US
Us Congress House Bill HB2158

Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB2158 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.
OldNewDifferences
11 I
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION H. R. 2158
55 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize a dedicated
66 transnational repression working group within the Department of Home-
77 land Security to analyze and monitor transnational repression and ter-
88 rorism threats related to transnational repression, and for other purposes.
99 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
1010 MARCH14, 2025
1111 Mr. P
1212 FLUGER(for himself, Mr. MAGAZINER, Mr. EVANSof Colorado, Mr.
1313 O
1414 GLES, Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. GUEST, and Ms. LEEof Florida) introduced
1515 the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Homeland Se-
1616 curity, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period
1717 to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
1818 ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
1919 concerned
2020 A BILL
2121 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize
2222 a dedicated transnational repression working group with-
2323 in the Department of Homeland Security to analyze and
2424 monitor transnational repression and terrorism threats
2525 related to transnational repression, and for other pur-
2626 poses.
2727 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
2828 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2929 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2158.IH H2158
3030 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
3131 •HR 2158 IH
3232 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
3333 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Countering 2
3434 Transnational Repression Act of 2025’’. 3
3535 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 4
3636 It is the sense of Congress that— 5
3737 (1) transnational repression and terrorism 6
3838 threats related to transnational repression by a for-7
3939 eign government or an agent of a foreign govern-8
4040 ment to target individuals in the United States and 9
4141 persons outside of the United States are real and 10
4242 growing; 11
4343 (2) agents acting on behalf of hostile foreign 12
4444 governments employ a range of transnational repres-13
4545 sion tactics, including making threats, intimidation, 14
4646 harassment, surveillance, stalking, silencing, and 15
4747 planning physical harm or the kidnapping of individ-16
4848 uals in the United States; and 17
4949 (3) the Department of Homeland Security must 18
5050 take steps to recognize, assess, and help address this 19
5151 threat, thereby reducing risks to the people of the 20
5252 United States. 21
5353 SEC. 3. WORKING GROUP TO COUNTER TRANSNATIONAL 22
5454 REPRESSION. 23
5555 (a) I
5656 NGENERAL.—Subtitle H of title VIII of the 24
5757 Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 451 et seq.) 25
5858 is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 26
5959 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2158.IH H2158
6060 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
6161 •HR 2158 IH
6262 ‘‘SEC. 890E. WORKING GROUP TO COUNTER 1
6363 TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION. 2
6464 ‘‘(a) W
6565 ORKINGGROUP.— 3
6666 ‘‘(1) E
6767 STABLISHMENT.—There is established a 4
6868 Working Group, to be known as the ‘Transnational 5
6969 Repression Working Group’ (in this section referred 6
7070 to as the ‘Working Group’), within the Department, 7
7171 which shall be responsible for, in coordination with 8
7272 the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, analyzing 9
7373 and monitoring transnational repression and ter-10
7474 rorism threats related to transnational repression. 11
7575 ‘‘(2) D
7676 IRECTOR.— 12
7777 ‘‘(A) A
7878 PPOINTMENT OF DIRECTOR .—The 13
7979 head of the Working Group shall be a Director 14
8080 of the Transnational Repression Working 15
8181 Group, who shall be appointed by the Director 16
8282 of Homeland Security Investigations. 17
8383 ‘‘(B) R
8484 EPORTING.—The Director of the 18
8585 Transnational Repression Working Group shall 19
8686 report to the Secretary and the Director of 20
8787 Homeland Security Investigations regarding all 21
8888 administrative, operational, and security mat-22
8989 ters of the Working Group. 23
9090 ‘‘(3) S
9191 TAFFING.—The Director of Homeland 24
9292 Security Investigations shall ensure the Working 25
9393 Group— 26
9494 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2158.IH H2158
9595 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
9696 •HR 2158 IH
9797 ‘‘(A) has a sufficient number of employees 1
9898 to perform required duties; and 2
9999 ‘‘(B) has at least one employee dedicated 3
100100 to ensuring compliance with privacy laws and 4
101101 regulations. 5
102102 ‘‘(4) D
103103 ETAILEES AUTHORIZED .—The Working 6
104104 Group may accept and employ detailees with exper-7
105105 tise in countering transnational repression and ter-8
106106 rorism threats related to transnational repression or 9
107107 related fields from any element of the intelligence 10
