[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6681 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 6681
To establish the Office of the National Fraud and Scam Prevention, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 11, 2025
Mr. Whitesides (for himself and Mr. Shreve) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and
in addition to the Committees on Foreign Affairs, the Judiciary, and
Financial Services, 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 establish the Office of the National Fraud and Scam Prevention, 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 ``National Scam Prevention
Coordination Act''.
SEC. 2. OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL FRAUD AND SCAM PREVENTION.
(a) Establishment.--There is established, within the Executive
Office of the President, the Office of the National Fraud and Scam
Prevention (in this section referred to as the ``Office'').
(b) National Fraud and Scam Prevention Director.--
(1) In general.--The Office shall be headed by the National
Fraud and Scam Prevention Director (in this section referred to
as the ``Director'') who shall be appointed by the President,
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.
(2) Position.--The Director shall hold office at the
pleasure of the President.
(3) Pay and allowances.--The Director shall be entitled to
receive the rate of pay and allowances provided for positions
under level II of the Executive Schedule under section 5313 of
title 5, United States Code.
(c) Duties of the Director.--
(1) In general.--Subject to the authority, direction, and
control of the President, the Director shall--
(A) serve as the principal advisor to the President
on scam and fraud prevention policy and strategy
relating to the coordination of--
(i) information sharing, security, and data
protection;
(ii) programs and policies intended to
improve the fraud and scam prevention;
(iii) posture of the United States;
(iv) efforts to understand and deter fraud
and scams;
(v) diplomatic and other efforts to develop
norms and international consensus around
responsible state behavior in fraud and scam
prevention;
(vi) awareness and adoption of emerging
technology that may enhance, augment, or
degrade the fraud and scam prevention posture
of the United States;
(vii) efforts to educate the public on how
to best prevent falling victim of fraud and
scams; and
(viii) such other fraud and scam prevention
matters as the President considers appropriate;
(B) establish a fraud data shield program allowing
entities to share non-personally identifiable scam data
with the Office;
(C) offer advice and consultation to the Domestic
Policy Counsel in the White House and its staff, the
Homeland Security Council and its staff, and relevant
Federal departments and agencies, for their
consideration, relating to the development and
coordination of national fraud and scam prevention
policy and strategy;
(D) lead the coordination of implementation of
national fraud and scam prevention policy and strategy
by--
(i) in coordination with the heads of
relevant Federal departments or agencies,
monitoring and assessing the effectiveness,
including cost-effectiveness, of the
implementation of such national fraud and scam
prevention policy and strategy by Federal
departments and agencies;
(ii) making recommendations, relevant to
changes in the organization, personnel, and
resource allocation and to policies of Federal
departments and agencies, to the heads of
relevant Federal departments and agencies in
order to implement such national fraud and scam
prevention policy and strategy;
(iii) reviewing the annual budget proposals
for relevant Federal departments and agencies
and advising the heads of such departments and
agencies whether such proposals are consistent
with such national fraud and scam prevention
policy and strategy;
(iv) continuously assessing and making
relevant recommendations to the President on
the appropriate level of integration and
interoperability across relevant Federal
departments and agencies;
(v) reporting annually to the President,
the Assistant to the President for the Domestic
Policy Counsel, and Congress on the state of
the fraud and scam prevention posture of the
United States, the effectiveness of such
national fraud and scam prevention policy and
strategy, and the status of the implementation
of such national fraud and scam prevention
policy and strategy by Federal departments and
agencies; and
(vi) such other activity as the President
considers appropriate to further such national
fraud and scam prevention policy and strategy;
(E) lead coordination of the development and
ensuring implementation by the Federal Government of
integrated incident response to fraud and scam
campaigns of significant consequence, including--
(i) ensuring and facilitating coordination
among relevant Federal departments and agencies
in the development of integrated operational
plans, processes, and playbooks, including for
incident response, that feature--
(I) clear lines of authority and
lines of effort across the Federal
Government;
(II) authorities that have been
delegated to an appropriate level to
facilitate effective operational
responses across the Federal
Government; and
(III) support for the integration
of defensive fraud and scam prevention
plans and capabilities with offensive
fraud and scam plans and capabilities
in a manner consistent with improving
the fraud and scam prevention posture
of the United States;
(ii) ensuring the exercising of defensive
operational plans, processes, and playbooks for
incident response;
(iii) ensuring the updating of defensive
operational plans, processes, and playbooks for
incident response as needed to keep them
updated; and
(iv) reviewing and ensuring that defensive
operational plans, processes, and playbooks
improve coordination with relevant private
sector entities, as appropriate;
(F) preparing the response by the Federal
Government to fraud and scam campaigns of significant
consequence across Federal departments and agencies
with responsibilities pertaining to fraud and scam
prevention and with the relevant private sector
entities, including--
(i) developing for the approval of the
President, in coordination with the heads of
relevant Federal departments and agencies,
operational priorities, requirements, and
plans;
(ii) ensuring incident response is executed
consistent with the plans described in clause
(i); and
(iii) ensuring relevant Federal department
and agency consultation with relevant private
sector entities in incident response;
(G) coordinate and consult with private sector
leaders on fraud and scam prevention and emerging
technology issues in support of, and in coordination
with, the Director of the Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency and the heads of other
Federal departments and agencies, as appropriate;
(H) annually report to Congress on fraud and scam
threats and issues facing the United States, including
any new or emerging technologies that may affect
national security, economic prosperity, or enforcing
the rule of law;
(I) provide technical assistance and strategic
guidance to, without supplanting, existing interagency
task forces; and
(J) be responsible for such other functions as the
President may direct.
