I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5907 
To criminalize transnational repression, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 6, 2023 
Mr. SCHIFF (for himself, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. HIMES, Ms. NORTON, Mr. 
COHEN, Mr. CARSON, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. 
MCGOVERN, and Mr. CASE) introduced the following bill 
OCTOBER 25, 2023 
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, 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 criminalize transnational repression, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stop Transnational 
Repression Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Transnational repression is not currently 
codified or defined in United States law. 
(2) The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines 
transnational repression as foreign government 
breach of national borders through physical and dig-
ital means to intimidate, silence, coerce, harass, or 
harm members of diaspora and exile communities in 
violation of United States law. Transnational repres-
sion is often used to silence individuals who are per-
ceived to oppose or are critical of a government, in-
cluding journalists, writers and artists, human rights 
defenders, religious or ethnic minority groups, and 
political opponents. Methods of transnational repres-
sion may include physical and digital stalking, har-
assment, 
computer 
hacking, 
phone 
tapping, 
INTERPOL abuse, criminal threats, assaults, at-
tempted kidnappings, coerced repatriation, and de-
taining family members in the home country. 
(3) Transnational repression is not limited to 
physical acts of intimidation and harassment. Ac-
cording to Citizen Lab, ‘‘digital transnational repres-
sion’’ tools are used to facilitate government reach 
beyond borders to gain access to social media and 
email accounts, including through phishing attacks, 
zero-click spyware hacks, social media page take-
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downs, SIM card hacks, and fake invitations to con-
ferences. For human rights activists and dissidents, 
this has a serious impact on their advocacy work 
and sense of security, even if they have relocated to 
escape physical intimidation. 
(4) On February 23, 2022, the National Secu-
rity Division of the Department of Justice launched 
a ‘‘Strategy for Countering Nation-State Threats’’ 
in order to support a comprehensive, ‘‘whole-of-gov-
ernment’’ approach to addressing threats the United 
States 
faces 
from 
hostile 
nations, 
including 
transnational repression. 
(5) Throughout 2022, the Department of Jus-
tice charged a number of individuals with stalking, 
harassing, and illicitly acting as agents of foreign 
governments, 
who 
allegedly 
perpetrated 
transnational repression to silence United States 
residents who were critics of the People’s Republic 
of China. 
(6) In January 2023, the Department of Jus-
tice announced charges and arrests in a case involv-
ing an assassination plot directed from Iran against 
a critic of the regime. The Department stated, 
‘‘These charges are just the latest example of indi-
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viduals in Iran directing deadly violence on U.S. 
soil.’’. 
(7) Transnational repression is a growing prob-
lem. The Department of Justice has reported an 
‘‘alarming rise in plots emanating from Iran, China, 
Russia, and elsewhere, targeting people in the 
United States’’. As of April 2023, Freedom House 
has documented 854 direct, physical cases of 
transnational repression that took place globally be-
tween 2014 and 2022. 
(8) Freedom House recorded a total of 79 new 
incidents of transnational repression globally com-
mitted by 20 governments in 2022. Two govern-
ments, Bangladesh and Djibouti, were added to the 
list of perpetrators, bringing the total number of 
states engaged in transnational repression around 
the world to 38. The number of countries where acts 
of transnational repression took place rose from 84 
to 91 in 2022, including the United States, accord-
ing to Freedom House. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that hostile nations and 
authoritarian regimes have increasingly and aggressively 
targeted individuals in the United States and persons out-
side the United States. Agents of these governments have 
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acted outside diplomatic channels to threaten, intimidate, 
harass, surveil, stalk, silence, and even plot to physically 
harm or kidnap persons within U.S. borders. Although 
transnational repression often involves actions that are al-
ready prohibited by U.S. law, their foreign government 
backing render these activities more dangerous than the 
underlying acts of intimidation or harassment alone. 
Therefore, it is necessary to formally define and crim-
inalize transnational repression in Federal law, and to 
more actively track and report on instances of 
transnational repression in the United States and affect-
ing United States persons. It is also necessary to continue 
to work with foreign partners to address this issue in a 
coordinated manner, including in multilateral settings. 
SEC. 4. CRIMINALIZING TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION. 
(a) OFFENSE.—Chapter 45 of title 18, United States 
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘§ 971. Transnational repression 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Whoever knowingly commits an 
act of transnational repression shall be fined under this 
title and imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both, and 
if death or serious bodily injury results from the act, or 
if such act include the use, attempted use, or threatened 
use of a dangerous weapon, kidnapping or an attempt to 
kidnap, or aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to com-
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mit aggravated sexual abuse, shall be fined under this 
title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or 
both. 
‘‘(b) ATTEMPT OR CONSPIRACY.—Whoever attempts 
or conspires to commit an offense under this section shall 
be subject to the same penalties as those prescribed for 
the offense, the commission of which was the object of the 
attempt or conspiracy. 
