IIB 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 758 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 12, 2019 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 

Urban Affairs 

AN ACT 

To provide a safe harbor for financial institutions that maintain a customer account or customer transaction at the 

request of a Federal or State law enforcement agency. 

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 ‘‘Cooperate with Law 

3 Enforcement Agencies and Watch Act of 2019’’. 

4 SEC. 2. SAFE HARBOR WITH RESPECT TO KEEP OPEN LET5 TERS. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 53 of 

7 title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 

8 end the following: 

9 ‘‘§ 5333. Safe harbor with respect to keep open letters 

10 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—With respect to a customer ac11 count or customer transaction of a financial institution, 

12 if a Federal, State, Tribal, or local law enforcement agen13 cy requests, in writing, the financial institution to keep 

14 such account or transaction open— 

15 ‘‘(1) the financial institution shall not be liable 

16 under this subchapter for maintaining such account 

17 or transaction consistent with the parameters of the 

18 request; and 

19 ‘‘(2) no Federal or State department or agency 

20 may take any adverse supervisory action under this 

21 subchapter with respect to the financial institution 

22 for maintaining such account or transaction con23 sistent with the parameters of the request. 

24 ‘‘(b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec25 tion may be construed— 


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1 ‘‘(1) from preventing a Federal or State depart2 ment or agency from verifying the validity of a writ3 ten request described under subsection (a) with the 

4 Federal, State, Tribal, or local law enforcement 

5 agency making the written request; or 

6 ‘‘(2) to relieve a financial institution from com7 plying with any reporting requirements, including 

8 the reporting of suspicious transactions under sec9 tion 5318(g). 

10 ‘‘(c) LETTER TERMINATION DATE.—For purposes of 

11 this section, any written request described under sub12 section (a) shall include a termination date after which 

13 such request shall no longer apply.’’. 

14 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

15 for chapter 53 of title 31, United States Code, is amended 

16 by inserting after the item relating to section 5332 the 

17 following: 

‘‘5333. Safe harbor with respect to keep open letters.’’. 

18 SEC. 3. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS. 

19 The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of 

20 complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, 

21 shall be determined by reference to the latest statement 

22 titled ‘‘Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation’’ for this 

23 Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record 

24 by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, proVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:12 Mar 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H758.RFS H758

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1 vided that such statement has been submitted prior to the 

2 vote on passage. 

Passed the House of Representatives March 11, 

2019. 

Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, 

Clerk. 


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