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 main-
tain a customer account or customer transaction at the 
request of a Federal or State law enforcement agency. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cooperate with Law 
Enforcement Agencies and Watch Act of 2019’’. 
SEC. 2. SAFE HARBOR WITH RESPECT TO KEEP OPEN LET-
TERS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 53 of 
title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 
end the following: 
‘‘§ 5333. Safe harbor with respect to keep open letters 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—With respect to a customer ac-
count or customer transaction of a financial institution, 
if a Federal, State, Tribal, or local law enforcement agen-
cy requests, in writing, the financial institution to keep 
such account or transaction open— 
‘‘(1) the financial institution shall not be liable 
under this subchapter for maintaining such account 
or transaction consistent with the parameters of the 
request; and 
‘‘(2) no Federal or State department or agency 
may take any adverse supervisory action under this 
subchapter with respect to the financial institution 
for maintaining such account or transaction con-
sistent with the parameters of the request. 
‘‘(b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-
tion may be construed— 
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‘‘(1) from preventing a Federal or State depart-
ment or agency from verifying the validity of a writ-
ten request described under subsection (a) with the 
Federal, State, Tribal, or local law enforcement 
agency making the written request; or 
‘‘(2) to relieve a financial institution from com-
plying with any reporting requirements, including 
the reporting of suspicious transactions under sec-
tion 5318(g). 
‘‘(c) LETTER TERMINATION DATE.—For purposes of 
this section, any written request described under sub-
section (a) shall include a termination date after which 
such request shall no longer apply.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 
for chapter 53 of title 31, United States Code, is amended 
by inserting after the item relating to section 5332 the 
following: 
‘‘5333. Safe harbor with respect to keep open letters.’’. 
SEC. 3. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS. 
The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of 
complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, 
shall be determined by reference to the latest statement 
titled ‘‘Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation’’ for this 
Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record 
by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, pro-
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vided that such statement has been submitted prior to the 
vote on passage. 
Passed the House of Representatives March 11, 
2019. 
Attest: 
CHERYL L. JOHNSON, 
Clerk. 
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