108108 community, or any other Federal agency the Direc-11
109109 tor of the Transnational Repression Working Group 12
110110 determines appropriate, with or without reimburse-13
111111 ment, consistent with applicable laws and regula-14
112112 tions regarding such employees. 15
113113 ‘‘(5) I
114114 NFORMATION SHARING .—The Working 16
115115 Group, in coordination with the Office of Intelligence 17
116116 and Analysis, shall review information relating to 18
117117 transnational repression and terrorism threats re-19
118118 lated to transnational repression that is gathered by 20
119119 Federal, State, local, Tribal, and territorial partners, 21
120120 and the National Network of Fusion Centers, and 22
121121 incorporate such information, as appropriate, into 23
122122 the Working Group’s own information relating to 24
123123 transnational repression and terrorism threats re-25
124124 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2158.IH H2158
125125 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5
126126 •HR 2158 IH
127127 lated to transnational repression. The Working 1
128128 Group shall ensure the dissemination to Federal, 2
129129 State, local, Tribal, and territorial partners, and the 3
130130 National Network of Fusion Centers, of information 4
131131 related to transnational repression and terrorism 5
132132 threats related to transnational repression. 6
133133 ‘‘(6) H
134134 OMELAND SECURITY ASSESSMENT ON 7
135135 TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION .— 8
136136 ‘‘(A) A
137137 NNUAL ASSESSMENTS .—Not later 9
138138 than 180 days after the date of the enactment 10
139139 of this section and annually thereafter for seven 11
140140 years, the Director of Homeland Security Inves-12
141141 tigations, acting through the Director of the 13
142142 Transnational Repression Working Group, in 14
143143 coordination with the Office of Intelligence and 15
144144 Analysis and the Office of the Director of Na-16
145145 tional Intelligence and the Federal Bureau of 17
146146 Investigation, as appropriate, shall submit to 18
147147 the Committee on Homeland Security of the 19
148148 House of Representatives and the Committee 20
149149 on Homeland Security and Governmental Af-21
150150 fairs of the Senate a report that assesses inci-22
151151 dents of transnational repression and terrorism 23
152152 threats related to transnational repression dur-24
153153 ing the immediately preceding 12 months. 25
154154 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2158.IH H2158
155155 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6
156156 •HR 2158 IH
157157 ‘‘(B) CONTENTS.—Each assessment sub-1
158158 mitted under subparagraph (A) shall also in-2
159159 clude the following: 3
160160 ‘‘(i) An analysis of attempted inci-4
161161 dents of transnational repression and ter-5
162162 rorism threats related to transnational re-6
163163 pression. 7
164164 ‘‘(ii) A quantitative analysis of 8
165165 transnational repression and terrorism 9
166166 threats related to transnational repression, 10
167167 including the number of individuals re-11
168168 sponsible for or associated with such 12
169169 transnational repression or terrorism 13
170170 threats related to transnational repression, 14
171171 and an identification of the country of citi-15
172172 zenship or nationality of each such indi-16
173173 vidual, and the roles of the foreign govern-17
174174 ments of such countries in enabling, pre-18
175175 venting, mitigating, and responding to 19
176176 transnational repression and terrorism 20
177177 threats related to transnational repression. 21
178178 ‘‘(iii) Subject to appropriate protec-22
179179 tions for sensitive information regarding 23
180180 law enforcement investigations and oper-24
181181 ations, a description of efforts by the Fed-25
182182 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2158.IH H2158
183183 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 7
184184 •HR 2158 IH
185185 eral Government to disrupt through inves-1
186186 tigation transnational repression and ter-2
187187 rorism threats related to transnational re-3
188188 pression. 4
189189 ‘‘(iv) Any other matters the Director 5
190190 of Homeland Security Investigations deter-6
191191 mines relevant. 7
192192 ‘‘(C) F
193193 ORM.—Each assessment under sub-8
194194 paragraph (A) shall be submitted in unclassi-9
195195 fied form, but may include a classified annex 10
196196 only for the protection of intelligence sources 11
197197 and methods relating to the matters contained 12
198198 in such assessment. The Director of Homeland 13
199199 Security Investigations shall post on a publicly 14
200200 available website of the Department the unclas-15
201201 sified portion of each such assessment. 16
202202 ‘‘(7) S
203203 UNSET.—The Working Group shall ter-17
204204 minate on the date that is seven years after the date 18
205205 of the enactment of this section. 19
206206 ‘‘(b) R
207207 ESEARCH.—Not later than one year after the 20
208208 date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary, in 21
209209 coordination with the Under Secretary for Science and 22
210210 Technology of the Department, the Director of the 23
211211 Transnational Repression Office, and the Director of 24
