the law put American firms at a disadvantage, echoing a criticism long made by the business community. The White House wrote in a fact sheet on Monday that U.S. companies were harmed by “overenforcement” because they were “prohibited from engaging in practices common among international competitors, creating an uneven playing field.”

During his first term in the White House, Mr. Trump asked administration officials to help kill the act, an effort that did not gain traction. But Democrats and Republicans alike have criticized its enforcement, said Mike Koehler, a scholar of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act who teaches at Texas A&M and other universities.