I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1493 

To address state-sponsored cyber activities against the United States, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 4, 2019 

Mr. YOHO (for himself, Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. LANGEVIN, Mrs. LESKO, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. CURTIS, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Mr. MEADOWS, Mr. CHABOT, Mr. FITZPATRICK, and Mr. 

RATCLIFFE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Financial Services, Oversight and Reform, and the Judiciary, 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 address state-sponsored cyber activities against the 

United States, 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 ‘‘Cyber Deterrence and 

5 Response Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) On February 13, 2018, the Director of Na2 tional Intelligence stated in his testimony before the 

3 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that ‘‘Rus4 sia, China, Iran, and North Korea will pose the 

5 greatest cyber threats to the United States during 

6 the next year’’ through the use of cyber operations 

7 as low-cost tools of statecraft, and assessed that 

8 these states would ‘‘work to use cyber operations to 

9 achieve strategic objectives unless they face clear re10 percussions for their cyber operations’’. 

11 (2) The 2017 Worldwide Threat Assessment of 

12 the United States Intelligence Community stated 

13 that ‘‘The potential for surprise in the cyber realm 

14 will increase in the next year and beyond as billions 

15 more digital devices are connected—with relatively 

16 little built-in security—and both nation states and 

17 malign actors become more emboldened and better 

18 equipped in the use of increasingly widespread cyber 

19 toolkits. The risk is growing that some adversaries 

20 will conduct cyber attacks—such as data deletion or 

21 localized and temporary disruptions of critical infra22 structure—against the United States in a crisis 

23 short of war.’’. 

24 (3) On March 29, 2017, President Donald J. 

25 Trump deemed it necessary to continue the national 


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1 emergency declared in Executive Order No. 13694 

2 as ‘‘Significant malicious cyber-enabled activities 

3 originating from, or directed by persons located, in 

4 whole or in substantial part, outside the United 

5 States, continue to pose an unusual and extraor6 dinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, 

7 and economy of the United States.’’. 

8 (4) On January 5, 2017, former Director of 

9 National Intelligence, James Clapper, former Under10 secretary of Defense for Intelligence, Marcel Lettre, 

11 and the Commander of the United States Cyber 

12 Command, Admiral Michael Rogers, submitted joint 

13 testimony to the Committee on Armed Services of 

14 the Senate that stated ‘‘As of late 2016 more than 

15 30 nations are developing offensive cyber attack ca16 pabilities’’ and that ‘‘Protecting critical infrastruc17 ture, such as crucial energy, financial, manufac18 turing, transportation, communication, and health 

19 systems, will become an increasingly complex na20 tional security challenge.’’. 

21 (5) There is significant evidence that hackers 

22 affiliated with foreign governments have conducted 

23 cyber operations targeting companies and critical in24 frastructure sectors in the United States as the DeVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:21 Mar 20, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1493.IH H1493

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1 partment of Justice and the Department of the 

2 Treasury have announced that— 

3 (A) on March 15, 2018, five Russian enti4 ties and 19 Russian individuals were designated 

5 under the Countering America’s Adversaries 

6 Through Sanctions Act, as well as pursuant to 

7 Executive Order No. 13694, for interference in 

8 the 2016 United States elections and other ma9 licious cyber-enabled activities; 

10 (B) on March 24, 2016, seven Iranians 

11 working for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps12 affiliated entities were indicted for conducting 

13 distributed denial of service attacks against the 

14 financial sector in the United States from 2012 

15 to 2013; and 

16 (C) on May 19, 2014, five Chinese military 

17 hackers were charged for hacking United States 

18 companies in the nuclear power, metals, and 

19 solar products industries, and engaging in eco20 nomic espionage. 

21 (6) In May 2017, North Korea released 

22 ‘‘WannaCry’’ pseudo-ransomware, which posed a sig23 nificant risk to the economy, national security, and 

24 the citizens of the United States and the world, as 

25 it resulted in the infection of over 300,000 computer 


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1 systems in more than 150 countries, including in the 

2 healthcare sector of the United Kingdom, dem3 onstrating the global reach and cost of cyber-enabled 

4 malicious activity. 

5 (7) In June 2017, Russia carried out the most 

6 destructive cyber-enabled operation in history, re7 leasing the NotPetya malware that caused billions of 

8 dollars’ worth of damage within Ukraine and across 

9 Europe, Asia, and the Americas. 

10 (8) In May 2018, the Department of State, 

11 pursuant to section 3(b) of Executive Order No. 

12 13800, prepared recommendations to the President 

13 on Deterring Adversaries and Better Protecting the 

14 American People From Cyber Threats, which stated 

15 ‘‘With respect to activities below the threshold of the 

16 use of force, the United States should, working with 

17 likeminded partners when possible, adopt an ap18 proach of imposing swift, costly, and transparent 

19 consequences on foreign governments responsible for 

20 significant malicious cyber activities aimed at harm21 ing U.S. national interests.’’. 

22 SEC. 3. ACTIONS TO ADDRESS STATE-SPONSORED CYBER 

23 ACTIVITIES AGAINST THE UNITED STATES. 

24 (a) DESIGNATION AS A CRITICAL CYBER THREAT

25 ACTOR.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—The President, acting 

2 through the Secretary of State, and in coordination 

3 with other relevant Federal agency heads, shall des4 ignate as a critical cyber threat actor— 

5 (A) each foreign person and each agency 

6 or instrumentality of a foreign state that the 

7 President determines to be knowingly respon8 sible for or complicit in, or have engaged in, di9 rectly or indirectly, state-sponsored cyber activi10 ties that are reasonably likely to result in, or 

11 have contributed to, a significant threat to the 

12 national security, foreign policy, or economic 

13 health or financial stability of the United States 

14 and that have the purpose or effect of— 

15 (i) causing a significant disruption to 

16 the availability of a computer or network 

17 of computers; 

18 (ii) harming, or otherwise significantly 

19 compromising the provision of service by, a 

20 computer or network of computers that 

21 support one or more entities in a critical 

22 infrastructure sector; 

23 (iii) significantly compromising the 

24 provision of services by one or more enti25 ties in a critical infrastructure sector; 


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1 (iv) causing a significant misappro2 priation of funds or economic resources, 

3 trade secrets, personal identifiers, or finan4 cial information for commercial or competi5 tive advantage or private financial gain; 

6 (v) destabilizing the financial sector of 

7 the United States by tampering with, alter8 ing, or causing a misappropriation of data; 

9 or 

10 (vi) interfering with or undermining 

11 election processes or institutions by tam12 pering with, altering, or causing misappro13 priation of data; 

14 (B) each foreign person that the President 

15 has determined to have knowingly, significantly, 

16 and materially assisted, sponsored, or provided 

17 financial, material, or technological support for, 

18 or goods or services to or in support of, any ac19 tivities described in subparagraph (A) by a for20 eign person or agency or instrumentality of a 

21 foreign state designated as a critical cyber 

22 threat actor under subparagraph (A); and 

23 (C) each agency or instrumentality of a 

24 foreign state that the President has determined 

25 to have significantly and materially assisted, 


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1 sponsored, or provided financial, material, or 

2 technological support for, or goods or services 

3 to or in support of, any activities described in 

4 subparagraph (A) by a foreign person or agency 

5 or instrumentality of a foreign state designated 

6 as a critical cyber threat actor under subpara7 graph (A). 

8 (2) TRANSMISSION TO CONGRESS.—Not later 

9 than 7 days after designating a foreign person or 

10 agency or instrumentality of a foreign state as a 

11 critical cyber threat actor, the President shall trans12 mit to the appropriate congressional committees in 

13 classified or unclassified form a report identifying 

14 the designee. 

15 (b) NON-TRAVEL-RELATED SANCTIONS.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—The President shall impose 

17 one or more of the applicable sanctions described in 

18 paragraph (2) with respect to each foreign person 

19 and each agency or instrumentality of a foreign 

20 state designated as a critical cyber threat actor 

21 under subsection (a). 

22 (2) SANCTIONS DESCRIBED.—The sanctions de23 scribed in this paragraph are the following: 

24 (A) The President may provide for the 

25 withdrawal, limitation, or suspension of non-huVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:21 Mar 20, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1493.IH H1493

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1 manitarian United States development assist2 ance under chapter 1 of part I of the Foreign 

3 Assistance Act of 1961. 

4 (B) The President may provide for the 

5 withdrawal, limitation, or suspension of United 

6 States security assistance under part II of the 

7 Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. 

8 (C) The President may direct the United 

9 States executive director to each international 

10 financial institution to use the voice and vote of 

11 the United States to oppose any loan from the 

12 international financial institution that would 

13 benefit the designated foreign person or the 

14 designated agency or instrumentality of a for15 eign state. 

16 (D) The President may direct the Overseas 

17 Private Investment Corporation, the United 

18 States International Development Finance Cor19 poration, or any other United States Govern20 ment agency not to approve the issuance of any 

21 (or a specified number of) guarantees, insur22 ance, extensions of credit, or participations in 

23 the extension of credit. 

24 (E) The President may, pursuant to such 

25 regulations or guidelines as the President may 


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1 prescribe, prohibit any United States person 

2 from investing in or purchasing significant 

3 amounts of equity or debt instruments of the 

4 designated foreign person. 

5 (F) The President may, pursuant to proce6 dures the President shall prescribe, which shall 

7 include the opportunity to appeal actions under 

8 this subparagraph, prohibit any United States 

9 agency or instrumentality from procuring, or 

10 entering into any contract for the procurement 

11 of, any goods, technology, or services, or classes 

12 of goods, technology, or services, from the des13 ignated foreign person or the designated agency 

14 or instrumentality of a foreign state. 

15 (G) The President may order the heads of 

16 the appropriate United States agencies to not 

17 issue any (or a specified number of) specific li18 censes, and to not grant any other specific au19 thority (or a specified number of authorities), to 

20 export any goods or technology to the des21 ignated foreign person or the designated agency 

22 or instrumentality of a foreign state under— 

23 (i) the Export Control Reform Act of 

24 2018; 

25 (ii) the Arms Export Control Act; 


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1 (iii) the Atomic Energy Act of 1954; 

2 or 

3 (iv) any other statute that requires 

4 the prior review and approval of the 

5 United States Government as a condition 

6 for the export or re-export of goods or 

7 services. 

8 (H)(i) The President may exercise all of 

9 the powers granted to the President under the 

10 International Emergency Economic Powers Act 

11 (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (except that the re12 quirements of section 202 of such Act (50 

13 U.S.C. 1701) shall not apply) to the extent nec14 essary to block and prohibit all transactions in 

15 property and interests in property of the des16 ignated foreign person if such property and in17 terests in property are in the United States, 

18 come within the United States, or are or come 

19 within the possession or control of a United 

20 States person. 

21 (ii) The penalties provided for in sub22 sections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the Inter23 national Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 

24 U.S.C. 1705) shall apply to a person that vio25 lates, attempts to violate, conspires to violate, 


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1 or causes a violation of regulations prescribed 

2 under clause (i) to the same extent that such 

3 penalties apply to a person that commits an un4 lawful act described in subsection (a) of such 

5 section 206. 

6 (I) The President may, pursuant to such 

7 regulations as the President may prescribe, pro8 hibit any transfers of credit or payments be9 tween one or more financial institutions or by, 

10 through, or to any financial institution, to the 

11 extent that such transfers or payments are sub12 ject to the jurisdiction of the United States and 

13 involve any interest of the designated foreign 

14 person. 

15 (c) TRAVEL-RELATED SANCTIONS.— 

16 (1) ALIENS INELIGIBLE FOR VISAS, ADMISSION, 

17 OR PAROLE.—An alien who is designated as a crit18 ical cyber threat actor under subsection (a) is— 

19 (A) inadmissible to the United States; 

20 (B) ineligible to receive a visa or other doc21 umentation to enter the United States; and 

22 (C) otherwise ineligible to be admitted or 

23 paroled into the United States or to receive any 

24 other benefit under the Immigration and Na25 tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.). 


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1 (2) CURRENT VISAS REVOKED.—The issuing 

2 consular officer, the Secretary of State, or the Sec3 retary of Homeland Security (or a designee of either 

4 such Secretaries) shall revoke any visa or other 

5 entry documentation issued to the foreign person 

6 designated as a critical cyber threat actor under sub7 section (a) regardless of when issued. A revocation 

8 under this clause shall take effect immediately and 

9 shall automatically cancel any other valid visa or 

10 entry documentation that is in the possession of 

11 such foreign person. 

12 (d) ADDITIONAL SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO

13 FOREIGN STATES.— 

14 (1) IN GENERAL.—The President may impose 

15 any of the sanctions described in paragraph (2) with 

16 respect to the government of each foreign state that 

17 the President has determined aided, abetted, or di18 rected a foreign person or agency or instrumentality 

19 of a foreign state designated as a critical cyber 

20 threat actor under subsection (a). 

21 (2) SANCTIONS DESCRIBED.—The sanctions re22 ferred to in paragraph (1) are the following: 

23 (A) The President may provide for the 

24 withdrawal, limitation, or suspension of non-hu25 manitarian or non-trade-related assistance 


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1 United States development assistance under 

2 chapter 1 of part I of the Foreign Assistance 

3 Act of 1961. 

4 (B) The President may provide for the 

5 withdrawal, limitation, or suspension of United 

6 States security assistance under part II of the 

7 Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. 

8 (C) The President may instruct the United 

9 States Executive Director to each appropriate 

10 international financial institution to oppose, and 

11 vote against the extension by such institution of 

12 any loan or financial assistance to the govern13 ment of the foreign state. 

14 (D) No item on the United States Muni15 tions List (established pursuant to section 38 of 

16 the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 

17 2778)) or the Commerce Control List set forth 

18 in Supplement No. 1 to part 774 of title 15, 

19 Code of Federal Regulations, may be exported 

20 to the government of the foreign state. 

21 (e) IMPLEMENTATION.—The President may exercise 

22 all authorities provided under sections 203 and 205 of the 

23 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 

24 U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) to carry out this section. 

25 (f) COORDINATION.—To the extent practicable— 


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1 (1) actions taken by the President pursuant to 

2 this section should be coordinated with United 

3 States allies and partners; and 

4 (2) the Secretary of State should work with 

5 United States allies and partners, on a voluntary 

6 basis, to lead an international diplomatic initiative 

7 to— 

8 (A) deter critical cyber threat actors and 

9 state-sponsored cyber activities; and 

10 (B) provide mutual support to such allies 

11 and partners participating in such initiative to 

12 respond to such state-sponsored cyber activities. 

13 (g) EXEMPTIONS, WAIVERS, AND REMOVALS OF

14 SANCTIONS AND DESIGNATIONS.— 

15 (1) MANDATORY EXEMPTIONS.—The following 

16 activities shall be exempt from sanctions under sub17 sections (b), (c), and (d): 

18 (A) Activities subject to the reporting re19 quirements of title V of the National Security 

20 Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 413 et seq.), or to any 

21 authorized intelligence activities of the United 

22 States. 

23 (B) Any transaction necessary to comply 

24 with United States obligations under the Agree25 ment between the United Nations and the 


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1 United States of America regarding the Head2 quarters of the United Nations, signed June 

3 26, 1947, and entered into force on November 

4 21, 1947, or under the Vienna Convention on 

5 Consular Relations, signed April 24, 1963, and 

6 entered into force on March 19, 1967, or under 

7 other international obligations. 

8 (2) WAIVER.—The President may waive the im9 position of sanctions described in this section for a 

10 period of not more than 1 year, and may renew such 

11 waiver for additional periods of not more than 1 

12 year, if the President transmits to the appropriate 

13 congressional committees a written determination 

14 that such waiver meets one or more of the following 

15 requirements: 

16 (A) Such waiver is in the national interests 

17 of the United States. 

18 (B) Such waiver will further the enforce19 ment of this Act or is for an important law en20 forcement purpose. 

21 (C) Such waiver is for an important hu22 manitarian purpose. 

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1 sections (b), (c), and (d) and the removal of designa2 tions under subsection (a) if the President deter3 mines that a foreign person, agency or instrumen4 tality of a foreign state, or government of a foreign 

5 state subject to such sanctions or such designations, 

6 as the case may be, has verifiably ceased its partici7 pation in any of the conduct with respect to which 

8 such foreign person, agency or instrumentality of a 

9 foreign state, or government of a foreign state was 

10 subject to such sanctions or designation, as the case 

11 may be, under this section, and has given assurances 

12 that such foreign person, agency or instrumentality 

13 of a foreign state, or government of a foreign state, 

14 as the case may be, will no longer participate in such 

15 conduct. 

16 (4) EXCEPTION TO COMPLY WITH UNITED NA17 TIONS HEADQUARTERS AGREEMENT.—Sanctions 

18 under subsection (c) shall not apply to a foreign per19 son if admitting such foreign person into the United 

20 States is necessary to permit the United States to 

21 comply with the Agreement regarding the Head22 quarters of the United Nations, signed at Lake Suc23 cess June 26, 1947, and entered into force Novem24 ber 21, 1947, between the United Nations and the 


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1 United States, or other applicable international obli2 gations. 

3 (h) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec4 tion may be construed to limit the authority of the Presi5 dent under the International Emergency Economic Powers 

6 Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) or any other provision of 

7 law to impose sanctions to address critical cyber threat 

8 actors and malicious state-sponsored cyber activities. 

9 (i) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

10 (1) ADMITTED; ALIEN.—The terms ‘‘admitted’’ 

11 and ‘‘alien’’ have the meanings given such terms in 

12 section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 

13 (8 U.S.C. 1101). 

14 (2) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT15 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com16 mittees’’ means— 

17 (A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the 

18 Committee on Financial Services, the Com19 mittee on the Judiciary, the Committee on 

20 Oversight and Reform, and the Committee on 

21 Homeland Security of the House of Representa22 tives; and 

23 (B) the Committee on Foreign Relations, 

24 the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 

25 Urban Affairs, the Committee on the Judiciary, 


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1 and the Committee on Homeland Security and 

2 Governmental Affairs of the Senate. 

3 (3) AGENCY OR INSTRUMENTALITY OF A FOR4 EIGN STATE.—The term ‘‘agency or instrumentality 

5 of a foreign state’’ has the meaning given such term 

6 in section 1603(b) of title 28, United States Code. 

7 (4) CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR.—The 

8 term ‘‘critical infrastructure sector’’ means any of 

9 the designated critical infrastructure sectors identi10 fied in the Presidential Policy Directive entitled 

11 ‘‘Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience’’, 

12 numbered 21, and dated February 12, 2013. 

13 (5) FOREIGN PERSON.—The term ‘‘foreign per14 son’’ means a person that is not a United States 

15 person. 

16 (6) FOREIGN STATE.—The term ‘‘foreign state’’ 

17 has the meaning given such term in section 1603(a) 

18 of title 28, United States Code. 

19 (7) KNOWINGLY.—The term ‘‘knowingly’’, with 

20 respect to conduct, a circumstance, or a result, 

21 means that a person has actual knowledge, or should 

22 have known, of the conduct, the circumstance, or the 

23 result. 

24 (8) MISAPPROPRIATION.—The term ‘‘misappro25 priation’’ means taking or obtaining by improper 


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1 means, without permission or consent, or under false 

2 pretenses. 

3 (9) STATE-SPONSORED CYBER ACTIVITIES.— 

4 The term ‘‘state-sponsored cyber activities’’ means 

5 any malicious cyber-enabled activities that— 

6 (A) are carried out by a government of a 

7 foreign state or an agency or instrumentality of 

8 a foreign state; or 

9 (B) are carried out by a foreign person 

10 that is aided, abetted, or directed by a govern11 ment of a foreign state or an agency or instru12 mentality of a foreign state. 

13 (10) UNITED STATES PERSON.—The term 

14 ‘‘United States person’’ means— 

15 (A) a United States citizen or an alien law16 fully admitted for permanent residence to the 

17 United States; or 

18 (B) an entity organized under the laws of 

19 the United States or of any jurisdiction within 

20 the United States, including a foreign branch of 

21 such an entity. 

22 SEC. 4. CYBERSECURITY COOPERATION UNDER ASIA REAS23 SURANCE INITIATIVE ACT OF 2018. 

24 The Administration is encouraged to fully implement 

25 section 215 of the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018 


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1 (Public Law 115–409) with regard to robust cybersecurity 

2 cooperation between the United States and nations in the 

3 Indo-Pacific region. 

Æ 


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