I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1164 

To require the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study 

with respect to outreach activities performed by the Office of Foreign 

Assets Control, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 24, 2023 

Mr. LYNCH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To require the Comptroller General of the United States 

to conduct a study with respect to outreach activities 

performed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘OFAC Outreach and 

5 Engagement Capabilities Enhancement Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) The Office of Foreign Assets Control is the 

2 United States Government agency responsible for 

3 administering and enforcing economic sanctions pro4 grams, primarily against countries and groups of in5 dividuals, such as terrorists and narcotics traf6 fickers. 

7 (2) All United States persons must comply with 

8 OFAC regulations, including all United States citi9 zens and permanent resident aliens regardless of 

10 where they are located, all persons and entities with11 in the United States, all United States incorporated 

12 entities and their foreign branches. In the cases of 

13 certain programs, foreign subsidiaries owned or con14 trolled by United States companies also must com15 ply. Certain programs also require foreign persons in 

16 possession of United States-origin goods to comply. 

17 (3) While the sanctions announcements are 

18 themselves notice of the requirements placed on all 

19 United States persons, OFAC conducts additional 

20 outreach through its compliance office, serving as 

21 OFAC’s primary liaison to the private sector and op22 erating OFAC’s public ‘‘hotline’’ for sanctions-re23 lated questions and the conduct of civil investiga24 tions for potential sanctions violations. 


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1 (4) While many industries, such as large multi2 national financial institutions and industrial firms, 

3 have sophisticated sanctions departments to manage 

4 compliance with the strict-liability mandates from 

5 OFAC and to enact practices to defend their busi6 ness’ sales and supply chains from abuse by sanc7 tions-designated bad actors, many smaller entities 

8 and industries, do not. 

9 (5) According to the U.S. Department of the 

10 Treasury’s 2021 Sanctions Review, ‘‘Sanctions are 

11 only as effective as their implementation, especially 

12 with regard to communication and engagement. In 

13 order to better calibrate the use of this tool, Treas14 ury needs to communicate and coordinate more ef15 fectively with stakeholders affected by the use of fi16 nancial sanctions. Treasury can build on existing 

17 outreach and engagement capabilities through en18 hanced communication with industry, financial insti19 tutions, allies, civil society, and the media, as well as 

20 new constituencies, particularly in the digital assets 

21 space.’’. 

22 (6) The Assistant Secretary for Terrorism and 

23 Financial Intelligence noted in a 2022 speech to a 

24 private-sector audience at the American Conference 

25 Institute, ‘‘We need to redouble efforts—to make 


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1 sure that these networks do not pass under your 

2 radar and around our laws, and that when you ob3 tain information about them, you promptly take ac4 tion. This is not just a matter of compliance; it is 

5 a moral imperative. The choice is between permitting 

6 and preventing sanctions evasion—there is no space 

7 for neutral ground here.’’. 

8 (7) Examples of successful, robust Federal Gov9 ernment public-private sector outreach programs 

10 that support the agency mission abound from the 

11 law enforcement, Intelligence Community, and regu12 latory agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of In13 vestigation’s InfraGard, the Public-Private Analytic 

14 Exchange Program from the Department of Home15 land Security and the Office of the Director of Na16 tional Intelligence, and the Financial Crime Enforce17 ment Network’s FinCEN Exchange. 

18 (8) The FinCEN Exchange, from OFAC’s sis19 ter agency within the U.S. Department of the Treas20 ury, was mandated on January 1, 2021, when Con21 gress enacted the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 

22 2020 (AML Act). Section 6103 of the AML Act es23 tablishes the FinCEN Exchange to facilitate a vol24 untary public-private information-sharing partner25 ship between law enforcement agencies, national seVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:42 Feb 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1164.IH H1164

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1 curity agencies, financial institutions, and FinCEN 

2 to effectively and efficiently combat money laun3 dering, terrorism financing, organized crime, and 

4 other financial crimes, protect the financial system 

5 from illicit use, and promote national security. 

6 (9) The objective of FinCEN Exchange is to 

7 develop, deliver, and sustain innovative public-pri8 vate information sharing in order to enable the pri9 vate sector to better identify risks and provide 

10 FinCEN and law enforcement with critical informa11 tion to disrupt money laundering, terrorism financ12 ing, and other financial crimes. The program goals 

13 of the exchange are to: 

14 (A) Enhance communication, collaboration, 

15 and partnerships among FinCEN, law enforce16 ment, and financial institutions. 

17 (B) Support priority national security and 

18 counter-illicit finance investigations and poli19 cies. 

20 (C) Enhance the utility of suspicious activ21 ity reports and share feedback with the private 

22 sector. 

23 (D) Encourage, enable, and acknowledge a 

24 focus on high-value and high-impact activities. 


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1 (E) Conduct proactive outreach to allow 

2 industry to better prioritize efforts and utilize 

3 existing resources. 

4 SEC. 3. OFAC OUTREACH ASSESSMENT. 

5 (a) GAO STUDY.— 

6 (1) OUTREACH.—The Comptroller General of 

7 the United States shall, not later than 360 days 

8 after the date of the enactment of this section, carry 

9 out a study with respect to the quality and efficacy 

10 of outreach activities performed by OFAC in support 

11 of the mission of OFAC on or before the date of the 

12 enactment of this section. 

13 (2) STUDY REQUIREMENTS.— 

14 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Comptroller Gen15 eral of the United States shall, in carrying out 

16 paragraph (1), examine each of the following 

17 with respect to outreach activities performed by 

18 OFAC: 

19 (i) Goals and strategy. 

20 (ii) Audiences. 

21 (iii) Resources. 

22 (iv) Number and type of engagements 

23 with private sector entities. 

24 (v) Feedback capabilities. 


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1 (vi) Appropriate privacy and competi2 tive fairness measures for information re3 ceived from or shared with private sector 

4 entities. 

5 (vii) Compliance with the Federal Ad6 visory Committee Act, where required. 

7 (viii) How information obtained from 

8 outreach activities is used by OFAC to 

9 support the mission of OFAC. 

10 (ix) How, if at all, outreach activities 

11 help with enforcement functions. 

12 (B) SURVEY OF SIMILAR PROGRAMS.—In 

13 carrying out the study required under this sub14 section, the Comptroller General of the United 

15 States shall— 

16 (i) examine outreach programs admin17 istered by agencies with similar national 

18 security and regulatory missions, including 

19 outreach programs administered by similar 

20 agencies, including the Financial Crimes 

21 Enforcement Network; and 

22 (ii) identify best practices, similarities, 

23 and differences to inform the evaluation of 

24 existing OFAC outreach programs. 


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1 (b) BRIEFING.—OFAC shall, not later than 60 days 

2 after the date on which the Comptroller General of the 

3 United States submits a study pursuant to subsection (a), 

4 and after considering the results of such study, submit to 

5 the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Rep6 resentatives and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 

7 Urban Affairs on the Senate a briefing that describes how 

8 OFAC will improve its outreach activities going forward, 

9 including, at the time of such briefing, in relation to 

10 OFAC outreach activities, how OFAC— 

11 (1) provides information to those who must 

12 comply with OFAC sanctions, especially those in 

13 communities and industries that are known to be 

14 targeted by bad actors designated by sanctions; 

15 (2) uses outreach activities to support to the 

16 important mission of OFAC, with minimal redirec17 tion of staff and resources; 

18 (3) ensures that the selection of private-sector 

19 participants for outreach activities is free from fa20 voritism; 

21 (4) ensures that private-sector information ob22 tained by OFAC during outreach activities is appro23 priately safeguarded; 

24 (5) ensures that information shared at outreach 

25 functions can be publicized in a manner that does 


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1 not competitively disadvantage those not selected to 

2 participate in such outreach functions; 

3 (6) applies Federal requirements with respect to 

4 all outreach activities, including Federal Advisory 

5 Committee Act requirements; 

6 (7) ensures that private-sector participants not 

7 use outreach activities as an opportunity to pitch 

8 products or services or receive advance information 

9 about OFAC or Department of the Treasury pro10 curement opportunities; and 

11 (8) maintains compliance with OFAC ethics re12 quirements. 

13 (c) FEASIBILITY OF VOLUNTARY EXCHANGE PRO14 GRAM.—OFAC shall, after reviewing the report produced 

15 by the Comptroller General of the United States pursuant 

16 to subsection (a) and submitting the briefing required 

17 under subsection (b), access the feasibility of the establish18 ment of a program by OFAC designed to— 

19 (1) facilitate a voluntary public-private informa20 tion sharing partnership among law enforcement 

21 agencies, national security agencies, financial institu22 tions, and OFAC to effectively and efficiently admin23 ister and enforce economic sanctions against tar24 geted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, inter25 national narcotics traffickers, those engaged in acVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:42 Feb 24, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1164.IH H1164

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1 tivities related to the proliferation of weapons of 

2 mass destruction, and other threats to the national 

3 security, foreign policy, or economy of the United 

4 States by promoting innovation and technical ad5 vances in reporting; 

6 (2) protect the financial system from illicit use, 

7 including evasions of existing economic sanctions 

8 programs; and 

9 (3) facilitate two-way information exchange be10 tween OFAC and persons who are required to com11 ply with sanctions administered and enforced by 

12 OFAC, including financial institutions, business sec13 tors frequently affected by sanctions programs, and 

14 non-government organizations and humanitarian 

15 groups impacted by such sanctions programs. 

16 (d) PILOT PROGRAM.— 

17 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Treas18 ury may, after considering the results of the study 

19 conducted by the Comptroller General of the United 

20 States pursuant to subsection (a), the briefing pro21 vided by OFAC pursuant to subsection (b), and the 

22 feasibility assessment conducted by OFAC pursuant 

23 to subsection (c), require OFAC to establish a 3- 

24 year pilot of a program designed to— 


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1 (A) facilitate a voluntary public-private in2 formation sharing partnership among law en3 forcement agencies, national security agencies, 

4 financial institutions, and OFAC to effectively 

5 and efficiently administer and enforce economic 

6 sanctions against targeted foreign countries and 

7 regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traf8 fickers, those engaged in activities related to 

9 the proliferation of weapons of mass destruc10 tion, and other threats to the national security, 

11 foreign policy, or economy of the United States 

12 by promoting innovation and technical advances 

13 in reporting; 

14 (B) protect the financial system from illicit 

15 use, including evasions of existing economic 

16 sanctions programs; and 

17 (C) facilitate two-way information ex18 change between OFAC and persons who are re19 quired to comply with sanctions administered 

20 and enforced by OFAC, including financial in21 stitutions, business sectors frequently affected 

22 by sanctions programs, and non-government or23 ganizations and humanitarian groups impacted 

24 by such sanctions programs. 

25 (2) INFORMATION SHARING.— 


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1 (A) IN GENERAL.—Any information shared 

2 by a private sector entity as a part of any pro3 gram established under paragraph (1) shall be 

4 shared— 

5 (i) in compliance with all other appli6 cable Federal laws and regulations; and 

7 (ii) in such a manner as to ensure the 

8 appropriate confidentiality of personal in9 formation. 

10 (B) USE OF INFORMATION.—Information 

11 received by OFAC from a private sector entity 

12 as a part of any program established under 

13 paragraph (1) may not be used for any purpose 

14 other than identifying and reporting on activi15 ties that may involve the compliance with 

16 United States sanctions requirements. 

17 (C) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in 

18 this subsection may be construed to create new 

19 information sharing authorities or requirements 

20 relating to sanctions laws. 

21 (3) REPORT.—If a program is established 

22 under paragraph (1), OFAC shall, annual submit a 

23 report to the Committee on Financial Services of the 

24 House of Representatives and the Committee on 


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1 Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate 

2 that describes the activities of such program. 

3 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act: 

4 (1) OFAC.—The term ‘‘OFAC’’ means the Of5 fice of Foreign Assets Control. 

6 (2) PRIVATE SECTOR.—The term ‘‘private sec7 tor entity’’ means a business, a nonprofit organiza8 tion, a nongovernmental organization, a legal and or 

9 advisory firm that supports such a business or orga10 nization, and a technology provider that supports 

11 such a business or organization. 

Æ 


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