(2) Delegation of authority.--
(A) In general.--The Director may--
(i) serve as the senior representative to
any organization that the President may
establish for the purpose of providing the
President advice on fraud and scam prevention;
(ii) subject to subparagraph (B), be
included as a participant in preparations for
and, when appropriate, the execution of
domestic and international summits and other
international meetings at which fraud and scam
prevention is a major topic;
(iii) delegate any of the Director's
functions, powers, and duties to such officers
and employees of the Office as the Director
considers appropriate; and
(iv) authorize such successive re-
delegations of such functions, powers, and
duties to such officers and employees of the
Office as the Director considers appropriate.
(B) Summits.--In acting under subparagraph (A)(ii)
in the case of a summit or a meeting with an
international partner, the Director shall act in
coordination with the Secretary of State.
(d) Powers of the Director.--
(1) In general.--The Director may, for the purposes of
carrying out the functions of the Director under this section--
(A) subject to the civil service and classification
laws, select, appoint, employ, and fix the compensation
of such officers and employees as are necessary and
prescribe their duties, except that not more than 20
individuals may be employed without regard to any
provision of law regulating the employment or
compensation at rates not to exceed the basic rate of
basic pay payable for level IV of the Executive
Schedule under section 5315 of title 5, United States
Code;
(B) employ experts and consultants in accordance
with section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, and
compensate individuals so employed for each day
(including travel time) at rates not in excess of the
maximum rate of basic pay for grade GS-15 as provided
in section 5332 of such title, and while such experts
and consultants are so serving away from their homes or
regular place of business, to pay such employees travel
expenses and per diem in lieu of subsistence at rates
authorized by section 5703 of such title 5 for persons
in Federal Government service employed intermittently;
(C) accept officers or employees of the United
States or members of the Armed Forces on a detail from
an element of the intelligence community (as such term
is defined in section 3(4) of the National Security Act
of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003(4))) or from another element of
the Federal Government on a nonreimbursable basis, as
jointly agreed to by the heads of the receiving and
detailing elements, for a period not to exceed 3 years;
(D) promulgate such rules and regulations as may be
necessary to carry out the functions, powers, and
duties vested in the Director;
(E) utilize, with their consent, the services,
personnel, and facilities of other Federal agencies;
(F) enter into and perform such contracts, leases,
cooperative agreements, or other transactions as may be
necessary in the conduct of the work of the Office and
on such terms as the Director may determine
appropriate, with any Federal agency, or with any
public or private person or entity;
(G) accept voluntary and uncompensated services,
notwithstanding the provisions of section 1342 of title
31, United States Code;
(H) adopt an official seal, which shall be
judicially noticed; and
(I) provide, where authorized by law, copies of
documents to persons at cost, except that any funds so
received shall be credited to, and be available for use
from, the account from which expenditures relating
thereto were made.
(2) Rules of construction regarding details.--Nothing in
paragraph (1)(C) may be construed as imposing any limitation on
any other authority for reimbursable or nonreimbursable
details. A nonreimbursable detail made pursuant to such
paragraph shall not be considered an augmentation of the
appropriations of the receiving element of the Office.
(e) Immunity.--Any person who in good faith shares non-personally
identifiable information with the Office to carry out the purposes of
this Act shall not be liable under a civil action for such disclosure.
(f) Definitions.--In this section--
(1) the term ``fraud'' means acts that intentionally and
knowingly deceive the victim by misrepresenting, concealing, or
omitting facts about promised goods, services, or other
benefits and consequences that are nonexistent, unnecessary,
never intended to be provided, or deliberately distorted for
the purpose of monetary gain, and includes both transactions
authorized by the victim and those that are not so authorized;
(2) the term ``fraud and scam prevention posture'' means
the ability to identify, to protect against, to detect, to
prevent, to respond to, and to recover from completed, ongoing,
or planned fraud or scams;
(3) the term ``incident'' means an individual completed,
ongoing, or planned act of fraud or larger fraud campaign;
(4) the term ``incident response'' means a government or
private sector activity that detects, prevents, mitigates, or
recovers from a fraud or scam campaign of significant
consequence;
(5) the term ``intelligence'' has the meaning given such
term in section 3 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50
U.S.C. 3003);
(6) the term ``relevant Federal departments and agencies''
includes--
(A) the Department of State, including the Bureau
of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs,
the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and the
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons;
(B) the Department of Justice, including the
Federal Bureau of Investigation;
(C) the Department of Homeland Security, including
the U.S. Secret Service and Homeland Security
Investigations;
(D) the Department of the Treasury, including the
Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, the
Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Financial Crimes
Enforcement Network;
(E) the Federal Communications Commission; and
(F) the Federal Trade Commission;
(7) the term ``scam'' means a type of fraud where the
victim is tricked into willingly providing money or personal
information to a malicious actor, who deceived the victim for
monetary gain; and
(8) the term ``significant consequence'' means, with
respect to any fraud or scam campaign, that such campaign
results in aggregate losses exceeding $5,000,000, affecting
more than 1,000 individuals, or posing a substantial threat to
national economic or cybersecurity interests, as determined by
the Director in consultation with the heads of relevant Federal
departments and agencies.
(g) Sunset.--The authority to carry out this Act and the Office
shall terminate on the date that is five years after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
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