Title: Global Hostage Act of 2019
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Global Hostage Act of 2019
This bill directs the President to impose property- and visa-blocking sanctions on foreign individuals or entities that knowingly participate in or are complicit in politically motivated harassment, abuse, arrest or imprisonment of a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. The sanctions also apply to those that materially assist or support such actions and those that provide significant support to an individual or entity sanctioned under this bill.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2776 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2776

 To impose sanctions with respect to foreign persons who engage in the 
   hostage-taking or wrongful detention of United States citizens or 
    aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            November 5, 2019

   Mr. Cotton (for himself, Mr. Cruz, and Mr. Hawley) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                           Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To impose sanctions with respect to foreign persons who engage in the 
   hostage-taking or wrongful detention of United States citizens or 
    aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Global Hostage Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) authoritarian governments and non-state actors, 
        including terrorist groups, continue to engage in the hostage-
        taking and prolonged unlawful or wrongful detention of United 
        States citizens or aliens lawfully admitted for permanent 
        residence in order to make political demands or extract 
        monetary concessions;
            (2) the United States Government should fully utilize all 
        necessary and appropriate measures to prevent foreign 
        governments or non-state actors from engaging in such hostage-
        taking or detention, including through--
                    (A) the use of extradition to try and convict the 
                individuals who have participated in, or are 
                responsible for ordering, controlling, or otherwise 
                directing, the hostage-taking or detention; and
                    (B) the use of the Human Rights Violators and War 
                Crimes Unit of the Department of Homeland Security to 
                target such individuals; and
            (3) the United States should encourage its allies and 
        partners to pursue the criminal prosecution and extradition of 
        foreign government officials and non-state actors that assist 
        in or benefit from such hostage-taking or detention to prevent 
        such governments and non-state actors from engaging in such 
        hostage-taking or detention in the future.

SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    It is the policy of the United States Government not to pay ransom 
for the purpose of securing the release of United States citizens or 
aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence who are taken hostage 
abroad.

SEC. 4. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO POLITICALLY MOTIVATED 
              DETENTIONS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the President shall impose the sanctions 
described in subsection (b) with respect to any foreign person the 
President determines, based on credible evidence, on or after the date 
of the enactment of this Act--
            (1) knowingly participates in, or is knowingly responsible 
        for or complicit in, ordering, controlling, or otherwise 
        directing, the politically motivated harassment, abuse, 
        extortion, arrest, trial, conviction, sentencing, or 
        imprisonment of a United States citizen or an alien lawfully 
        admitted for permanent residence;
            (2) provides significant financial, material, or 
        technological support for or to, or engages in a significant 
        transaction or a series of transactions totaling a significant 
        amount with, a foreign person described in paragraph (1);
            (3) materially assists, sponsors, or provides financial, 
        material, or technological support for, or goods or services in 
        support of, an activity described in paragraph (1); or
            (4) owns or controls or is owned or controlled by a foreign 
        person described in paragraphs (1), (2), or (3).
    (b) Sanctions Described.--The sanctions to be imposed with respect 
to a foreign person under subsection (a) are the following:
            (1) Inadmissibility to united states.--In the case of an 
        alien subject to subsection (a)--
                    (A) denial of a visa to, and exclusion from the 
                United States of--
                            (i) the alien; and
                            (ii) any family member of the alien who is 
                        also an alien; and
                    (B) revocation, in accordance with section 221(i) 
                of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
                1201(i)), of any visa or other documentation of the 
                alien or family member.
            (2) Blocking of property.--
                    (A) In general.--The blocking, in accordance with 
                the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 
                U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), of all transactions in all 
                property and interests in property of a foreign person 
                subject to subsection (a) if such property and 
                interests in property are in the United States, come 
                within the United States, or come within the possession 
                or control of a United States person.
                    (B) Inapplicability of national emergency 
                requirement.--The requirements of section 202 of the 
                International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 
                1701) shall not apply for purposes of this subsection.
    (c) Exceptions.--
            (1) Exception to comply with united nations headquarters 
        agreement.--Sanctions under subsection (b)(1) shall not apply 
        to an alien if admitting the alien into the United States is 
        necessary to permit the United States to comply with the 
        Agreement regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, 
        signed at Lake Success June 26, 1947, and entered into force 
        November 21, 1947, between the United Nations and the United 
        States, the Convention on Consular Relations, done at Vienna 
        April 24, 1963, and entered into force March 19, 1967, or other 
        applicable international obligations.
            (2) Exception relating to importation of goods.--
                    (A) In general.--The authority to block and 
                prohibit all transactions in all property and interests 
                in property under subsection (b)(2) shall not include 
                the authority to impose sanctions on the importation of 
                goods.
                    (B) Good.--In this paragraph, the term ``good'' 
                means any article, natural or manmade substance, 
                material, supply or manufactured product, including 
                inspection and test equipment, and excluding technical 
                data.
    (d) Consideration of Certain Information in Imposing Sanctions.--In 
determining whether to impose sanctions under subsection (a), the 
President shall consider--
            (1) information provided jointly by the chairperson and 
        ranking member of each of the appropriate congressional 
        committees; and
            (2) credible information obtained by other countries and 
        nongovernmental organizations that monitor violations of human 
        rights.
    (e) Requests by Appropriate Congressional Committees.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after receiving a 
        request in writing from the chairperson or ranking member of 
        one of the appropriate congressional committees with respect to 
        whether a foreign person has engaged in an activity described 
        in subsection (a), the President shall--
                    (A) determine if that foreign person has engaged in 
                such an activity; and
                    (B) submit to the chairperson and ranking member of 
                the committee that submitted the request a report with 
                respect to that determination that includes--
                            (i) a statement of whether or not the 
                        President imposed or intends to impose 
                        sanctions under subsection (a) with respect to 
                        the foreign person; and
                            (ii) if the President imposed or intends to 
                        impose sanctions, a description of the 
                        sanctions.
            (2) Form of report.--A report submitted under paragraph 
        (1)(B) shall be submitted in unclassified form but may include 
        a classified annex.
    (f) Implementation; Penalties.--
            (1) Implementation.--The President may exercise all 
        authorities provided to the President under sections 203 and 
        205 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 
        U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) to carry out this section.
            (2) Penalties.--A person that violates, attempts to 
        violate, conspires to violate, or causes a violation of 
        subsection (b)(2) or any regulation, license, or order issued 
        to carry out that subsection shall be subject to the penalties 
        set forth in subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the 
        International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to 
        the same extent as a person that commits an unlawful act 
        described in subsection (a) of that section.
    (g) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Admission; admitted; alien; lawfully admitted for 
        permanent residence.--The terms ``admission'', ``admitted'', 
        ``alien'', and ``lawfully admitted for permanent residence'' 
        have the meanings given those terms in section 101 of the 
        Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101).
            (2) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term 
        ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
                    (A) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the 
                Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the 
                Senate; and
                    (B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the 
                Committee on Financial Services of the House of 
                Representatives.
            (3) Family member.--The term ``family member'', with 
        respect to an individual, means--
                    (A) a spouse, child, parent, sibling, sibling's 
                child, grandchild, or grandparent of the individual; 
                and
                    (B) a child, parent, sibling, sibling's child, 
                grandchild, or grandparent of a spouse of the 
                individual.
            (4) Foreign person.--The term ``foreign person'' means an 
        individual or entity that is not a United States person.
            (5) 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.
            (6) United states person.--The term ``United States 
        person'' means--
                    (A) a United States citizen or an alien lawfully 
                admitted for permanent residence to the United States; 
                or
                    (B) an entity organized under the laws of the 
                United States or any jurisdiction within the United 
                States, including a foreign branch of such an entity.
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