[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5907 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5907

    To criminalize transnational repression, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 6, 2023

Mr. Schiff (for himself, Mr. Quigley, Mr. Himes, Ms. Norton, Mr. Cohen, 
  Mr. Carson, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Mr. McGovern, and Mr. 
                  Case) introduced the following bill

                            October 25, 2023

  Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the 
     Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To criminalize transnational repression, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Stop Transnational Repression Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Transnational repression is not currently codified or 
        defined in United States law.
            (2) The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines 
        transnational repression as foreign government breach of 
        national borders through physical and digital means to 
        intimidate, silence, coerce, harass, or harm members of 
        diaspora and exile communities in violation of United States 
        law. Transnational repression is often used to silence 
        individuals who are perceived to oppose or are critical of a 
        government, including journalists, writers and artists, human 
        rights defenders, religious or ethnic minority groups, and 
        political opponents. Methods of transnational repression may 
        include physical and digital stalking, harassment, computer 
        hacking, phone tapping, INTERPOL abuse, criminal threats, 
        assaults, attempted kidnappings, coerced repatriation, and 
        detaining family members in the home country.
            (3) Transnational repression is not limited to physical 
        acts of intimidation and harassment. According to Citizen Lab, 
        ``digital transnational repression'' tools are used to 
        facilitate government reach beyond borders to gain access to 
        social media and email accounts, including through phishing 
        attacks, zero-click spyware hacks, social media page takedowns, 
        SIM card hacks, and fake invitations to conferences. For human 
        rights activists and dissidents, this has a serious impact on 
        their advocacy work and sense of security, even if they have 
        relocated to escape physical intimidation.
            (4) On February 23, 2022, the National Security Division of 
        the Department of Justice launched a ``Strategy for Countering 
        Nation-State Threats'' in order to support a comprehensive, 
        ``whole-of-government'' approach to addressing threats the 
        United States faces from hostile nations, including 
        transnational repression.
            (5) Throughout 2022, the Department of Justice charged a 
        number of individuals with stalking, harassing, and illicitly 
        acting as agents of foreign governments, who allegedly 
        perpetrated transnational repression to silence United States 
        residents who were critics of the People's Republic of China.
            (6) In January 2023, the Department of Justice announced 
        charges and arrests in a case involving an assassination plot 
        directed from Iran against a critic of the regime. The 
        Department stated, ``These charges are just the latest example 
        of individuals in Iran directing deadly violence on U.S. 
        soil.''.
            (7) Transnational repression is a growing problem. The 
        Department of Justice has reported an ``alarming rise in plots 
        emanating from Iran, China, Russia, and elsewhere, targeting 
        people in the United States''. As of April 2023, Freedom House 
        has documented 854 direct, physical cases of transnational 
        repression that took place globally between 2014 and 2022.
            (8) Freedom House recorded a total of 79 new incidents of 
        transnational repression globally committed by 20 governments 
        in 2022. Two governments, Bangladesh and Djibouti, were added 
        to the list of perpetrators, bringing the total number of 
        states engaged in transnational repression around the world to 
        38. The number of countries where acts of transnational 
        repression took place rose from 84 to 91 in 2022, including the 
        United States, according to Freedom House.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that hostile nations and authoritarian 
regimes have increasingly and aggressively targeted individuals in the 
United States and persons outside the United States. Agents of these 
governments have acted outside diplomatic channels to threaten, 
intimidate, harass, surveil, stalk, silence, and even plot to 
physically harm or kidnap persons within U.S. borders. Although 
transnational repression often involves actions that are already 
prohibited by U.S. law, their foreign government backing render these 
activities more dangerous than the underlying acts of intimidation or 
harassment alone. Therefore, it is necessary to formally define and 
criminalize transnational repression in Federal law, and to more 
actively track and report on instances of transnational repression in 
the United States and affecting United States persons. It is also 
necessary to continue to work with foreign partners to address this 
issue in a coordinated manner, including in multilateral settings.

SEC. 4. CRIMINALIZING TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION.

