II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 2715
To authorize the Secretary of Defense to conduct detection, monitoring,
and other operations in cyberspace to counter Mexican transnational
criminal organizations that are engaged in certain activities that cross
the southern border of the United States, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JULY27, 2023
Mr. R
OUNDS(for himself and Mr. MANCHIN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services
A BILL
To authorize the Secretary of Defense to conduct detection,
monitoring, and other operations in cyberspace to
counter Mexican transnational criminal organizations
that are engaged in certain activities that cross the
southern border of the United States, and for other
purposes.
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 ‘‘Countering Mexican 4
Transnational Criminal Organizations in Cyberspace Act 5
of 2023’’. 6
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•S 2715 IS
SEC. 2. AUTHORITY FOR COUNTERING ILLEGAL TRAF-1
FICKING BY MEXICAN TRANSNATIONAL 2
CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS IN CYBERSPACE. 3
(a) A
UTHORITY.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—In accordance with sections 5
124 and 394 of title 10, United States Code, the 6
Secretary of Defense may, in coordination with other 7
relevant Federal departments and agencies and in 8
consultation with the Government of Mexico as ap-9
propriate, conduct detection, monitoring, and other 10
operations in cyberspace to counter Mexican 11
transnational criminal organizations that are en-12
gaged in any of the following activities that cross the 13
southern border of the United States: 14
(A) Smuggling of illegal drugs, controlled 15
substances, or precursors thereof. 16
(B) Human trafficking. 17
(C) Weapons trafficking. 18
(D) Other illegal activities. 19
(2) C
ERTAIN ENTITIES.—The authority pro-20
vided by paragraph (1) may be used to counter 21
Mexican transnational criminal organizations, in-22
cluding entities cited in the most recent National 23
Drug Threat Assessment published by the United 24
States Drug Enforcement Administration, that are 25
engaged in the activities described in (1). 26
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(b) CYBERSTRATEGY FOR COUNTERINGILLEGAL 1
T
RAFFICKING BYTRANSNATIONALCRIMINALORGANIZA-2
TIONSAFFECTING THE SECURITY OFUNITEDSTATES 3
S
OUTHERNBORDER.— 4
(1) S
TRATEGY REQUIRED .—Not later than 60 5
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 6
Secretary shall, in consultation with the National 7
Cyber Director and the heads of such other Federal 8
departments and agencies as the Secretary considers 9
appropriate, submit to the appropriate congressional 10
committees a strategy for conducting operations in 11
cyberspace under subsection (a). 12
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The strategy submitted pur-13
suant to paragraph (1) shall include the following: 14
(A) A description of the cyberspace pres-15
ence and activities, including any information 16
operations, of the entities described under sub-17
section (a)(2) pose to the national security of 18
the United States. 19
(B) A description of any previous actions 20
taken by the Department of Defense to conduct 21
operations in cyberspace to counter illegal ac-22
tivities by transnational criminal organizations, 23
and a description of those actions. 24
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(C) An assessment of the financial, techno-1
logical, and personnel resources that the Sec-2
retary can deploy to exercise the authority pro-3
vided in subsection (a) to counter illegal traf-4
ficking by transnational criminal organizations. 5
(D) Recommendations, if any, for addi-6
tional authorities as may be required to en-7
hance the exercise of the authority provided in 8
subsection (a). 9
(E) A description of the extent to which 10
the Secretary has worked, or intends to work, 11
with the Government of Mexico, interagency 12
partners, and the private sector to enable oper-13
ations in cyberspace against illegal trafficking 14
by transnational criminal organizations. 15
(F) A description of the security coopera-16
tion programs in effect on the day before the 17
date of the enactment of this Act that would 18
enable the Secretary to cooperate with Mexican 19
defense partners against illegal trafficking by 20
transnational criminal organizations in cyber-21
space. 22
(G) An assessment of the potential risks 23
associated with cooperating with Mexican coun-24
terparts against transnational criminal organi-25
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zations in cyberspace and ways that those risks 1
can be mitigated, including in cooperation with 2
Mexican partners. 3
(H) A description of any cooperation 4
agreements or initiatives in effect on the day 5
before the date of the enactment of this Act 6
with interagency partners and the government 7
of Mexico to counter transnational criminal or-8
ganizations in cyberspace. 9
(c) Q
UARTERLYMONITORINGBRIEFING.—The Sec-10
retary shall, on a quarterly basis in conjunction with the 11
briefings required by section 484 of title 10, United States 12
Code, provide to the appropriate congressional committees 13
a briefing setting forth, for the preceding calendar quar-14
ter, the following: 15
(1) Each country in which an operation was 16
conducted under subsection (a). 17
(2) The purpose and nature of each operation 18
set forth pursuant to paragraph (1). 19
(3) The start date and end date or expected du-20
ration of each operation set forth pursuant to para-21
graph (1). 22
(4) The elements of the Department of Defense 23
down to O–6 command level who conducted or are 24
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conducting the operations set forth pursuant to 1
paragraph (1). 2
(d) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-3
tion shall be construed to supersede any standing prohibi-4
tions on collection of information on United States per-5
sons. 6
Æ
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