“A bill to address transnational repression by foreign governments against private individuals, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section designates the Act as the “Transnational Repression Policy Act” and sets forth the table of contents.
This section establishes the policy of the United States (1) to protect persons within the United States and U.S. nationals abroad from actions by foreign governments or their agents that violate internationally recognized human rights; (2) to encourage cooperation with like-minded foreign partners to mitigate transnational repression; and (3) to pursue criminal prosecutions, as appropriate, and other steps such as facilitating mutual legal assistance, in accordance with U.S. law, to hold foreign governments and their agents—including unregistered foreign agents—accountable for transnational repression.
This section defines the term "transnational repression" for purposes of the Act as a range of tactics deployed by a foreign government, or agents or proxies of a foreign government, to reach beyond its borders to intimidate, silence, harass, coerce, or harm individuals such as political dissidents, activists, journalists, political opponents, religious and ethnic minority groups, international students, and members of diaspora and exile communities.
This section directs the Secretary of State, in coordination with the heads of other appropriate federal departments and agencies, to submit to the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and the Judiciary and the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and the Judiciary, not later than 270 days after the date of enactment, a report containing a U.S. strategy to (1) increase international awareness of transnational repression; (2) raise the costs borne by governments engaging in transnational repression by holding such governments accountable and protecting targeted individuals and groups; and (3) increase collaboration and coordination concerning transnational repression with like-minded allies and partners and in multilateral venues and international organizations. The strategy must include (1) diplomatic efforts such as advancing joint initiatives in multilateral organizations, establishing regional coalitions, analyzing a potential UN special rapporteur on transnational repression, engaging foreign missions in the United States, and public diplomacy to oppose such acts; (2) sufficient funding for civil society and nongovernmental organizations supporting victims of transnational repression and conducting related research; and (3) U.S. law enforcement measures, including consideration of updates to U.S. law to criminalize gathering information on diaspora communities on behalf of foreign governments and to expand the definition of foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. 611 et seq.) and 18 U.S.C. 951 (i.e., agents of foreign governments acting without notification), interagency coordination on surveillance and export controls, civil liberties protections, outreach to vulnerable communities, and review of foreign governments' overseas police stations. In addition, the report must include, to the extent practicable, information on governments perpetrating or aiding transnational repression, prevalent countries, complicit individuals and vulnerable groups, and U.S. government actions under existing authorities such as the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)(C)), the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 10102), and related appropriations provisions. The report must be submitted in unclassified form, with a possible classified annex, and the Secretary of State must provide annual updates to the specified committees on strategy implementation.
This section directs the Secretary of State to make training available, as appropriate, to Department of State personnel—including overseas mission leadership—on tactics and practices used by transnational repression perpetrators, governments known to employ or cooperate in such repression, digital surveillance and cyber tools, and U.S. policy priorities relevant to their countries of assignment; and authorizes such sums as necessary for FY2026 to develop and implement the curriculum. It further requires the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, Director of National Intelligence, civil society, and the business community, to provide training on those topics—plus U.S. communities and locations most vulnerable to transnational repression—to specified Department of Homeland Security employees (including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), Department of Justice personnel (including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and INTERPOL Washington), Office of Refugee Resettlement staff, other federal, state, and local law enforcement at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, and appropriate FBI private sector and community partners; and authorizes such sums as necessary for FY2026 to develop and provide the training.
This section directs the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the FBI Director, to (1) publish by 270 days after enactment a toolkit describing existing federal resources to assist and protect individuals and communities targeted by transnational repression; (2) conduct proactive outreach, with other federal agencies, to inform targeted communities about criminal incidents reportable to the FBI; (3) organize annual trainings for congressional offices' caseworker staff on transnational repression tactics and available resources; and (4) produce an assessment of data misuse by entities exporting dual-use spyware, buying or selling personally identifiable information for victim tracking and surveillance, or exporting Commerce Control List items to governments engaged in transnational repression. It authorizes appropriations of such sums as necessary for FY2026 for these research, development, outreach, and training activities.