[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 157 (Wednesday, September 28, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5258-S5259]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 5787. Mr. WARNER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to 
amendment SA 5499 submitted by Mr. Reed (for himself and Mr. Inhofe) 
and intended to be proposed to the bill H.R. 7900, to authorize 
appropriations for fiscal year 2023 for military activities

[[Page S5259]]

of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for 
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military 
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which 
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the appropriate place, insert the following:

     SEC. _____ . SPECIAL MEASURES TO FIGHT MODERN THREATS.--

       (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
       (1) The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (in this 
     section referred to as ``FinCEN'') is the financial 
     intelligence unit of the United States tasked with 
     safeguarding the financial system from illicit use, combating 
     money laundering and its related crimes, including terrorism, 
     and promoting national security.
       (2) Under law, FinCEN may require domestic financial 
     institutions and financial agencies to take certain ``special 
     measures'' against jurisdictions, institutions, classes of 
     transactions, or types of accounts determined to be of 
     primary money laundering concern, providing the Secretary 
     with a range of options, such as enhanced record-keeping, 
     that can be adapted to target specific money laundering and 
     terrorist financing and to bring pressure on those that pose 
     money laundering threats.
       (3) This special-measures authority was granted in 2001, 
     when most cross-border transactions occurred through 
     correspondent or payable-through accounts held with large 
     financial institutions that serve as intermediaries to 
     facilitate financial transactions on behalf of other banks.
       (4) Innovations in financial services have transformed and 
     expanded methods of cross-border transactions that could not 
     have been envisioned 20 years ago when FinCEN was given its 
     special-measures authority.
       (5) These innovations, particularly through digital assets 
     and informal value transfer systems, while useful to 
     legitimate consumers and law enforcement, can be tools abused 
     by bad actors like sanctions evaders, fraudsters, money 
     launderers, and those who commit ransomware attacks on 
     victimized United States companies and that abuse the 
     financial system to move and obscure the proceeds of their 
     crimes.
       (6) Ransomware attacks on United States companies requiring 
     payments in cryptocurrencies have increased in recent years, 
     with the Treasury estimating that ransomware payments in the 
     United States reached $590,000,000 in just the first half of 
     2021, compared to a total of $416,000,000 in 2020.
       (7) In July 2021, the White House, with support of United 
     States allies, asserted that the People's Republic of China 
     was responsible for ransomware operations against private 
     companies that included demands of millions of dollars, 
     including the 2021 ransomware attacks that breached Microsoft 
     email systems and affected thousands of consumers, State and 
     local municipalities, and government contractors attributed 
     to a cyber espionage group with links to the Ministry of 
     State Security of the People's Republic of China.
       (8) As ransomware attacks organized by Chinese and other 
     foreign bad actors continue to grow in size and scope, 
     modernizing the special-measure authorities of FinCEN will 
     empower FinCEN to adapt its existing tools, monitor and 
     obstruct global financial threats, and meet the challenges of 
     combating 21st century financial crime.
       (b) Prohibitions or Conditions on Certain Transmittals of 
     Funds.--Section 5318A of title 31, United States Code, is 
     amended--
       (1) in subsection (a)(2)(C), by striking ``subsection 
     (b)(5)'' and inserting ``paragraphs (5) and (6) of subsection 
     (b)''; and
       (2) in subsection (b)--
       (A) in paragraph (5), by striking ``for or on behalf of a 
     foreign banking institution''; and
       (B) by adding at the end the following:
       ``(6) Prohibitions or conditions on certain transmittals of 
     funds.--If the Secretary finds a jurisdiction outside of the 
     United States, 1 or more financial institutions operating 
     outside of the United States, 1 or more types of accounts 
     within, or involving, a jurisdiction outside of the United 
     States, or 1 or more classes of transactions within, or 
     involving, a jurisdiction outside of the United States to be 
     of primary money laundering concern, the Secretary, in 
     consultation with the Secretary of State, the Attorney 
     General, and the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the 
     Federal Reserve System, may prohibit, or impose conditions 
     upon, certain transmittals of funds (as such term may be 
     defined by the Secretary in a special measure issuance, by 
     regulation, or as otherwise permitted by law), to or from any 
     domestic financial institution or domestic financial agency 
     if such transmittal of funds involves any such jurisdiction, 
     institution, type of account, or class of transaction.''.
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