Combating Transnational Repression Act of 2024

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7443 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7443

  To authorize a dedicated transnational repression office within the
 Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations to
  analyze and monitor transnational repression and related terrorism
threats and require Homeland Security Investigations to take actions to
                   prevent transnational repression.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 23, 2024

 Mr. Pfluger (for himself and Mr. Magaziner) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security, and in
    addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, 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 authorize a dedicated transnational repression office within the
 Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations to
  analyze and monitor transnational repression and related terrorism
threats and require Homeland Security Investigations to take actions to
                   prevent transnational repression.

    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 ``Combating Transnational Repression
Act of 2024''.

SEC. 2. TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION.

    (a) Findings and Sense of Congress Regarding Transnational
Repression.--
            (1) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
                    (A) The Department of Homeland Security (DHS),
                Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) National
                Security Division (NSD), Special Interest
                Investigations Unit (SIIU), collaborates with Federal,
                State, and local partners to investigate allegations of
                transnational repression.
                    (B) HSI, through its investigative authorities,
                works to deter, dismantle, and mitigate criminal
                enterprises and hostile foreign government actors
                engaged in transnational repression.
                    (C) In October 2023, the Government Accountability
                Office (GAO) published a report that found agency
                actions are needed to address harassment of dissidents
                and other tactics of transnational repression in the
                United States.
                    (D) According to GAO, several Federal agencies work
                to address transnational repression, including DHS's
                Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which works to
                produce intelligence that support Federal, State, and
                local government entities to develop protective and
                support measures in response to threats of
                transnational repression, as well as DHS's Office of
                Partnership and Engagement (OPE), which meets with
                stakeholders and victims of transnational repression to
                understand the range of transnational repression
                activities in the United States. For example, DHS
                hosted a listening session in March 2022 with
                stakeholders to learn about issues facing communities
                in the United States. DHS has also issued reporting for
                State and local law enforcement agencies to raise
                awareness about acts of transnational repression.
                    (E) DHS's OPE also works to share available Federal
                resources to help disrupt threats of transnational
                repression against United States citizens, with
                Federal, State, local, Tribal, and international
                partners so they coordinate countering acts of
                transnational repression and preparing best practices.
            (2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
                    (A) transnational repression and related terrorism
                threats by a foreign government or an agent of a
                foreign government to target individuals in the United
                States and persons outside of the United States are
                real and growing;
                    (B) agents acting on behalf of hostile foreign
                governments employ a range of transnational repression
                tactics, including making threats, intimidation,
                harassment, surveillance, stalking, silencing, and
                planning physical harm or the kidnapping of individuals
                in the United States; and
                    (C) the Department of Homeland Security must take
                steps to recognize, assess, and help address this
                threat, thereby reducing risks to the people of the
                United States.
    (b) Office To Combat Transnational Repression.--
            (1) In general.--Subtitle H of title VIII of the Homeland
        Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 451 et seq.) is amended by
        adding at the end the following new section:

``SEC. 890E. TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION.

    ``(a) Office To Analyze, Monitor, and Investigate Transnational
Repression.--
            ``(1) In general.--There is established an office, to be
        known as the `Transnational Repression Office' (in this section
        referred to as the `Office'), in the National Security Division
        of Homeland Security Investigations, which shall be responsible
        for analyzing and monitoring transnational repression and
        related terrorism threats.
            ``(2) Director of the office.--
                    ``(A) Appointment of director.--The head of the
                Office shall be the Director of the Transnational
                Repression Office, who shall be appointed by the
                Director of Homeland Security Investigations.
                    ``(B) Reporting.--The Director of the Transnational
                Repression Office shall report to the Secretary and the
                Director of Homeland Security Investigations regarding
                all administrative, operational, and security matters
                of the Office.
            ``(3) Staffing.--The Director of Homeland Security
        Investigations shall ensure the Office--
                    ``(A) has a sufficient number of employees to
                perform required duties; and
                    ``(B) has at least one employee dedicated to
                ensuring compliance with privacy laws and regulations.
            ``(4) Detailees authorized.--The Office may accept and
        employ detailees with expertise in countering transnational
        repression and related terrorism threats or related fields from
        any element of the intelligence community, or any other Federal
        agency the Director of the Transnational Repression Office
        determines appropriate, with or without reimbursement,
        consistent with applicable laws and regulations regarding such
        employees.
            ``(5) Information sharing.--The Office shall review
        information relating to transnational repression and related
        terrorism threats that is gathered by Federal, State, local,
        Tribal, and territorial partners, and the National Network of
        Fusion Centers, and incorporate such information, as
        appropriate, into the Office's own information relating to
        transnational repression and related terrorism threats. The
        Office shall ensure the dissemination to Federal, State, local,
        Tribal, and territorial partners, and the National Network of
        Fusion Centers, of information related to transnational
        repression and related terrorism threats.
            ``(6) Homeland security assessment on transnational
        repression.--
                    ``(A) Annual assessments.--Not later than 180 days
                after the date of the enactment of this section and
                annually thereafter for ten years, the Director of
                Homeland Security Investigations, acting through the
                Director of the Transnational Repression Office, shall
                submit to the Committee on Homeland Security of the
                House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland
                Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a
                report that assesses incidents of transnational
                repression and related terrorism threats during the
                immediately preceding 12 months.
                    ``(B) Contents.--Each assessment submitted under
                subparagraph (A) shall also include the following:
                            ``(i) An analysis attempted incidents of
                        transnational repression and related terrorism
                        threats.
                            ``(ii) A quantitative analysis of
                        transnational repression and related terrorism
                        threats, including the number of individuals
                        responsible for or associated with such
                        transnational repression or related terrorism
                        threats, and an identification of the country
                        of citizenship or nationality of each such
                        individual, and the roles of the foreign
                        governments of such countries in enabling,
                        preventing, mitigating, and responding to
                        transnational repression and related terrorism
                        threats.
                            ``(iii) Subject to appropriate protections
                        for sensitive information regarding law
                        enforcement investigations and operations, a
                        description of efforts by the Department to
                        disrupt through investigation transnational
                        repression and related terrorism threats.
                            ``(iv) Any other matters the Director of
                        Homeland Security Investigations determines
                        relevant.
                    ``(C) Form.--Each assessment under subparagraph (A)
                shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may
                include a classified annex only for the protection of
                intelligence sources and methods relating to the
                matters contained in each such assessment. The Director
                of Homeland Security Investigations shall post on a
                publicly available website of Homeland Security
                Investigations the unclassified portion of each such
                assessment.
            ``(7) Sunset.--The Office shall terminate on the date that
        is ten years after the date of the enactment of this section.
    ``(b) Research.--Not later than one year after the date of the
enactment of this section, the Secretary, in coordination with the
Under Secretary for Science and Technology of the Department, the
Director of the Transnational Repression Office, and the Director of
Homeland Security Investigations, shall, to the extent practicable,
carry out research and development, including operational testing, of
technologies and techniques for enhancing the Department's security and
situational awareness support to Federal, State, local, Tribal, and
territorial officials relating to combating transnational repression
and related terrorism threats, in accordance with applicable
constitutional, privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties protections.
    ``(c) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Agent of a foreign government.--The term `agent of a
        foreign government' means an individual or entity that operates
        subject to the direction or control of--
                    ``(A) a foreign government; or
                    ``(B) an official or entity of such foreign
                government.
            ``(2) Foreign government.--The term `foreign government'
        means the government of a foreign country.
            ``(3) Fusion center.--The term `fusion center' has the
        meaning given such term in subsection (j) of section 210A of
        the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 124h).
            ``(4) Intelligence community.--The term `intelligence
        community' has the meaning given such term in section 3(4) of
        the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003(4)).
            ``(5) National network of fusion centers.--The term
        `National Network of Fusion Centers' means a decentralized
        arrangement of fusion centers intended to enhance individual
        State and urban area fusion centers' ability to leverage the
        capabilities and expertise of all such fusion centers for the
        purpose of enhancing analysis and homeland security information
        sharing nationally.
            ``(6) Transnational repression.--The term `transnational
        repression' means an action of a foreign government or an agent
        of a foreign government that satisfies each of the following:
                    ``(A) The action 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 such 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 action is engaged in for or in the
                interests of such a foreign government.
                    ``(C) The action--
                            ``(i) occurs, in whole or in part, in the
                        United States; or
                            ``(ii) is committed against a United States
                        person.
            ``(7) 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)).''.
            (2) Clerical amendment.--The table of contents in section
        1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 is amended by
        inserting after the item relating to section 890D the following
        new item:

``Sec. 890E. Transnational repression.''.
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