[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 120 (Thursday, July 13, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2523-S2524]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 326. Ms. WARREN (for herself, Mr. Warner, Mr. Warnock, Ms. Smith,
Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr. King, Mr. Durbin, and Mr. Reed) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill S. 2226, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2024 for military activities
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 end of title X, add the following:
Subtitle __--Digital Asset Sanctions Compliance Enhancement
SEC. __01. SHORT TITLE.
This subtitle may be cited as the ``Digital Asset Sanctions
Compliance Enhancement Act of 2023''.
SEC. __02. DEFINITIONS.
In this subtitle:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees and leadership.--
The term ``appropriate congressional committees and
leadership'' means--
(A) the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs,
the Committee on Foreign Relations, and the majority and
minority leaders of the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Financial Services, the Committee on
Foreign Affairs, and the Speaker, the majority leader, and
the minority leader of the House of Representatives.
(2) Digital asset.--The term ``digital asset'' means any
digital representation of value, financial asset or
instrument, or claim that is used to make payments or
investments, or to transmit or exchange funds or the
equivalent thereof, and is issued or represented in digital
form through the use of distributed ledger technology.
(3) Digital asset trading platform.--The term ``digital
asset trading platform'' means a person, or group of persons,
that operates as an exchange or other trading facility for
the purchase, sale, lending, or borrowing of digital assets.
(4) Digital asset transaction facilitator.--The term
``digital asset transaction facilitator'' means--
(A) any person, or group of persons, that significantly and
materially facilitates the purchase, sale, lending,
borrowing, exchange, custody, holding, validation, or
creation of digital assets on the account of others,
including any communication protocol, decentralized finance
technology, smart contract, or other software, including
open-source computer code--
[[Page S2524]]
(i) deployed through the use of distributed ledger or any
similar technology; and
(ii) that provides a mechanism for multiple users to
purchase, sell, lend, borrow, or trade digital assets; and
(B) any person, or group of persons, that the Secretary of
the Treasury otherwise determines to be significantly and
materially facilitating digital assets transactions in
violation of sanctions.
(5) Foreign person.--The term ``foreign person'' means an
individual or entity that is not a United States person.
(6) United states person.--The term ``United States
person'' means--
(A) an individual who is a United States citizen or an
alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence to the United
States; or
(B) an entity organized under the laws of the United States
or any jurisdiction within the United States, including a
foreign branch of such an entity.
SEC. __03. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE USE OF
DIGITAL ASSETS TO FACILITATE TRANSACTIONS BY
RUSSIAN PERSONS SUBJECT TO SANCTIONS.
(a) Report Required.--Not later than 90 days after the date
of enactment of this Act, and periodically thereafter as
necessary, the President shall submit to Congress a report
identifying any foreign person that--
(1) operates a digital asset trading platform or is a
digital asset transaction facilitator; and
(2)(A) has significantly and materially assisted,
sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological
support to, or has provided goods or services to or in
support of, any person with respect to which sanctions have
been imposed by the United States relating to the Russian
Federation, including by facilitating transactions that evade
such sanctions; or
(B) is owned or controlled by, or is acting or purporting
to act for or on behalf of, any person with respect to which
sanctions have been imposed by the United States relating to
the Russian Federation.
(b) Imposition of Sanctions.--The President may exercise
all of the powers granted to the President under the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701
et seq.) to the extent necessary to block and prohibit all
transactions in property and interests in property of a
foreign person identified in a report submitted under
subsection (a) if such property and interests in property are
in the United States, come within the United States, or are
or come within the possession or control of a United States
person.
(c) Implementation; Penalties.--
(1) Implementation.--The President may exercise all
authorities provided under sections 203 and 205 of the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702,
1704) to carry out this section.
(2) Penalties.--A person that violates, attempts to
violate, conspires to violate, or causes a violation of this
section or any regulation, license, or order issued to carry
out this section shall be subject to the penalties set forth
in subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705)
to the same extent as a person that commits an unlawful act
described in subsection (a) of that section.
(d) National Security Waiver.--The President may waive the
imposition of sanctions under this section with respect to a
person if the President--
(1) determines that such a waiver is in the national
security interests of the United States; and
(2) submits to Congress a notification of the waiver and
the reasons for the waiver.
(e) Exceptions.--
(1) Exception for intelligence activities.--This section
shall not apply with respect to activities subject to the
reporting requirements under title V of the National Security
Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3091 et seq.) or any authorized
intelligence activities of the United States.
(2) Exception relating to importation of goods.--
(A) In general.--The authority to block and prohibit all
transactions in all property and interests in property under
subsection (b) shall not include the authority or a
requirement to impose sanctions on the importation of goods.
(B) Good.--In this paragraph, the term ``good'' means any
article, natural or manmade substance, material, supply or
manufactured product, including inspection and test
equipment, and excluding technical data.
SEC. __04. DISCRETIONARY PROHIBITION OF TRANSACTIONS.
The Secretary of the Treasury may require that no digital
asset trading platform or digital asset transaction
facilitator that does business in the United States transact
with, or fulfill transactions of, digital asset addresses
that are known to be, or could reasonably be known to be,
affiliated with persons headquartered or domiciled in the
Russian Federation if the Secretary--
(1) determines that exercising such authority is important
to the national interest of the United States; and
(2) not later than 90 days after the date on which the
Secretary exercises the authority described in paragraph (1),
submits to the appropriate congressional committees and
leadership a report on the basis for any determination under
that paragraph.
SEC. __05. TRANSACTION REPORTING.
Not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of this
Act, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the
Department of the Treasury shall require United States
persons engaged in a transaction with a value greater than
$10,000 in digital assets through 1 or more accounts outside
of the United States to file a report described in section
1010.350 of title 31, Code of Federal Regulations, or any
successor regulation,using the form described in that
section, in accordance with section 5314 of title 31, United
States Code.
SEC. __06. REPORTS.
(a) In General.--Not later than 120 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall
submit to the appropriate congressional committees and
leadership a report on the progress of the Department of the
Treasury in carrying out this subtitle, including any
resources needed by the Department to improve implementation
and progress in coordinating with governments of countries
that are allies or partners of the United States.
(b) Other Reports.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 120 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary
of the Treasury shall submit to the appropriate congressional
committees and leadership and make publicly available a
report identifying the digital asset trading platforms that
the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the
Treasury determines to be high risk for sanctions evasion,
money laundering, or other illicit activities.
(2) Petition.--Any exchange included in a report submitted
under paragraph (1) may petition the Office of Foreign Assets
Control of the Department of the Treasury for removal, which
shall be granted upon demonstrating that the exchange is
taking steps sufficient to comply with applicable United
States law.
______