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ties, and user facilities of the Department by 
providing the necessary access and secure data 
transfer capabilities. 
(3) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 
shall submit to the Committee on Science, Space, 
and Technology of the House of Representatives and 
the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of 
the Senate a report evaluating the effectiveness of 
the activities authorized under paragraph (1). 
(4) FUNDING.—There are authorized to be ap-
propriated to the Secretary of Energy to carry out 
paragraph (1) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2021. 
DIVISION F—CORPORATE 
TRANSPARENCY ACT OF 2019 
SEC. 6001. SHORT TITLE. 
This division may be cited as the ‘‘Corporate Trans-
parency Act of 2019’’. 
SEC. 6002. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Nearly 2,000,000 corporations and limited 
liability companies are being formed under the laws 
of the States each year. 
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(2) Very few States require information about 
the beneficial owners of the corporations and limited 
liability companies formed under their laws. 
(3) A person forming a corporation or limited 
liability company within the United States typically 
provides less information at the time of incorpora-
tion than is needed to obtain a bank account or driv-
er’s license and typically does not name a single ben-
eficial owner. 
(4) Criminals have exploited State formation 
procedures to conceal their identities when forming 
corporations or limited liability companies in the 
United States, and have then used the newly created 
entities to commit crimes affecting interstate and 
international commerce such as terrorism, prolifera-
tion financing, drug and human trafficking, money 
laundering, tax evasion, counterfeiting, piracy, secu-
rities fraud, financial fraud, and acts of foreign cor-
ruption. 
(5) Law enforcement efforts to investigate cor-
porations and limited liability companies suspected 
of committing crimes have been impeded by the lack 
of available beneficial ownership information, as doc-
umented in reports and testimony by officials from 
the Department of Justice, the Department of 
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Homeland Security, the Department of the Treas-
ury, and the Government Accountability Office, and 
others. 
(6) In July 2006, the leading international 
antimoney laundering standard-setting body, the Fi-
nancial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (in 
this section referred to as the ‘‘FATF’’), of which 
the United States is a member, issued a report that 
criticizes the United States for failing to comply 
with a FATF standard on the need to collect bene-
ficial ownership information and urged the United 
States to correct this deficiency by July 2008. In 
December 2016, FATF issued another evaluation of 
the United States, which found that little progress 
has been made over the last ten years to address 
this problem. It identified the ‘‘lack of timely access 
to adequate, accurate and current beneficial owner-
ship information’’ as a fundamental gap in United 
States efforts to combat money laundering and ter-
rorist finance. 
(7) In response to the 2006 FATF report, the 
United States has urged the States to obtain bene-
ficial ownership information for the corporations and 
limited liability companies formed under the laws of 
such States. 
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(8) In contrast to practices in the United 
States, all 28 countries in the European Union are 
required to have corporate registries that include 
beneficial ownership information. 
(9) To reduce the vulnerability of the United 
States to wrongdoing by United States corporations 
and limited liability companies with hidden owners, 
to protect interstate and international commerce 
from criminals misusing United States corporations 
and limited liability companies, to strengthen law en-
forcement investigations of suspect corporations and 
limited liability companies, to set a clear, universal 
standard for State incorporation practices, and to 
bring the United States into compliance with inter-
national anti-money laundering standards, Federal 
legislation is needed to require the collection of bene-
ficial ownership information for the corporations and 
limited liability companies formed under the laws of 
such States. 
SEC. 6003. TRANSPARENT INCORPORATION PRACTICES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.— 
(1) AMENDMENT
TO
THE
BANK
SECRECY 
ACT.—Chapter 53 of title 31, United States Code, is 
amended by inserting after section 5332 the fol-
lowing new section: 
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‘‘§ 5333 Transparent incorporation practices 
‘‘(a) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.— 
‘‘(1) BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP REPORTING.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—Each applicant to 
form a corporation or limited liability company 
under the laws of a State or Indian Tribe shall 
file a report with FinCEN containing a list of 
the beneficial owners of the corporation or lim-
ited liability company that— 
‘‘(i) except as provided in paragraphs 
(3) and (4), and subject to paragraph (2), 
identifies each beneficial owner by— 
‘‘(I) full legal name; 
‘‘(II) date of birth; 
‘‘(III) current residential or busi-
ness street address; and 
‘‘(IV) a unique identifying num-
ber from a non-expired passport 
issued by the United States, a non-ex-
pired personal identification card, or a 
non-expired driver’s license issued by 
a State; and 
‘‘(ii) if the applicant is not a bene-
ficial owner, also provides the identification 
information described in clause (i) relating 
to such applicant. 
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‘‘(B) UPDATED INFORMATION.—Each cor-
poration or limited liability company formed 
under the laws of a State or Indian Tribe 
shall— 
‘‘(i) submit to FinCEN an annual fil-
ing containing a list of— 
‘‘(I) the current beneficial owners 
of the corporation or limited liability 
company and the information de-
scribed in subparagraph (A) for each 
such beneficial owner; and 
‘‘(II) any changes in the bene-
ficial owners of the corporation or lim-
ited liability company during the pre-
vious year; and 
‘‘(ii) pursuant to any rule issued by 
the Secretary of the Treasury under sub-
paragraph (C), update the list of the bene-
ficial owners of the corporation or limited 
liability company within the time period 
prescribed by such rule. 
‘‘(C) RULEMAKING ON UPDATING INFOR-
MATION.—Not later than 9 months after the 
completion of the study required under section 
4(a)(1) of the Corporate Transparency Act of 
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2019, the Secretary of the Treasury shall con-
sider the findings of such study and, if the Sec-
retary determines it to be necessary or appro-
priate, issue a rule requiring corporations and 
limited liability companies to update the list of 
the beneficial owners of the corporation or lim-
ited liability company within a specified amount 
of time after the date of any change in the list 
of beneficial owners or the information required 
to be provided relating to each beneficial owner. 
‘‘(D) STATE
NOTIFICATION.—Each State 
in which a corporation or limited liability com-
pany is being formed shall notify each applicant 
of the requirements listed in subparagraphs (A) 
and (B). 
‘‘(2) CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS.—If an ap-
plicant to form a corporation or limited liability com-
pany or a beneficial owner, or similar agent of a cor-
poration or limited liability company who is required 
to provide identification information under this sub-
section, does not have a nonexpired passport issued 
by the United States, a nonexpired personal identi-
fication card, or a non-expired driver’s license issued 
by a State, each such person shall provide to 
FinCEN the full legal name, current residential or 
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business street address, a unique identifying number 
from a non-expired passport issued by a foreign gov-
ernment, and a legible and credible copy of the 
pages of a non-expired passport issued by the gov-
ernment of a foreign country bearing a photograph, 
date of birth, and unique identifying information for 
each beneficial owner, and each application described 
in paragraph (1)(A) and each update described in 
paragraph (1)(B) shall include a written certification 
by a person residing in the State or Indian country 
under the jurisdiction of the Indian Tribe forming 
the entity that the applicant, corporation, or limited 
liability company— 
‘‘(A) has obtained for each such beneficial 
owner, a current residential or business street 
address and a legible and credible copy of the 
pages of a non-expired passport issued by the 
government of a foreign country bearing a pho-
tograph, date of birth, and unique identifying 
information for the person; 
‘‘(B) has verified the full legal name, ad-
dress, and identity of each such person; 
‘‘(C) will provide the information described 
in 
subparagraph 
(A) 
and 
the 
proof 
of 
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verification described in subparagraph (B) upon 
request of FinCEN; and 
‘‘(D) will retain the information and proof 
of verification under this paragraph until the 
end of the 5-year period beginning on the date 
that the corporation or limited liability company 
terminates under the laws of the State or In-
dian Tribe. 
‘‘(3) EXEMPT ENTITIES.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—With respect to an ap-
plicant to form a corporation or limited liability 
company under the laws of a State or Indian 
Tribe, if such entity is described in subpara-
graph (C) or (D) of subsection (d)(4) and will 
be exempt from the beneficial ownership disclo-
sure requirements under this subsection, such 
applicant, or a prospective officer, director, or 
similar agent of the applicant, shall file a writ-
ten certification with FinCEN— 
‘‘(i) identifying the specific provision 
of subsection (d)(4) under which the entity 
proposed to be formed would be exempt 
from the beneficial ownership disclosure re-
quirements under paragraphs (1) and (2); 
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‘‘(ii) stating that the entity proposed 
to be formed meets the requirements for 
an entity described under such provision of 
subsection (d)(4); and 
‘‘(iii) providing identification informa-
tion for the applicant or prospective offi-
cer, director, or similar agent making the 
certification in the same manner as pro-
vided under paragraph (1) or (2). 
‘‘(B) EXISTING
CORPORATIONS
OR
LIM-
ITED LIABILITY COMPANIES.—On and after the 
date that is 2 years after the final regulations 
are issued to carry out this section, a corpora-
tion or limited liability company formed under 
the laws of the State or Indian Tribe before 
such date shall be subject to the requirements 
of this subsection unless an officer, director, or 
similar agent of the entity submits to FinCEN 
a written certification— 
‘‘(i) identifying the specific provision 
of subsection (d)(4) under which the entity 
is exempt from the requirements under 
paragraphs (1) and (2); 
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‘‘(ii) stating that the entity meets the 
requirements for an entity described under 
such provision of subsection (d)(4); and 
‘‘(iii) providing identification informa-
tion for the officer, director, or similar 
agent making the certification in the same 
manner as provided under paragraph (1) 
or (2). 
‘‘(C) EXEMPT ENTITIES HAVING OWNER-
SHIP INTEREST.—If an entity described in sub-
paragraph (C) or (D) of subsection (d)(4) has 
or will have an ownership interest in a corpora-
tion or limited liability company formed or to be 
formed under the laws of a State or Indian 
Tribe, the applicant, corporation, or limited li-
ability company in which the entity has or will 
have the ownership interest shall provide the in-
formation required under this subsection relat-
ing to the entity, except that the entity shall 
not be required to provide information regard-
ing any natural person who has an ownership 
interest in, exercises substantial control over, or 
receives substantial economic benefits from the 
entity. 
‘‘(4) FINCEN ID NUMBERS.— 
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‘‘(A) ISSUANCE OF FINCEN ID NUMBER.— 
‘‘(i) IN
GENERAL.—FinCEN shall 
issue a FinCEN ID number to any indi-
vidual who requests such a number and 
provides FinCEN with the information de-
scribed under subclauses (I) through (IV) 
of paragraph (1)(A)(i). 
‘‘(ii) UPDATING OF INFORMATION.— 
An individual with a FinCEN ID number 
shall submit an annual filing with FinCEN 
updating any information described under 
subclauses (I) through (IV) of paragraph 
(1)(A)(i). 
‘‘(B) USE OF FINCEN ID NUMBER IN RE-
PORTING
REQUIREMENTS.—Any 
person 
re-
quired to report the information described 
under paragraph (1)(A)(i) with respect to an 
individual may instead report the FinCEN ID 
number of the individual. 
‘‘(C) TREATMENT OF INFORMATION SUB-
MITTED FOR FINCEN ID NUMBER.—For pur-
poses of this section, any information submitted 
under subparagraph (A) shall be deemed to be 
beneficial ownership information. 
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