IB 
Union Calendar No. 606 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5783 
[Report No. 115–780] 
To provide a safe harbor for financial institutions that maintain a customer 
account at the request of a Federal or State law enforcement agency. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 11, 2018 
Mr. HILL (for himself and Mr. FOSTER) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 
JUNE 25, 2018 
Additional sponsors: Mr. HOLLINGSWORTH and Ms. SINEMA 
JUNE 25, 2018 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on May 11, 2018] 
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A BILL 
To provide a safe harbor for financial institutions that main-
tain a customer account at the request of a Federal 
or State law enforcement agency. 
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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 ‘‘Cooperate with Law 
Enforcement Agencies and Watch Act of 2018’’. 
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 of a financial institution, if a Federal, State, Tribal, 
or local law enforcement agency requests, in writing, the 
financial institution to keep such account open— 
‘‘(1) the financial institution shall not be liable 
under this subchapter for maintaining such account 
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 consistent with the pa-
rameters 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 agen-
cy 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 section 
5318(g). 
‘‘(c) LETTER TERMINATION DATE.—For purposes of 
this section, any written request described under subsection 
(a) shall include a termination date after which such re-
quest 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 fol-
lowing: 
‘‘5333. Safe harbor with respect to keep open letters.’’. 
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Union Calendar No. 606 
115TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5783 
[Report No. 115–780] 
A BILL 
To provide a safe harbor for financial institutions 
that maintain a customer account at the request 
of a Federal or State law enforcement agency. 
JUNE 25, 2018 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com-
mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 
and ordered to be printed 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
00:25 Jun 26, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
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