Terrorist Watchlist Modification Review Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6563 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 6563

    To require notifications of changes to policies and procedures
    governing terrorist watchlist and transnational organized crime
                   watchlist, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 10, 2025

 Mr. Castro of Texas introduced the following bill; which was referred
                   to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

    To require notifications of changes to policies and procedures
    governing terrorist watchlist and transnational organized crime
                   watchlist, 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 ``Terrorist Watchlist Modification
Review Act''.

SEC. 2. NOTIFICATION OF MATERIAL CHANGES TO POLICIES OR PROCEDURES
              GOVERNING TERRORIST WATCHLIST AND TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED
              CRIME WATCHLIST.

    (a) Notification of Material Changes.--
            (1) Notification required.--The Director of the Federal
        Bureau of Investigation shall submit to the appropriate
        congressional committees notice of any material change to a
        policy or procedure relating to the terrorist watchlist or the
        transnational organized crime watchlist, including any change
        to the policy or procedure for adding or removing a person from
        either watchlist. Each notification under this subsection shall
        include a summary of the material changes to such policy or
        procedure.
            (2) Timing of notification.--Each notification required
        under paragraph (1) shall be submitted not later than 30 days
        after the date on which a material change described in
        paragraph (1) takes effect.
    (b) Requests by Appropriate Committees.--Not later than 30 days
after receiving a request from an appropriate congressional committee,
the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall submit to
such committee all guidance in effect as of the date of the request
that applies to or governs the use of the terrorist watchlist or the
transnational organized crime watchlist.
    (c) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
        ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
                    (A) the congressional intelligence committees;
                    (B) the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate
                and the House of Representatives;
                    (C) the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate
                and the House of Representatives; and
                    (D) the Committee on Homeland Security and
                Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on
                Homeland Security of the House of Representatives.
            (2) Terrorist watchlist.--The term ``terrorist watchlist''
        means the Terrorist Screening Dataset or any successor or
        similar watchlist.
            (3) Transnational organized crime watchlist.--The term
        ``transnational organized crime watchlist'' means the watchlist
        maintained under the Transnational Organized Crime Actor
        Detection Program or any successor or similar watchlist.

SEC. 3. ANNUAL REPORT ON UNITED STATES PERSONS ON THE TERRORIST WATCH
              LIST.

    (a) Report.--Not later than January 31, 2026, and annually
thereafter for two years, the Director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees
a report on known or presumed United States persons who are included on
the terrorist watchlist.
    (b) Contents.--Each report required under subsection (a) shall
include, with respect to the preceding calendar year, the following
information:
            (1) The total number of persons who were included on the
        terrorist watchlist as of January 1 and the total number of
        such persons included as of December 31.
            (2) The total number of known or presumed United States
        persons who were included on the terrorist watchlist as of
        January 1 and the total number of such persons included as of
        December 31, including with respect to each of those dates--
                    (A) the number of known or presumed United States
                persons who were included on a no fly list;
                    (B) the number of known or presumed United States
                persons who were included on a selectee list for
                additional screening;
                    (C) the number of known or presumed United States
                persons who were included on the terrorist watchlist as
                an exception to a reasonable suspicion standard and who
                are not subject to additional screening, but who are
                included on the list to support specific screening
                functions of the Federal Government;
                    (D) the name of each terrorist organization with
                which the known or presumed United States persons are
                suspected of being affiliated and the number of such
                persons who are suspected of affiliating with each such
                terrorist organization; and
                    (E) an identification of each Federal agency that
                nominated the United States persons to the terrorist
                watchlist and the number of such persons nominated by
                each Federal agency.
    (c) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
        ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
                    (A) the congressional intelligence committees;
                    (B) the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate
                and the House of Representatives;
                    (C) the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate
                and the House of Representatives; and
                    (D) the Committee on Homeland Security and
                Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on
                Homeland Security of the House of Representatives.
            (2) Terrorist watchlist.--The term ``terrorist watchlist''
        means the Terrorist Screening Dataset or any successor or
        similar watchlist.
            (3) United states person.--The term ``United States
        person'' has the meaning given the term in section 101 of the
        Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1801).
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