    (a) Offense.--Chapter 45 of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 971. Transnational repression
    ``(a) In General.--Whoever knowingly commits an act of 
transnational repression shall be fined under this title and imprisoned 
not more than 10 years, or both, and if death or serious bodily injury 
results from the act, or if such act include the use, attempted use, or 
threatened use of a dangerous weapon, kidnapping or an attempt to 
kidnap, or aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated 
sexual abuse, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any 
term of years or for life, or both.
    ``(b) Attempt or Conspiracy.--Whoever attempts or conspires to 
commit an offense under this section shall be subject to the same 
penalties as those prescribed for the offense, the commission of which 
was the object of the attempt or conspiracy.
    ``(c) Sentencing Enhancement.--Whoever knowingly commits, attempts, 
or conspires to commit an offense under any other section of this title 
at the direction of or under the control of a foreign government or 
official or on behalf of their proxy while engaged in and in 
furtherance of transnational repression shall, in addition to the 
punishment authorized for such offense, be subject to a sentencing 
enhancement of up to ten years in prison.
    ``(d) Extraterritorial Jurisdiction.--There is extraterritorial 
Federal jurisdiction over an offense under this section.
    ``(e) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Agent of a foreign government.--The term `agent of a 
        foreign government' means an individual who operates subject to 
        the direction or control of a foreign government or official.
            ``(2) Extrajudicial killing.--The term `extrajudicial 
        killing' means an act with the intention to or in the knowledge 
        that such act will end the life of another person, when that 
        act is not incident to lawful sanction, public necessity, self-
        defense or the defense of others, or the law of armed conflict.
            ``(3) Proxy.--The term `proxy' means an individual acting 
        on behalf of an agent of a foreign government.
            ``(4) Transnational repression.--The term `transnational 
        repression' means any activity by a foreign government, or an 
        agent of a foreign government or a proxy thereof, that 
        satisfies each of the following:
                    ``(A) The activity involves--
                            ``(i) any effort intended to coerce, 
                        harass, or digitally or physically threaten, 
                        including by force or reasonable fear of death 
                        or serious bodily injury or imprisonment of a 
                        person or an immediate family member of a 
                        person, a person to take an action in the 
                        interest of a foreign government;
                            ``(ii) any effort intended to harass or 
                        coerce, including by force or fear, a person to 
                        forebear from exercising their First Amendment 
                        rights or any other right guaranteed to the 
                        person by the Constitution or laws of the 
                        United States, or to retaliate against a person 
                        for having exercised such a right;
                            ``(iii) an extrajudicial killing; or
                            ``(iv) any act intended to further the 
                        efforts specified in clause (i), (ii), or 
                        (iii).
                    ``(B) The activity is engaged in for or in the 
                interests of a foreign government.
                    ``(C) The activity--
                            ``(i) occurs, in whole or in part, in the 
                        United States; or
                            ``(ii) is committed against--
                                    ``(I) a United States person; or
                                    ``(II) a person in the United 
                                States.
            ``(5) United states person.--The term `United States 
        person' has the meaning given such term in section 1637(d)(10) 
        of the Carl Levin and Howard P. `Buck' McKeon National Defense 
        Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (50 U.S.C. 1708(d)(10)).
            ``(6) Dangerous weapon.--The term `dangerous weapon' has 
        the meaning given the term in section 930(g)(2).''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 45 of 
title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 
following:

``971. Transnational repression.''.
    (c) Predicate Offenses.--Part I of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended--
            (1) in section 1956(c)(7)(D), by inserting ``section 971 
        (relating to transnational repression),'' before ``section 1005 
        (relating to fraudulent bank entries),'';
            (2) in section 1961(1), by inserting ``section 971 
        (relating to transnational repression),'' before ``section 1028 
        (relating to fraud and related activity in connection with 
        identification documents),''; and
            (3) in section 2516(1)--
                    (A) in paragraph (t), by striking ``or'';
                    (B) in paragraph (u), by striking the period and 
                inserting ``; or''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(v) any violation of section 951 of title 18 
                (relating to agents of foreign governments); any 
                violation of section 971 of title 18 (transnational 
                repression); and any felony violation of section 8 of 
                the Foreign Agents Registration Act (22 U.S.C. 618) 
                (relating to registration of agents of foreign 
                principals).''.

SEC. 5. CENTRALIZATION OF OVERSIGHT OF TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION 
              PROSECUTIONS AND INVESTIGATIONS.

    (a) National Security Division.--The Attorney General shall 
centralize oversight of transnational repression prosecutions in the 
National Security Division of the Department of Justice, or any 
successor organization.
    (b) Investigations.--The Attorney General, acting through the 
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, shall centralize 
oversight of transnational repression investigations in the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation, or any successor organization.

SEC. 6. REPORTING ON TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION.

    (a) Reports.--Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Assistant Attorney General 
for the National Security Division of the Department of Justice and the 
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in consultation with 
the Director of National Intelligence and the head of any other 
department or agency the Assistant Attorney General and Director of the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation determines appropriate, shall submit to 
the appropriate congressional committees a joint report on incidents of 
transnational repression against or otherwise impacting a United States 
person. Each report shall contain the following:
            (1) An overview of transnational repression in the United 
        States or against United States persons outside of the United 
        States, including the governments that perpetrate transnational 
        repression and the tactics that they use.
            (2) A description of any activities that the Assistant 
        Attorney General of the National Security Division of the 
        Department of Justice or the Director of the Federal Bureau of 
        Investigation determines to be substantially similar to 
        transnational repression that do not fall within the definition 
        of transnational repression.
            (3) Subject to appropriate protections for sensitive 
        information regarding law enforcement investigations and 
        operations, a description of efforts during the previous 
        calendar year to disrupt transnational repression through 
        investigation and criminal prosecution.
            (4) A description of efforts during the previous calendar 
        year by any agency of the United States Government to disrupt 
        transnational repression through means other than investigation 
        and criminal prosecution, including through diplomatic means.
    (b) Form.--Each report submitted under subsection (a) shall be 
submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.

SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term 
        ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
                    (A) the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee 
                on Foreign Affairs, and the Permanent Select Committee 
                on Intelligence of the House of Representatives; and
                    (B) the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee 
                on Foreign Relations, and the Select Committee on 
                Intelligence of the Senate.
            (2) Transnational repression.--The term ``transnational 
        repression'' has the meaning given the term in section 971 of 
        title 18, United States Code, as added by section 4.

SEC. 8. THE U.S. SENTENCING COMMISSION.

    Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
U.S. Sentencing Commission shall promulgate or amend such sentencing 
guideline as may be necessary to provide appropriate guideline 
penalties for the offense conduct and penalty provisions established in 
this Act, and amended by this Act, including enhanced penalties for 
aggravated forms of any offense established in this Act.
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