‘‘(c) SENTENCING ENHANCEMENT.—Whoever know-
ingly commits, attempts, or conspires to commit an of-
fense under any other section of this title at the direction 
of or under the control of a foreign government or official 
or on behalf of their proxy while engaged in and in fur-
therance of transnational repression shall, in addition to 
the punishment authorized for such offense, be subject to 
a sentencing enhancement of up to ten years in prison. 
‘‘(d) EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION.—There is 
extraterritorial Federal jurisdiction over an offense under 
this section. 
‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) AGENT
OF
A
FOREIGN
GOVERNMENT.— 
The term ‘agent of a foreign government’ means an 
individual who operates subject to the direction or 
control of a foreign government or official. 
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‘‘(2) 
EXTRAJUDICIAL
KILLING.—The 
term 
‘extrajudicial killing’ means an act with the intention 
to or in the knowledge that such act will end the life 
of another person, when that act is not incident to 
lawful sanction, public necessity, self-defense or the 
defense of others, or the law of armed conflict. 
‘‘(3) PROXY.—The term ‘proxy’ means an indi-
vidual acting on behalf of an agent of a foreign gov-
ernment. 
‘‘(4) TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION.—The term 
‘transnational repression’ means any activity by a 
foreign government, or an agent of a foreign govern-
ment or a proxy thereof, that satisfies each of the 
following: 
‘‘(A) The activity involves— 
‘‘(i) any effort intended to coerce, har-
ass, or digitally or physically threaten, in-
cluding by force or reasonable fear of 
death or serious bodily injury or imprison-
ment of a person or an immediate family 
member of a person, a person to take an 
action in the interest of a foreign govern-
ment; 
‘‘(ii) any effort intended to harass or 
coerce, including by force or fear, a person 
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tion of section 8 of the Foreign Agents Reg-
istration Act (22 U.S.C. 618) (relating to reg-
istration of agents of foreign principals).’’. 
SEC. 
5. 
CENTRALIZATION 
OF 
OVERSIGHT 
OF 
TRANSNATIONAL 
REPRESSION 
PROSECU-
TIONS AND INVESTIGATIONS. 
(a) NATIONAL SECURITY DIVISION.—The Attorney 
General shall centralize oversight of transnational repres-
sion prosecutions in the National Security Division of the 
Department of Justice, or any successor organization. 
(b) INVESTIGATIONS.—The Attorney General, acting 
through the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion, shall centralize oversight of transnational repression 
investigations in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or 
any successor organization. 
SEC. 6. REPORTING ON TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION. 
(a) REPORTS.—Not later than 180 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, 
the Assistant Attorney General for the National Security 
Division of the Department of Justice and the Director 
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in consultation 
with the Director of National Intelligence and the head 
of any other department or agency the Assistant Attorney 
General and Director of the Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion determines appropriate, shall submit to the appro-
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priate congressional committees a joint report on incidents 
of transnational repression against or otherwise impacting 
a United States person. Each report shall contain the fol-
lowing: 
(1) An overview of transnational repression in 
the United States or against United States persons 
outside of the United States, including the govern-
ments that perpetrate transnational repression and 
the tactics that they use. 
(2) A description of any activities that the As-
sistant Attorney General of the National Security 
Division of the Department of Justice or the Direc-
tor of the Federal Bureau of Investigation deter-
mines to be substantially similar to transnational re-
pression that do not fall within the definition of 
transnational repression. 
(3) Subject to appropriate protections for sen-
sitive information regarding law enforcement inves-
tigations and operations, a description of efforts 
during the previous calendar year to disrupt 
transnational repression through investigation and 
criminal prosecution. 
(4) A description of efforts during the previous 
calendar year by any agency of the United States 
Government to disrupt transnational repression 
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through means other than investigation and criminal 
prosecution, including through diplomatic means. 
(b) FORM.—Each report submitted under subsection 
(a) shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may in-
clude a classified annex. 
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMIT-
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ means— 
(A) the Committee on the Judiciary, the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Perma-
nent Select Committee on Intelligence of the 
House of Representatives; and 
(B) the Committee on the Judiciary, the 
Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Select 
Committee on Intelligence of the Senate. 
(2) TRANSNATIONAL
REPRESSION.—The term 
‘‘transnational repression’’ has the meaning given 
the term in section 971 of title 18, United States 
Code, as added by section 4. 
SEC. 8. THE U.S. SENTENCING COMMISSION. 
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the U.S. Sentencing Commission shall promul-
gate or amend such sentencing guideline as may be nec-
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essary to provide appropriate guideline penalties for the 
offense conduct and penalty provisions established in this 
Act, and amended by this Act, including enhanced pen-
alties for aggravated forms of any offense established in 
this Act. 
Æ 
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