SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cyber Deterrence and 
Response Act of 2018’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) On February 13, 2018, the Director of Na-
tional Intelligence stated in his testimony before the 
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that ‘‘Rus-
sia, China, Iran, and North Korea will pose the 
greatest cyber threats to the United States during 
the next year’’ through the use of cyber operations 
as low-cost tools of statecraft, and assessed that 
these states would ‘‘work to use cyber operations to 
achieve strategic objectives unless they face clear re-
percussions for their cyber operations’’. 
(2) The 2017 Worldwide Threat Assessment of 
the United States Intelligence Community stated 
that ‘‘The potential for surprise in the cyber realm 
will increase in the next year and beyond as billions 
more digital devices are connected—with relatively 
little built-in security—and both nation states and 
malign actors become more emboldened and better 
equipped in the use of increasingly widespread cyber 
toolkits. The risk is growing that some adversaries 
will conduct cyber attacks—such as data deletion or 
localized and temporary disruptions of critical infra-
structure—against the United States in a crisis 
short of war.’’. 
(3) On March 29, 2017, President Donald J. 
Trump deemed it necessary to continue the national 
emergency declared in Executive Order No. 13694 
as ‘‘Significant malicious cyber-enabled activities 
originating from, or directed by persons located, in 
whole or in substantial part, outside the United 
States, continue to pose an unusual and extraor-
dinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, 
and economy of the United States.’’. 
(4) On January 5, 2017, former Director of 
National Intelligence, James Clapper, former Under-
secretary of Defense for Intelligence, Marcel Lettre, 
and the Commander of the United States Cyber 
Command, Admiral Michael Rogers, submitted joint 
testimony to the Committee on Armed Services of 
the Senate that stated ‘‘As of late 2016 more than 
30 nations are developing offensive cyber attack ca-
pabilities’’ and that ‘‘Protecting critical infrastruc-
ture, such as crucial energy, financial, manufac-
turing, transportation, communication, and health 
systems, will become an increasingly complex na-
tional security challenge.’’.
(5) There is significant evidence that hackers 
affiliated with foreign governments have conducted 
cyber operations targeting companies and critical in-
frastructure sectors in the United States as the De-
partment of Justice and the Department of the 
Treasury have announced that— 
(A) on March 15, 2018, five Russian enti-
ties and 19 Russian individuals were designated 
under the Countering America’s Adversaries 
Through Sanctions Act, as well as pursuant to 
Executive Order No. 13694, for interference in 
the 2016 United States elections and other ma-
licious cyber-enabled activities; 
(B) on March 24, 2016, seven Iranians 
working for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps- 
affiliated entities were indicted for conducting 
distributed denial of service attacks against the 
financial sector in the United States from 2012 
to 2013; and 
(C) on May 19, 2014, five Chinese military 
hackers were charged for hacking United States 
companies in the nuclear power, metals, and 
solar products industries, and engaging in eco-
nomic espionage.
(6) In May 2017, North Korea released 
‘‘WannaCry’’ pseudo-ransomware, which posed a sig-
nificant risk to the economy, national security, and 
the citizens of the United States and the world, as 
it resulted in the infection of over 300,000 computer 
systems in more than 150 countries, including in the 
healthcare sector of the United Kingdom, dem-
onstrating the global reach and cost of cyber-enabled 
malicious activity. 
(7) In June 2017, Russia carried out the most 
destructive cyber-enabled operation in history, re-
leasing the NotPetya malware that caused billions of 
dollars’ worth of damage within Ukraine and across 
Europe, Asia, and the Americas. 
(8) In May 2018, the Department of State, 
pursuant to section 3(b) of Executive Order No. 
13800, prepared recommendations to the President 
on Deterring Adversaries and Better Protecting the 
American People From Cyber Threats, which stated 
‘‘With respect to activities below the threshold of the 
use of force, the United States should, working with 
likeminded partners when possible, adopt an ap-
proach of imposing swift, costly, and transparent 
consequences on foreign governments responsible for
significant malicious cyber activities aimed at harm-
ing U.S. national interests.’’. 
SEC. 3. ACTIONS TO ADDRESS STATE-SPONSORED CYBER 
ACTIVITIES AGAINST THE UNITED STATES. 
(a) DESIGNATION AS A CRITICAL CYBER THREAT 
ACTOR.— 
(1) 
IN
GENERAL.—The 
President, 
acting 
through the Secretary of State, and in coordination 
with other relevant Federal agency heads, shall des-
ignate as a critical cyber threat actor— 
(A) each foreign person and each agency 
or instrumentality of a foreign state that the 
President determines to be knowingly respon-
sible for or complicit in, or have engaged in, di-
rectly or indirectly, state-sponsored cyber activi-
ties that are reasonably likely to result in, or 
have contributed to, a significant threat to the 
national security, foreign policy, or economic 
health or financial stability of the United States 
and that have the purpose or effect of— 
(i) causing a significant disruption to 
the availability of a computer or network 
of computers; 
(ii) harming, or otherwise significantly 
compromising the provision of service by, a
computer or network of computers that 
support one or more entities in a critical 
infrastructure sector; 
(iii) significantly compromising the 
provision of services by one or more enti-
ties in a critical infrastructure sector; 
(iv) causing a significant misappro-
priation of funds or economic resources, 
trade secrets, personal identifiers, or finan-
cial information for commercial or competi-
tive advantage or private financial gain; 
(v) destabilizing the financial sector of 
the United States by tampering with, alter-
ing, or causing a misappropriation of data; 
or 
(vi) interfering with or undermining 
election processes or institutions by tam-
pering with, altering, or causing misappro-
priation of data; 
(B) each foreign person that the President 
has determined to have knowingly, significantly, 
and materially assisted, sponsored, or provided 
financial, material, or technological support for, 
or goods or services to or in support of, any ac-
tivities described in subparagraph (A) by a for-
eign person or agency or instrumentality of a 
foreign state designated as a critical cyber 
threat actor under subparagraph (A); and 
(C) each agency or instrumentality of a 
foreign state that the President has determined 
to have significantly and materially assisted, 
sponsored, or provided financial, material, or 
technological support for, or goods or services 
to or in support of, any activities described in 
subparagraph (A) by a foreign person or agency 
or instrumentality of a foreign state designated 
as a critical cyber threat actor under subpara-
graph (A). 
(2) PUBLICATION IN FEDERAL REGISTER.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The President shall— 
(i) publish in the Federal Register a 
list of each foreign person and each agency 
or instrumentality of a foreign state des-
ignated as a critical cyber threat actor 
under this subsection; and 
(ii) regularly update such list not later 
than 7 days after making any changes to 
such list, and publish in the Federal Reg-
ister such updates. 
(B) EXCEPTION.—
(i) IN GENERAL.—The President may 
withhold from publication in the Federal 
Register under subparagraph (A) the iden-
tification of any foreign person or agency 
or instrumentality of a foreign state des-
ignated as a critical cyber threat actor 
under this subsection if the President de-
termines that withholding such identifica-
tion— 
(I) in the national interests of 
the United States; or 
(II) is for an important law en-
forcement purpose. 
(ii) TRANSMISSION.—If the President 
exercises the authority under this subpara-
graph to withhold from publication in the 
Federal Register the identification of a for-
eign person or agency or instrumentality of 
a foreign state designated as a critical 
cyber threat actor under this subsection, 
the President shall transmit to the appro-
priate congressional committees in classi-
fied form a report containing any such 
identification, together with the reasons for 
such exercise.
(b) NON-TRAVEL-RELATED SANCTIONS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The President shall impose 
one or more of the applicable sanctions described in 
paragraph (2) with respect to each foreign person 
and each agency or instrumentality of a foreign 
state designated as a critical cyber threat actor 
under subsection (a). 
(2) SANCTIONS DESCRIBED.—The sanctions de-
scribed in this paragraph are the following: 
(A) The President may provide for the 
withdrawal, limitation, or suspension of non-hu-
manitarian United States development assist-
ance under chapter 1 of part I of the Foreign 
Assistance Act of 1961. 
(B) The President may provide for the 
withdrawal, limitation, or suspension of United 
States security assistance under part II of the 
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. 
(C) The President may direct the United 
States executive director to each international 
financial institution to use the voice and vote of 
the United States to oppose any loan from the 
international financial institution that would 
benefit the designated foreign person or the
designated agency or instrumentality of a for-
eign state. 
(D) The President may direct the Overseas 
Private Investment Corporation, or any other 
United States Government agency not to ap-
prove the issuance of any (or a specified num-
ber of) guarantees, insurance, extensions of 
credit, or participations in the extension of 
credit. 
(E) The President may, pursuant to such 
regulations or guidelines as the President may 
prescribe, prohibit any United States person 
from investing in or purchasing significant 
amounts of equity or debt instruments of the 
designated foreign person. 
(F) The President may, pursuant to proce-
dures the President shall prescribe, which shall 
include the opportunity to appeal actions under 
this subparagraph, prohibit any United States 
agency or instrumentality from procuring, or 
entering into any contract for the procurement 
of, any goods, technology, or services, or classes 
of goods, technology, or services, from the des-
ignated foreign person or the designated agency 
or instrumentality of a foreign state.
(G) The President may order the heads of 
the appropriate United States agencies to not 
issue any (or a specified number of) specific li-
censes, and to not grant any other specific au-
thority (or a specified number of authorities), to 
export any goods or technology to the des-
ignated foreign person or the designated agency 
or instrumentality of a foreign state under— 
(i) the Export Administration Act of 
1979 (as continued in effect pursuant the 
International Emergency Economic Powers 
Act); 
(ii) the Arms Export Control Act; 
(iii) the Atomic Energy Act of 1954; 
or 
(iv) any other statute that requires 
the prior review and approval of the 
United States Government as a condition 
for the export or re-export of goods or 
services. 
(H)(i) The President may exercise all of 
the powers granted to the President under the 
International Emergency Economic Powers Act 
(50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (except that the re-
quirements of section 202 of such Act (50
U.S.C. 1701) shall not apply) to the extent nec-
essary to block and prohibit all transactions in 
property and interests in property of the des-
ignated foreign person if such property and in-
terests in property are in the United States, 
come within the United States, or are or come 
within the possession or control of a United 
States person. 
(ii) The penalties provided for in sub-
sections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the Inter-
national Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 
U.S.C. 1705) shall apply to a person that vio-
lates, attempts to violate, conspires to violate, 
or causes a violation of regulations prescribed 
under clause (i) to the same extent that such 
penalties apply to a person that commits an un-
lawful act described in subsection (a) of such 
section 206. 
(I) The President may, pursuant to such 
regulations as the President may prescribe, pro-
hibit any transfers of credit or payments be-
tween one or more financial institutions or by, 
through, or to any financial institution, to the 
extent that such transfers or payments are sub-
ject to the jurisdiction of the United States and
(B) provide mutual support to such allies 
and partners participating in such initiative to 
respond to such state-sponsored cyber activities. 
(g) EXEMPTIONS, WAIVERS, AND REMOVALS
OF 
SANCTIONS AND DESIGNATIONS.— 
(1) MANDATORY EXEMPTIONS.—The following 
activities shall be exempt from sanctions under sub-
sections (b), (c), and (d): 
(A) Activities subject to the reporting re-
quirements of title V of the National Security 
Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 413 et seq.), or to any 
authorized intelligence activities of the United 
States. 
(B) Any transaction necessary to comply 
with United States obligations under the Agree-
ment between the United Nations and the 
United States of America regarding the Head-
quarters of the United Nations, signed June 
26, 1947, and entered into force on November 
21, 1947, or under the Vienna Convention on 
Consular Relations, signed April 24, 1963, and 
entered into force on March 19, 1967, or under 
other international obligations. 
(2) WAIVER.—The President may waive the im-
position of sanctions described in this section for a
period of not more than 1 year, and may renew such 
waiver for additional periods of not more than 1 
year, if the President transmits to the appropriate 
congressional committees a written determination 
that such waiver meets one or more of the following 
requirements: 
(A) Such waiver is in the national interests 
of the United States. 
(B) Such waiver will further the enforce-
ment of this Act or is for an important law en-
forcement purpose. 
(C) Such waiver is for an important hu-
manitarian purpose. 
(3) REMOVALS OF SANCTIONS AND DESIGNA-
TIONS.—The President may prescribe rules and reg-
ulations for the removal of sanctions under sub-
sections (b), (c), and (d) and the removal of designa-
tions under subsection (a) if the President deter-
mines that a foreign person, agency or instrumen-
tality of a foreign state, or government of a foreign 
state subject to such sanctions or such designations, 
as the case may be, has verifiably ceased its partici-
pation in any of the conduct with respect to which 
such foreign person, agency or instrumentality of a 
foreign state, or government of a foreign state was
subject to such sanctions or designation, as the case 
may be, under this section, and has given assurances 
that such foreign person, agency or instrumentality 
of a foreign state, or government of a foreign state, 
as the case may be, will no longer participate in such 
conduct. 
(4) EXCEPTION TO COMPLY WITH UNITED NA-
TIONS
HEADQUARTERS
AGREEMENT.—Sanctions 
under subsection (c) shall not apply to a foreign per-
son if admitting such foreign person into the United 
States is necessary to permit the United States to 
comply with the Agreement regarding the Head-
quarters of the United Nations, signed at Lake Suc-
cess June 26, 1947, and entered into force Novem-
ber 21, 1947, between the United Nations and the 
United States, or other applicable international obli-
gations. 
(h) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-
tion may be construed to limit the authority of the Presi-
dent under the International Emergency Economic Powers 
Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) or any other provision of 
law to impose sanctions to address critical cyber threat 
actors and malicious state-sponsored cyber activities. 
(i) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
(1) ADMITTED; ALIEN.—The terms ‘‘admitted’’ 
and ‘‘alien’’ have the meanings given such terms in 
section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act 
(8 U.S.C. 1101). 
(2) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMIT-
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ means— 
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the 
Committee on Financial Services, the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary, the Committee on 
Oversight and Government Reform, and the 
Committee on Homeland Security of the House 
of Representatives; and 
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations, 
the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 
Urban Affairs, the Committee on the Judiciary, 
and the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs of the Senate. 
(3) AGENCY OR INSTRUMENTALITY OF A FOR-
EIGN STATE.—The term ‘‘agency or instrumentality 
of a foreign state’’ has the meaning given such term 
in section 1603(b) of title 28, United States Code. 
(4) CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR.—The 
term ‘‘critical infrastructure sector’’ means any of 
the designated critical infrastructure sectors identi-
fied in the Presidential Policy Directive entitled 
‘‘Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience’’, 
numbered 21, and dated February 12, 2013. 
(5) FOREIGN PERSON.—The term ‘‘foreign per-
son’’ means a person that is not a United States 
person. 
(6) FOREIGN STATE.—The term ‘‘foreign state’’ 
has the meaning given such term in section 1603(a) 
of title 28, United States Code. 
(7) KNOWINGLY.—The term ‘‘knowingly’’, with 
respect to conduct, a circumstance, or a result, 
means that a person has actual knowledge, or should 
have known, of the conduct, the circumstance, or the 
result. 
(8) MISAPPROPRIATION.—The term ‘‘misappro-
priation’’ means taking or obtaining by improper 
means, without permission or consent, or under false 
pretenses. 
(9) STATE-SPONSORED
CYBER
ACTIVITIES.— 
The term ‘‘state-sponsored cyber activities’’ means 
any malicious cyber-enabled activities that— 
(A) are carried out by a government of a 
foreign state or an agency or instrumentality of 
a foreign state; or
(B) are carried out by a foreign person 
that is aided, abetted, or directed by a govern-
ment of a foreign state or an agency or instru-
mentality of a foreign state. 
(10) UNITED
STATES
PERSON.—The term 
‘‘United States person’’ means— 
(A) a United States citizen or an alien law-
fully admitted for permanent residence to the 
United States; or 
(B) an entity organized under the laws of 
the United States or of any jurisdiction within 
the United States, including a foreign branch of 
such an entity. 
Passed the House of Representatives September 5, 
2018. 
Attest: 
Clerk.