212212 Homeland Security Investigations, shall, to the extent 25
213213 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2158.IH H2158
214214 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 8
215215 •HR 2158 IH
216216 practicable, carry out research and development, including 1
217217 operational testing, of technologies and techniques for en-2
218218 hancing the Department’s support to Federal, State, local, 3
219219 Tribal, and territorial officials relating to countering 4
220220 transnational repression and terrorism threats related to 5
221221 transnational repression. 6
222222 ‘‘(c) I
223223 MPLEMENTATION.—All activities carried out 7
224224 pursuant to this section— 8
225225 ‘‘(1) shall be carried out in accordance with ap-9
226226 plicable constitutional, privacy, civil rights, and civil 10
227227 liberties protections; and 11
228228 ‘‘(2) may not infringe upon the lawful exercise 12
229229 of free speech by United States persons. 13
230230 ‘‘(d) D
231231 EFINITIONS.—In this section: 14
232232 ‘‘(1) A
233233 GENT OF A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT .— 15
234234 The term ‘agent of a foreign government’ means an 16
235235 individual or entity that operates subject to the di-17
236236 rection and control of— 18
237237 ‘‘(A) a foreign government; or 19
238238 ‘‘(B) an official or entity of such foreign 20
239239 government. 21
240240 ‘‘(2) F
241241 OREIGN GOVERNMENT .—The term ‘for-22
242242 eign government’ means the government of a foreign 23
243243 country. 24
244244 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2158.IH H2158
245245 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 9
246246 •HR 2158 IH
247247 ‘‘(3) FUSION CENTER.—The term ‘fusion cen-1
248248 ter’ has the meaning given such term in subsection 2
249249 (j) of section 210A. 3
250250 ‘‘(4) I
251251 NTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY .—The term 4
252252 ‘intelligence community’ has the meaning given such 5
253253 term in section 3(4) of the National Security Act of 6
254254 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003(4)). 7
255255 ‘‘(5) N
256256 ATIONAL NETWORK OF FUSION CEN -8
257257 TERS.—The term ‘National Network of Fusion Cen-9
258258 ters’ means a decentralized arrangement of fusion 10
259259 centers intended to enhance individual State and 11
260260 urban area fusion centers’ ability to leverage the ca-12
261261 pabilities and expertise of all such fusion centers for 13
262262 the purpose of enhancing analysis and homeland se-14
263263 curity information sharing nationally. 15
264264 ‘‘(6) T
265265 RANSNATIONAL REPRESSION .—The term 16
266266 ‘transnational repression’ means an action of a for-17
267267 eign government or an agent of a foreign govern-18
268268 ment that satisfies each of the following: 19
269269 ‘‘(A) The action involves— 20
270270 ‘‘(i) any effort intended to coerce, har-21
271271 ass, or digitally or physically threaten, in-22
272272 cluding by force or reasonable fear of 23
273273 death or serious bodily injury or imprison-24
274274 ment of a person or an immediate family 25
275275 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2158.IH H2158
276276 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 10
277277 •HR 2158 IH
278278 member of a person, a person to take an 1
279279 action in the interest of such a foreign gov-2
280280 ernment; 3
281281 ‘‘(ii) any effort intended to harass or 4
282282 coerce, including by force or fear, a person 5
283283 to forebear from exercising the First 6
284284 Amendment rights of such person or any 7
285285 other right guaranteed to such person by 8
286286 the Constitution or laws of the United 9
287287 States, or to retaliate against a person for 10
288288 having exercised such a right; 11
289289 ‘‘(iii) an extrajudicial killing; or 12
290290 ‘‘(iv) any act intended to further the 13
291291 efforts specified in clause (i), (ii), or (iii). 14
292292 ‘‘(B) The action is engaged in for or in the 15
293293 interests of such a foreign government. 16
294294 ‘‘(C) The action— 17
295295 ‘‘(i) occurs, in whole or in part, in the 18
296296 United States; or 19
297297 ‘‘(ii) is committed against a United 20
298298 States person. 21
299299 ‘‘(7) U
300300 NITED STATES PERSON .—The term 22
301301 ‘United States person’ has the meaning given such 23
302302 term in section 1637(d)(10) of the Carl Levin and 24
303303 Howard P. ‘Buck’ McKeon National Defense Au-25
304304 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2158.IH H2158
305305 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 11
306306 •HR 2158 IH
307307 thorization Act for Fiscal year 2015 (50 U.S.C. 1
308308 1708(d)(10)).’’. 2
309309 (b) C
310310 LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 3
311311 in section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 is 4
312312 amended by inserting after the item relating to section 5
313313 890D the following new item: 6
314314 ‘‘Sec. 890E. Working group to counter transnational repression.’’.
315315 Æ
316316 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:17 Mar 18, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2158.IH H2158
317317 ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS