IC 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2318 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 20, 2012 

Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

AN ACT 

To authorize the Secretary of State to pay a reward to 

combat transnational organized crime and for information concerning foreign nationals wanted by international 

criminal tribunals, 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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Department of State 

3 Rewards Program Update and Technical Corrections Act 

4 of 2012’’. 

5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find7 ings: 

8 (1) The Department of State’s existing rewards 

9 programs permit the payment of reward for informa10 tion leading to the arrest or conviction of— 

11 (A) individuals who have committed, or at12 tempted or conspired to commit, certain acts of 

13 international terrorism; 

14 (B) individuals who have committed, or at15 tempted or conspired to commit, certain nar16 cotics-related offenses; and 

17 (C) individuals who have been indicted by 

18 certain international criminal tribunals. 

19 (2) The Department of State considers the re20 wards program to be ‘‘one of the most valuable as21 sets the U.S. Government has in the fight against 

22 international terrorism’’. Since the program’s incep23 tion in 1984, the United States Government has re24 warded over 60 people who provided actionable in25 formation that, according to the Department of 

26 State, prevented international terrorist attacks or 


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1 helped convict individuals involved in terrorist at2 tacks. 

3 (3) The program has been credited with pro4 viding information in several high-profile cases, in5 cluding the arrest of Ramzi Yousef, who was con6 victed in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Cen7 ter, the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein, who 

8 United States military forces located and killed in 

9 Iraq after receiving information about their loca10 tions, and the arrests or deaths of several members 

11 of the Abu Sayyaf group, believed to be responsible 

12 for the kidnappings and deaths of United States citi13 zens and Filipinos in the Philippines. 

14 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con15 gress that the rewards program of the Department of 

16 State should be expanded in order to— 

17 (1) address the growing threat to important 

18 United States interests from transnational criminal 

19 activity, such as intellectual property rights piracy, 

20 money laundering, trafficking in persons, arms traf21 ficking, and cybercrime; and 

22 (2) target other individuals indicted by inter23 national, hybrid, or mixed tribunals for genocide, 

24 war crimes, or crimes against humanity. 


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1 SEC. 3. ENHANCED REWARDS AUTHORITY. 

2 Section 36 of the State Department Basic Authorities 

3 Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2708) is amended— 

4 (1) in subsection (a)(2), by inserting ‘‘serious 

5 violations of international humanitarian law, 

6 transnational organized crime,’’ after ‘‘international 

7 narcotics trafficking,’’; 

8 (2) in subsection (b)— 

9 (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 

10 by striking ‘‘Attorney General’’ and inserting 

11 ‘‘heads of other relevant departments or agen12 cies’’; 

13 (B) in paragraphs (4) and (5), by striking 

14 ‘‘paragraph (1), (2), or (3)’’ both places it ap15 pears and inserting ‘‘paragraph (1), (2), (3), 

16 (8), or (9)’’; 

17 (C) in paragraph (6)— 

18 (i) by inserting ‘‘or transnational or19 ganized crime group’’ after ‘‘terrorist orga20 nization’’; and 

21 (ii) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end; 

22 (D) in paragraph (7)— 

23 (i) in the matter preceding subpara24 graph (A), by striking ‘‘, including the use 

25 by the organization of illicit narcotics pro26 duction or international narcotics trafVerDate Mar 15 2010 01:56 Dec 21, 2012 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2318.RFH S2318

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1 ficking’’ and inserting ‘‘or transnational 

2 organized crime group, including the use 

3 by such organization or group of illicit nar4 cotics production or international narcotics 

5 trafficking’’; 

6 (ii) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 

7 ‘‘or transnational organized crime’’ after 

8 ‘‘international terrorism’’; and 

9 (iii) in subparagraph (B)— 

10 (I) by inserting ‘‘or transnational 

11 organized crime group’’ after ‘‘ter12 rorist organization’’; and 

13 (II) by striking the period at the 

14 end and inserting a semicolon; and 

15 (E) by adding at the end the following new 

16 paragraphs: 

17 ‘‘(8) the arrest or conviction in any country of 

18 any individual for participating in, primarily outside 

19 the United States, transnational organized crime; 

20 ‘‘(9) the arrest or conviction in any country of 

21 any individual conspiring to participate in or at22 tempting to participate in transnational organized 

23 crime; or 

24 ‘‘(10) the arrest or conviction in any country, 

25 or the transfer to or conviction by an international 


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1 criminal tribunal (including a hybrid or mixed tri2 bunal), of any foreign national accused of war 

3 crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide, as de4 fined under the statute of such tribunal.’’; 

5 (3) in subsection (g), by adding at the end the 

6 following new paragraph: 

7 ‘‘(3) ADVANCE NOTIFICATION FOR INTER8 NATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL REWARDS.—Not less 

9 than 15 days before publicly announcing that a re10 ward may be offered for a particular foreign national 

11 accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, or 

12 genocide, the Secretary of State shall submit to the 

13 appropriate congressional committees a report, 

14 which may be submitted in classified form if nec15 essary, setting forth the reasons why the arrest or 

16 conviction of such foreign national is in the national 

17 interests of the United States.’’; and 

18 (4) in subsection (k)— 

19 (A) by redesignating paragraphs (5) and 

20 (6) as paragraphs (7) and (8), respectively; and 

21 (B) by inserting after paragraph (4) the 

22 following new paragraphs: 

23 ‘‘(5) TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME.—The 

24 term ‘transnational organized crime’ means— 


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1 ‘‘(A) racketeering activity (as such term is 

2 defined in section 1961 of title 18, United 

3 States Code) that involves at least one jurisdic4 tion outside the United States; or 

5 ‘‘(B) any other criminal offense punishable 

6 by a term of imprisonment of at least four 

7 years under Federal, State, or local law that in8 volves at least one jurisdiction outside the 

9 United States and that is intended to obtain, 

10 directly or indirectly, a financial or other mate11 rial benefit. 

12 ‘‘(6) TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME

13 GROUP.—The term ‘transnational organized crime 

14 group’ means a group of persons that includes one 

15 or more citizens of a foreign country, exists for a pe16 riod of time, and acts in concert with the aim of en17 gaging in transnational organized crime.’’. 

18 SEC. 4. TECHNICAL CORRECTION. 

19 Section 36(e)(1) of the State Department Basic Au20 thorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2708) is amended by 

21 striking ‘‘The Secretary shall authorize a reward of 

22 $50,000,000 for the capture or death or information lead23 ing to the capture or death of Osama bin Laden.’’. 


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1 SEC. 5. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

2 Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this 

3 Act shall be construed as authorizing the use of activity 

4 precluded under the American Servicemembers’ Protection 

5 Act of 2002 (title II of Public Law 107–206; 22 U.S.C. 

6 7421 et seq.). 

7 SEC. 6. FUNDING. 

8 The Secretary of State shall use amounts appro9 priated or otherwise made available to the Emergencies 

10 in the Diplomatic and Consular Services account of the 

11 Department of State to pay rewards authorized pursuant 

12 to this Act and to carry out other activities related to such 

13 rewards authorized under section 36 of the State Depart14 ment Basic Authorities Act (22 U.S.C. 2708). 

Passed the Senate December 19, 2012. 

Attest: NANCY ERICKSON, 

Secretary. 


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