Title: Cooperate with Law Enforcement Agencies and Watch Act of 2019
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector

Summary:
Cooperate with Law Enforcement Agencies and Watch Act of 2019
This bill limits a financial institution's liability for maintaining a customer account or a customer transaction in compliance with a written request by a federal, state, tribal, or local law enforcement agency. A federal or state agency may not take an adverse supervisory action against a financial institution with respect to maintaining an account or a transaction consistent with such a request.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1592 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1592

  To amend title 31, United States Code, to provide a safe harbor for 
  financial institutions that maintain a customer account or customer 
   transaction at the request of a Federal or State law enforcement 
                    agency, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 22, 2019

 Mr. Cotton (for himself and Mr. Jones) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, 
                           and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title 31, United States Code, to provide a safe harbor for 
  financial institutions that maintain a customer account or customer 
   transaction at the request of a Federal or State law enforcement 
                    agency, 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 ``Cooperate with Law Enforcement 
Agencies and Watch Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. SAFE HARBOR WITH RESPECT TO KEEP OPEN LETTERS.

    (a) In General.--
            (1) Amendment to title 31.--Subchapter II of chapter 53 of 
        title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end 
        the following:
``Sec. 5333. Safe harbor with respect to keep open letters
    ``(a) In General.--With respect to a customer account or customer 
transaction of a financial institution, if a Federal, State, Tribal, or 
local law enforcement agency requests, in writing, the financial 
institution to keep that account or transaction open--
            ``(1) the financial institution shall not be liable under 
        this subchapter for maintaining that 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 that account or 
        transaction consistent with the parameters of the request.
    ``(b) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section may be 
construed--
            ``(1) from preventing a Federal or State department or 
        agency from verifying the validity of a written request 
        described in subsection (a) with the Federal, State, Tribal, or 
        local law enforcement agency making that written request; or
            ``(2) to relieve a financial institution from complying 
        with any reporting requirements, including the reporting of 
        suspicious transactions under section 5318(g).
    ``(c) Letter Termination Date.--For the purposes of this section, 
any written request described in subsection (a) shall include a 
termination date after which that request shall no longer apply.''.
            (2) Amendment to public law 91-508.--Chapter 2 of title I 
        of Public Law 91-508 (12 U.S.C. 1951 et seq.) is amended by 
        adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 130. Safe harbor with respect to keep open letters
    ``(a) Definition.--In this section, the term `financial 
institution' has the meaning given the term in section 123(b).
    ``(b) Safe Harbor.--With respect to a customer account or customer 
transaction of a financial institution, if a Federal, State, Tribal, or 
local law enforcement agency requests, in writing, the financial 
institution to keep that account or transaction open--
            ``(1) the financial institution shall not be liable under 
        this chapter for maintaining that 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 chapter with respect to 
        the financial institution for maintaining that account or 
        transaction consistent with the parameters of the request.
    ``(c) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section may be 
construed--
            ``(1) from preventing a Federal or State department or 
        agency from verifying the validity of a written request 
        described in subsection (b) with the Federal, State, Tribal, or 
        local law enforcement agency making that written request; or
            ``(2) to relieve a financial institution from complying 
        with any reporting requirements, including the reporting of 
        suspicious transactions under section 5318(g) of title 31, 
        United States Code.
    ``(d) Letter Termination Date.--For the purposes of this section, 
any written request described in subsection (b) shall include a 
termination date after which that request shall no longer apply.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendments.--
            (1) Title 31.--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.''.
            (2) Public law 91-508.--The table of contents for chapter 2 
        of title I of Public Law 91-508 (12 U.S.C. 1951 et seq.) is 
        amended by adding at the end the following:

``130. 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, provided that 
such statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.
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