I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1993 

To improve the delivery of counterterrorism financing training and technical 

assistance by providing for greater interagency coordination and cooperation, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 23, 2007 

Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin (for herself, Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts, and Mr. 

SCOTT of Georgia) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on 

Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To improve the delivery of counterterrorism financing training and technical assistance by providing for greater 

interagency coordination and cooperation, 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 ‘‘Counterterrorism Fi5 nancing Coordination Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 The Congress finds as follows: 

3 (1) In an October 2005 report to the Congress, 

4 the Comptroller General reviewed the United States 

5 Government’s interagency efforts to coordinate the 

6 delivery of training and technical assistance to coun7 tries vulnerable to terrorist financing, and issues of 

8 accountability in the blocking of terrorist assets held 

9 in the United States by the Secretary of the Treas10 ury. 

11 (2) In April 2006, the Comptroller General of 

12 the United States testified before the Congress on 

13 the findings of the October 2005 report and, among 

14 other things, the Comptroller General testified that 

15 ‘‘Although the United States Government provides a 

16 range of training and technical assistance to coun17 tries it deems vulnerable to terrorist financing, it 

18 does not have a strategic and integrated plan to co19 ordinate the delivery of this assistance.’’. 

20 (3) The Terrorist Financing Working Group, 

21 an interagency entity established by the National Se22 curity Council and chaired by the Secretary of State, 

23 coordinates the delivery of training and technical as24 sistance to nearly two dozen countries the Working 

25 Group considers to be priority countries, as well as 

26 to other countries the Working Group considers to 


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1 be nonpriority countries, that are vulnerable to ter2 rorist financing. 

3 (4) The Comptroller General testified that the 

4 Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury 

5 disagree about the roles and procedures of each 

6 agency within the Terrorist Financing Working 

7 Group for the delivery of counterterrorism financing 

8 training and technical assistance, thereby causing 

9 the overall effort to lack effective leadership. 

10 (5) An example of how this disagreement has 

11 impacted the delivery of training and technical as12 sistance to countries vulnerable to terrorist financing 

13 is as follows: 

14 (A) In May 2005, the Department of State 

15 denied a Department of the Treasury employee 

16 official entry into a priority country in response 

17 to a request from the central bank of that coun18 try to set up a financial intelligence unit. 

19 (B) The Secretary of State told the Comp20 troller General that the Department wanted to 

21 conduct a Terrorist Financing Working Group 

22 assessment before allowing the Department of 

23 the Treasury to continue its work. 

24 (C) According to the report of the Govern25 ment Accountability Office, the United States 


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1 Ambassador to the country requested a delay in 

2 the assessment and the work of the Department 

3 of the Treasury was allowed to proceed. 

4 (D) However, as a result of this disagree5 ment, the entry of the Department of the 

6 Treasury official into the country and the work 

7 itself was delayed by several months. 

8 (6) The Comptroller General testified that the 

9 interagency coordinating effort on terrorist financing 

10 training and technical assistance lacked other key 

11 elements that are critical to effective strategic plan12 ning, such as the strategic alignment of resources 

13 with needs and risks, and a process to measure re14 sults. 

15 (7) The October 2005 report of the Comptroller 

16 General found that the Attorney General, who pro17 vides technical assistance in the drafting of anti-ter18 rorist financing legislation for priority countries, 

19 concluded that ‘‘having procedures and practices for 

20 Terrorist Financing Working Group priority coun21 tries that differ from those for other vulnerable 

22 countries creates problems’’. 

23 (8) The October 2005 report of the Comptroller 

24 General cited several instances of interagency dis25 agreements on whether it is appropriate for contracVerDate Aug 31 2005 01:09 May 11, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1993.IH H1993

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1 tors for the United States to provide legislative 

2 drafting assistance for counterterrorism financing 

3 legislation. 

4 (9) In connection with this disagreement, the 

5 Secretary of State and the Attorney General believe 

6 that legislative drafting should be conducted by offi7 cials of the Department of Justice, while the Sec8 retary of the Treasury, in some instances, advocated 

9 the use of contractors for nonpriority countries. 

10 (10) The Attorney General objected to the use 

11 of contractors and indicated that previous contractor 

12 work on legislative drafting did not meet inter13 national standards for effective counterterrorism fi14 nancing legislation, citing as an example the work of 

15 a contractor to the Agency for International Devel16 opment who assisted in drafting legislation which of17 ficials of the Department of Justice had to complete 

18 because the draft included substantial deficiencies, 

19 in the opinion of the Attorney General. 

20 (11) In April 2006, officials representing the 

21 Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury 

22 testified before the Financial Services Committee of 

23 the House of Representatives that they did not act 

24 on the Comptroller General’s recommendations to 

25 develop a strategic and integrated plan for the delivVerDate Aug 31 2005 01:09 May 11, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1993.IH H1993

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1 ery of counterterrorism financing training and tech2 nical assistance and to enter into an interagency 

3 Memorandum of Agreement that clarifies each agen4 cy’s roles and responsibilities. 

5 (12) The officials testified that both the Sec6 retary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury 

7 believe that an integrated strategic plan already ex8 ists and that ‘‘There is no desire among the Ter9 rorist Financing Working Group agencies to reinvent 

10 a process that has worked well for several years and 

11 worked even better since the issuance of the General 

12 Accountability Office report.’’. 

13 (13) The Comptroller General recommended in 

14 his congressional testimony that Congress require 

15 ‘‘the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the 

16 Treasury to submit an annual report to Congress 

17 showing the status of interagency efforts to develop 

18 and implement an integrated strategic plan and 

19 Memorandum of Agreement to ensure Terrorist Fi20 nancing Working Group’s seamless functioning, par21 ticularly with respect to Terrorist Financing Work22 ing Group roles and procedures’’. 

23 SEC. 3. MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT REQUIRED. 

24 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of State and the 

25 Secretary of the Treasury shall negotiate and enter into 


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1 a Memorandum of Agreement (hereafter in this section 

2 referred to as the ‘‘Agreement’’) specifying the role of each 

3 of the Secretaries’ respective Departments in the delivery 

4 of counterterrorism financing training and technical as5 sistance provided to countries abroad (without regard to 

6 whether any country is designated as a priority country 

7 or a nonpriority country by the Terrorist Financing Work8 ing Group). 

9 (b) SPECIFIC SUBJECT TO BE INCLUDED.—In addi10 tion to such other matters as the Secretary of State and 

11 the Secretary of the Treasury determine to be appropriate 

12 for inclusion in the Agreement, the Agreement shall in13 clude the following: 

14 (1) LEADERSHIP AND ROLE.—The specific des15 ignation of leadership, and the role of each agency, 

16 in the delivery of counterterrorism financing training 

17 and technical assistance to all countries (without re18 gard to whether any country is designated as a pri19 ority country or a nonpriority country by the Ter20 rorist Financing Working Group). 

21 (2) DISPUTE RESOLUTION METHODOLOGY.—A 

22 methodology and procedures for resolving inter23 agency disputes over the delivery of counterterrorism 

24 financing training and technical assistance, which 

25 shall include specific and reasonable timeframes for 


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1 seeking such resolution before elevating unresolved 

2 disagreements to the next level of decision-making, 

3 up to and including the Secretaries, and a process 

4 for submitting any disputes the Secretaries are un5 able to resolve within a specific and reasonable time6 frame to the National Security Council for resolu7 tion. 

8 (3) COORDINATION OF FUNDING AND RE9 SOURCES.—The coordination of funding and re10 sources for counterterrorism financing and anti11 money laundering training and technical assistance 

12 delivered to all countries (without regard to whether 

13 any country is designated as a priority country or a 

14 nonpriority country by the Terrorist Financing 

15 Working Group), including the means for providing 

16 a transparent assessment of United States Govern17 ment resources and a method for aligning those re18 sources with the needs of vulnerable countries. 

19 (4) PRIVATE CONTRACTORS.—A procedure for 

20 determining the appropriateness of any use of con21 tractors by the Secretary of the Treasury in the de22 livery of counterterrorism financing training and 

23 technical assistance in any country (without regard 

24 to whether the country is designated as a priority 

25 country or a nonpriority country by the Terrorist FiVerDate Aug 31 2005 23:21 May 10, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1993.IH H1993

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1 nancing Working Group), including a system for 

2 evaluating, in consultation with the Secretary of 

3 State, the Attorney General and other appropriate 

4 officers, the quality of work performed by such con5 tractors. 

6 (5) PERFORMANCE EVALUATION.—A process to 

7 measure the performance and results of 

8 counterterrorism training and technical assistance. 

9 SEC. 4. ANNUAL REPORT. 

10 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Treasury 

11 shall include in the annual report to the Congress on ter12 rorist assets complete information on the nature and ex13 tent of activities, during the period covered by the report, 

14 in blocking access of owners or account holders to finan15 cial assets due to the connection of such owners or 

16 accountholders to terrorism. 

17 (b) CONTENTS.—The report under subsection (a) 

18 shall include the following: 

19 (1) The results of the performance evaluation 

20 under Memorandum of Agreement entered into pur21 suant to section 3 for the period covered by the re22 port. 

23 (2) Differences in amounts blocked between the 

24 period covered by the report and preceding periods. 


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1 (3) When and why blocks were removed from fi2 nancial assets during period covered by the report. 

3 (4) The achievements and obstacles faced by 

4 the United States Government with respect to locat5 ing and blocking terrorist assets or in the delivery 

6 of counterterrorism financing training and technical 

7 assistance. 

8 (5) A classified index. 

Æ 


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