I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 6846
To require the United States Government to assist in the establishment
of national security councils in specified countries.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
DECEMBER15, 2023
Mr. W
ALTZintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To require the United States Government to assist in the
establishment of national security councils in specified
countries.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Connecting Oceania’s 4
Nations with Vanguard Exercises and National Empower-5
ment Act of 2023’’ or the ‘‘CONVENE Act of 2023’’. 6
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 7
In this Act: 8
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(1) APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -1
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-2
gress’’ means— 3
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations, 4
the Select Committee on Intelligence, the 5
Armed Services Committee, and the Committee 6
on Appropriations of the Senate; and 7
(B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the 8
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, 9
the Armed Services Committee, and the Com-10
mittee on Appropriations of the House of Rep-11
resentatives. 12
(2) N
ATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL .—The term 13
‘‘national security council’’ means, with respect to a 14
specified country, an intergovernmental body under 15
the jurisdiction of the freely elected government of 16
the specified country that acts as the primary co-17
ordinating entity for security cooperation, disaster 18
response, and the activities described in section 3(e). 19
(3) S
PECIFIED COUNTRY.—The term ‘‘specified 20
country’’ means— 21
(A) the Federated States of Micronesia; 22
(B) the Republic of the Marshall Islands; 23
and 24
(C) the Republic of Palau. 25
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SEC. 3. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCILS OF SPECIFIED 1
COUNTRIES. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of State, in con-3
sultation with other relevant Federal departments and 4
agencies, as appropriate, may consult and engage with 5
each specified country to advise and provide assistance to 6
a national security council (including by developing a na-7
tional security council, if appropriate), or to identify a 8
similar coordinating body for national security matters, 9
comprised of citizens of the specified country— 10
(1) that enables the specified country— 11
(A) to better coordinate with the United 12
States Government, including the Armed 13
Forces, as appropriate; 14
(B) to increase cohesion on activities, in-15
cluding emergency humanitarian response, law 16
enforcement, and maritime security activities; 17
and 18
(C) to provide trained professionals to 19
serve as members of the committees of the 20
specified country established under the applica-21
ble Compact of Free Association; and 22
(2) for the purpose of enhancing resilience ca-23
pabilities and protecting the people, infrastructure, 24
and territory of the specified country from malign 25
actions. 26
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(b) COMPOSITION.—The Secretary of State, respect-1
ing the unique needs of each specified country, may seek 2
to ensure that the national security council, or other iden-3
tified coordinating body, of the specified country is com-4
posed of sufficient staff and members to enable the activi-5
ties described in subsection (e). 6
(c) S
TANDARDS FOR EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES.— 7
The Secretary of State may work with the national secu-8
rity council, or other identified coordinating body, of each 9
specified country to ensure that— 10
(1) the equipment and services used by the na-11
tional security council or other identified coordi-12
nating body are compliant with security standards so 13
as to minimize the risk of cyberattacks or espionage; 14
(2) the national security council or other identi-15
fied coordinating body takes all reasonable efforts 16
not to procure or use systems, equipment, or soft-17
ware that originates from any entity identified under 18
section 1260H of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry 19
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 20
(Public Law 116–283; 10 U.S.C. 113 note); and 21
(3) to the extent practicable, the equipment and 22
services used by the national security council or 23
other identified coordinating body are interoperable 24
with the equipment and services used by the national 25
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security councils, or other identified coordinating 1
bodies, of the other specified countries. 2
(d) R
EPORT ONIMPLEMENTATION.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 4
after the date of the enactment of this Act, and an-5
nually thereafter for 2 years, the Secretary of State 6
shall submit to the appropriate committees of Con-7
gress a report that includes— 8
(A) an assessment as to whether a national 9
security council or a similar formal coordinating 10
body is helping or would help achieve the objec-11
tives described in subsection (a) at acceptable 12
financial and opportunity cost; 13
(B) a description of all actions taken by 14
the United States Government to assist in the 15
identification or maintenance of a national se-16
curity council, or other identified coordinating 17
body, in each specified country; 18
(C) with respect to each specified country, 19
an assessment as to whether— 20
(i) the specified country has appro-21
priately staffed its national security council 22
or other identified coordinating body; and 23
(ii) the extent to which the national 24
security council, or other identified coordi-25
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nating body, of the specified country is ca-1
pable of carrying out the activities de-2
scribed in subsection (e); 3
(D) an assessment of— 4
(i) any challenge to cooperation and 5
coordination with the national security 6
council, or other identified coordinating 7
body, of any specified country; 8
(ii) current efforts by the Secretary of 9
State to coordinate with the specified coun-10
tries on the activities described in sub-11
section (e); and 12
(iii) existing governmental entities 13
within each specified country that are ca-14
pable of supporting such activities; 15
(E) a description of any challenge with re-16
spect to— 17
(i) the implementation of the national 18
security council, or other identified coordi-19
nating body, of any specified country; and 20
(ii) the implementation of subsections 21
(a) through (c); 22
(F) an assessment of any attempt or cam-23
paign by a malign actor to influence the polit-24
ical, security, or economic policy of a specified 25
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country, a member of a national security coun-1
cil or other identified coordinating body, or an 2
immediate family member of such a member; 3
and 4
(G) any other matter the Secretary of 5
State considers relevant. 6
(2) F
ORM.—Each report required by paragraph 7
(1) may be submitted in unclassified form and may 8
include a classified annex. 9
(e) A
CTIVITIESDESCRIBED.—The activities de-10
scribed in this subsection are the following homeland secu-11
rity activities: 12
(1) Coordination of— 13
(A) the prosecution and investigation of 14
transnational criminal enterprises; 15
(B) responses to national emergencies, 16
such as natural disasters; 17
(C) counterintelligence and counter-coer-18
cion responses to foreign threats; and 19
(D) efforts to combat illegal, unreported, 20
or unregulated fishing. 21
(2) Coordination with United States Govern-22
ment officials on humanitarian response, military ex-23
ercises, law enforcement, and other issues of security 24
concern. 25
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(3) Identification and development of an exist-1
ing governmental entity to support homeland defense 2
and civil support activities. 3
Æ
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