Cooperate with Law Enforcement Agencies and Watch Act of 2019

II 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 Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cooperate with Law 4 Enforcement Agencies and Watch Act of 2019’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 May 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1592.IS S1592 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1592 IS SEC. 2. SAFE HARBOR WITH RESPECT TO KEEP OPEN LET- 1 TERS. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.— 3 (1) AMENDMENT TO TITLE 31.—Subchapter II 4 of chapter 53 of title 31, United States Code, is 5 amended by adding at the end the following: 6 ‘‘§ 5333. Safe harbor with respect to keep open letters 7 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—With respect to a customer ac- 8 count or customer transaction of a financial institution, 9 if a Federal, State, Tribal, or local law enforcement agen- 10 cy requests, in writing, the financial institution to keep 11 that account or transaction open— 12 ‘‘(1) the financial institution shall not be liable 13 under this subchapter for maintaining that account 14 or transaction consistent with the parameters of the 15 request; and 16 ‘‘(2) no Federal or State department or agency 17 may take any adverse supervisory action under this 18 subchapter with respect to the financial institution 19 for maintaining that account or transaction con- 20 sistent with the parameters of the request. 21 ‘‘(b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec- 22 tion may be construed— 23 ‘‘(1) from preventing a Federal or State depart- 24 ment or agency from verifying the validity of a writ- 25 ten request described in subsection (a) with the Fed- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 May 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1592.IS S1592 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1592 IS eral, State, Tribal, or local law enforcement agency 1 making that written request; or 2 ‘‘(2) to relieve a financial institution from com- 3 plying with any reporting requirements, including 4 the reporting of suspicious transactions under sec- 5 tion 5318(g). 6 ‘‘(c) LETTER TERMINATION DATE.—For the pur- 7 poses of this section, any written request described in sub- 8 section (a) shall include a termination date after which 9 that request shall no longer apply.’’. 10 (2) AMENDMENT TO PUBLIC LAW 91–508.— 11 Chapter 2 of title I of Public Law 91–508 (12 12 U.S.C. 1951 et seq.) is amended by adding at the 13 end the following: 14 ‘‘§ 130. Safe harbor with respect to keep open letters 15 ‘‘(a) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘finan- 16 cial institution’ has the meaning given the term in section 17 123(b). 18 ‘‘(b) SAFE HARBOR.—With respect to a customer ac- 19 count or customer transaction of a financial institution, 20 if a Federal, State, Tribal, or local law enforcement agen- 21 cy requests, in writing, the financial institution to keep 22 that account or transaction open— 23 ‘‘(1) the financial institution shall not be liable 24 under this chapter for maintaining that account or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 May 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1592.IS S1592 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 1592 IS transaction consistent with the parameters of the re- 1 quest; and 2 ‘‘(2) no Federal or State department or agency 3 may take any adverse supervisory action under this 4 chapter with respect to the financial institution for 5 maintaining that account or transaction consistent 6 with the parameters of the request. 7 ‘‘(c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec- 8 tion may be construed— 9 ‘‘(1) from preventing a Federal or State depart- 10 ment or agency from verifying the validity of a writ- 11 ten request described in subsection (b) with the Fed- 12 eral, State, Tribal, or local law enforcement agency 13 making that written request; or 14 ‘‘(2) to relieve a financial institution from com- 15 plying with any reporting requirements, including 16 the reporting of suspicious transactions under sec- 17 tion 5318(g) of title 31, United States Code. 18 ‘‘(d) LETTER TERMINATION DATE.—For the pur- 19 poses of this section, any written request described in sub- 20 section (b) shall include a termination date after which 21 that request shall no longer apply.’’. 22 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENTS.— 23 (1) TITLE 31.—The table of contents for chap- 24 ter 53 of title 31, United States Code, is amended 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 May 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1592.IS S1592 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 1592 IS by inserting after the item relating to section 5332 1 the following: 2 ‘‘5333. Safe harbor with respect to keep open letters.’’. (2) PUBLIC LAW 91–508.—The table of contents 3 for chapter 2 of title I of Public Law 91–508 (12 4 U.S.C. 1951 et seq.) is amended by adding at the 5 end the following: 6 ‘‘130. Safe harbor with respect to keep open letters.’’. SEC. 3. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS. 7 The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of 8 complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, 9 shall be determined by reference to the latest statement 10 titled ‘‘Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation’’ for this 11 Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record 12 by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, pro- 13 vided that such statement has been submitted prior to the 14 vote on passage. 15 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:47 May 31, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1592.IS S1592 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS