[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1781 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1781

To reauthorize grant programs to improve the prevention, investigation, 
and prosecution of economic, high technology, Internet, and other white 
                             collar crime.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 7, 2017

   Mr. Cornyn (for himself, Mr. Coons, Mr. Hatch, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. 
    Tillis, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Warner, and Mr. Grassley) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To reauthorize grant programs to improve the prevention, investigation, 
and prosecution of economic, high technology, Internet, and other white 
                             collar crime.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``National White Collar Crime Control 
Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. PREVENTION, INVESTIGATION, AND PROSECUTION OF ECONOMIC, HIGH 
              TECHNOLOGY, INTERNET, AND OTHER WHITE COLLAR CRIME.

    Section 401 of the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for 
Intellectual Property Act of 2008 (42 U.S.C. 3713a) is amended by 
striking subsection (b) and inserting the following:
    ``(b) Grants.--
            ``(1) Authorization.--The Director of the Bureau of Justice 
        Assistance is authorized to enter into a cooperative agreement 
        with or make a grant to an eligible entity for the purpose of 
        improving the identification, investigation, and prosecution of 
        white collar crime (including each category of such crimes set 
        forth in subparagraphs (A) through (C) of paragraph (2)) by 
        providing comprehensive, direct, and practical training and 
        technical assistance to law enforcement officers, 
        investigators, auditors and prosecutors in States and units of 
        local government.
            ``(2) White collar crime defined.--For purposes of this 
        subsection, the term `white collar crime' includes--
                    ``(A) high-tech crime, including cyber and 
                electronic crime and related threats;
                    ``(B) economic crime, including financial fraud and 
                mortgage fraud; and
                    ``(C) Internet-based crime against children and 
                child pornography.
            ``(3) Purposes.--The purposes of this subsection include 
        the following:
                    ``(A) To ensure that training is available for 
                State, local, tribal and territorial law enforcement 
                agencies and officers nationwide to support local 
                efforts to identify, prevent, investigate, and 
                prosecute cyber and financial crimes, including those 
                crimes facilitated via computer networks and other 
                electronic means, and crimes involving financial and 
                economic impacts such as intellectual property crimes.
                    ``(B) To deliver training to State, local, tribal, 
                and territorial law enforcement officers, and other 
                criminal justice professionals concerning the use of 
                proven methodologies to--
                            ``(i) prevent, detect, and respond to white 
                        collar crimes;
                            ``(ii) recognize emerging issues;
                            ``(iii) manage electronic and financial 
                        crime evidence; and
                            ``(iv) improve local criminal justice 
                        agency responses to such threats.
                    ``(C) To provide operational and technical 
                assistance and training concerning tools, products, 
                resources, guidelines, and procedures to--
                            ``(i) aid and enhance criminal intelligence 
                        analysis; and
                            ``(ii) conduct white collar crime 
                        investigations and related justice information 
                        sharing at the local and State levels.
                    ``(D) To provide appropriate training on 
                protections for privacy, civil rights, and civil 
                liberties in the conduct of criminal intelligence 
                analysis and cyber and electronic crime and financial 
                crime investigations, including in the development of 
                policies, guidelines, and procedures by State, local, 
                tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies to 
                protect and enhance privacy, civil rights, and civil 
                liberties protections and identify weaknesses and gaps 
                in the protection of privacy, civil rights, and civil 
                liberties.
            ``(4) Authorized programs.--A grant or cooperative 
        agreement awarded under this subsection may be made only for 
        the following programs, with respect to the prevention, 
        investigation, and prosecution of certain criminal activities:
                    ``(A) Programs to provide a nationwide support 
                system for State and local criminal justice agencies.
                    ``(B) Programs to assist State and local criminal 
                justice agencies to develop, establish, and maintain 
                intelligence-focused policing strategies and related 
                information sharing.
                    ``(C) Programs to provide training and 
                investigative support services to State and local 
                criminal justice agencies to provide such agencies with 
                skills and resources needed to investigate and 
                prosecute white collar criminal activities and related 
                criminal activities.
                    ``(D) Programs to provide research support, to 
                establish partnerships, and to provide other resources 
                to aid State and local criminal justice agencies to 
                prevent, investigate, and prosecute white collar 
                criminal activities and related problems.
                    ``(E) Programs to provide information and research 
                to the general public to facilitate the prevention of 
                white collar criminal activities.
                    ``(F) Programs to establish or support national 
                training and research centers regionally to provide 
                training and research services for State and local 
                criminal justice agencies.
                    ``(G) Programs to provide training and oversight to 
                State and local criminal justice agencies to develop 
                and comply with applicable privacy, civil rights, and 
                civil liberties related policies, procedures, rules, 
                laws, and guidelines.
                    ``(H) Any other programs specified by the Attorney 
                General as furthering the purposes of this subsection.
            ``(5) Application.--To be eligible for an award of a grant 
        or cooperative agreement under this subsection, an entity shall 
        submit to the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance an 
        application in such form and manner, and containing such 
        information, as required by the Director of the Bureau of 
        Justice Assistance.
            ``(6) Eligibility.--States, units of local government, not-
        for-profit entities, and institutions of higher education with 
        demonstrated capacity and experience in delivering training, 
        technical assistance and other resources including direct, 
        practical laboratory training to law enforcement officers, 
        investigators, auditors and prosecutors in States and units of 
        local government and over the Internet shall be eligible to 
        receive an award under this subsection.
            ``(7) Rules and regulations.--The Director of the Bureau of 
        Justice Assistance shall promulgate such rules and regulations 
        as are necessary to carry out this subsection, including rules 
        and regulations for submitting and reviewing applications under 
        paragraph (5).
            ``(8) Authorization of appropriations.--There are 
        authorized to be appropriated $13,000,000 for each of fiscal 
        years 2018 through 2022 to carry out this subsection.
    ``(c) Accountability.--All grants awarded by the Director of the 
Bureau of Justice Assistance under this section shall be subject to the 
following accountability provisions:
            ``(1) Audit requirement.--
                    ``(A) Definition.--In this paragraph, the term 
                `unresolved audit finding' means a finding in the final 
                audit report of the Inspector General of the Department 
                of Justice that the audited grantee has utilized grant 
                funds for an unauthorized expenditure or otherwise 
                unallowable cost that is not closed or resolved within 
                12 months from the date when the final audit report is 
                issued.
                    ``(B) Audits.--Beginning in the first fiscal year 
                beginning after the date of enactment of this 
                subsection, and in each fiscal year thereafter, the 
                Inspector General of the Department of Justice shall 
                conduct audits of recipients of grants under this 
                section to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse of funds by 
                grantees. The Inspector General shall determine the 
                appropriate number of grantees to be audited each year.
                    ``(C) Mandatory exclusion.--A recipient of grant 
                funds under this section that is found to have an 
                unresolved audit finding shall not be eligible to 
                receive grant funds under this section during the first 
                2 fiscal years beginning after the end of the 12-month 
                period described in subparagraph (A).
                    ``(D) Priority.--In awarding grants under this 
                section, the Director of the Bureau of Justice 
                Assistance shall give priority to eligible applicants 
                that did not have an unresolved audit finding during 
                the 3 fiscal years before submitting an application for 
                a grant under this section.
                    ``(E) Reimbursement.--If an entity is awarded grant 
                funds under this section during the 2-fiscal-year 
                period during which the entity is barred from receiving 
                grants under subparagraph (C), the Director of the 
                Bureau of Justice Assistance shall--
                            ``(i) deposit an amount equal to the amount 
                        of the grant funds that were improperly awarded 
                        to the grantee into the General Fund of the 
                        Treasury; and
                            ``(ii) seek to recoup the costs of the 
                        repayment to the fund from the grant recipient 
                        that was erroneously awarded grant funds.
            ``(2) Nonprofit organization requirements.--
                    ``(A) Definition.--For purposes of this paragraph 
                and the grant programs under this part, the term 
                `nonprofit organization' means an organization that is 
                described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue 
                Code of 1986 and is exempt from taxation under section 
                501(a) of such Code.
                    ``(B) Prohibition.--The Director of the Bureau of 
                Justice Assistance may not award a grant under this 
                section to a nonprofit organization that holds money in 
                offshore accounts for the purpose of avoiding paying 
                the tax described in section 511(a) of the Internal 
                Revenue Code of 1986.
                    ``(C) Disclosure.--Each nonprofit organization that 
                is awarded a grant under this section and uses the 
                procedures prescribed in regulations to create a 
                rebuttable presumption of reasonableness for the 
                compensation of its officers, directors, trustees, and 
                key employees, shall disclose to the Director of the 
                Bureau of Justice Assistance, in the application for 
                the grant, the process for determining such 
                compensation, including the independent persons 
                involved in reviewing and approving such compensation, 
                the comparability data used, and contemporaneous 
                substantiation of the deliberation and decision. Upon 
                request, the Director of the Bureau of Justice 
                Assistance shall make the information disclosed under 
                this subparagraph available for public inspection.
            ``(3) Conference expenditures.--
                    ``(A) Limitation.--No amounts made available to the 
                Department of Justice under this section may be used by 
                the Attorney General, or by any individual or entity 
                awarded discretionary funds through a cooperative 
                agreement under this section, to host or support any 
                expenditure for conferences that uses more than $20,000 
                in funds made available by the Department of Justice, 
                unless the head of the relevant agency or department 
                provides prior written authorization that the funds may 
                be expended to host the conference.
                    ``(B) Written approval.--Written approval under 
                subparagraph (A) shall include a written estimate of 
                all costs associated with the conference, including the 
                cost of all food, beverages, audio-visual equipment, 
                honoraria for speakers, and entertainment.
                    ``(C) Report.--The Deputy Attorney General shall 
                submit an annual report to the Committee on the 
                Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the 
                Judiciary of the House of Representatives on all 
                conference expenditures approved under this paragraph.
            ``(4) Annual certification.--Beginning in the first fiscal 
        year beginning after the date of enactment of this subsection, 
        the Attorney General shall submit, to the Committee on the 
        Judiciary and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and 
        the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on 
        Appropriations of the House of Representatives, an annual 
        certification--
                    ``(A) indicating whether--
                            ``(i) all audits issued by the Office of 
                        the Inspector General under paragraph (1) have 
                        been completed and reviewed by the appropriate 
                        Assistant Attorney General or Director;
                            ``(ii) all mandatory exclusions required 
                        under paragraph (1)(C) have been issued; and
                            ``(iii) all reimbursements required under 
                        paragraph (1)(E) have been made; and
                    ``(B) that includes a list of any grant recipients 
                excluded under paragraph (1) from the previous year.
    ``(d) Preventing Duplicative Grants.--
            ``(1) In general.--Before the Director of the Bureau of 
        Justice Assistance awards a grant to an applicant under this 
        section, the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance shall 
        compare potential grant awards with other grants awarded under 
        this section to determine if duplicate grant awards are awarded 
        for the same purpose.
            ``(2) Report.--If the Director of the Bureau of Justice 
        Assistance awards duplicate grants to the same applicant for 
        the same purpose the Director of the Bureau of Justice 
        Assistance shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of 
        the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 
        Representatives a report that includes--
                    ``(A) a list of all duplicate grants awarded, 
                including the total dollar amount of any duplicate 
                grants awarded; and
                    ``(B) the reason the Director of the Bureau of 
                Justice Assistance awarded the duplicate grants.''.
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