Protecting Personal Data from Foreign Adversaries Act

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 57 To regulate or prohibit transactions using mobile applications or software programs that engage in the theft of user data on behalf of a communist country, foreign adversary, or state sponsor of terrorism, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 9, 2023 Mr. BERGMAN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com- mittee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judi- ciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To regulate or prohibit transactions using mobile applications or software programs that engage in the theft of user data on behalf of a communist country, foreign adver- sary, or state sponsor of terrorism, and for other pur- poses. 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 ‘‘Protecting Personal 4 Data from Foreign Adversaries Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:58 Jan 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H57.IH H57 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 57 IH SEC. 2. AUTHORITIES TO REGULATE OR PROHIBIT TRANS- 1 ACTIONS USING MOBILE APPLICATIONS OR 2 SOFTWARE PROGRAMS THAT ENGAGE IN THE 3 THEFT OF USER DATA ON BEHALF OF A COM- 4 MUNIST COUNTRY, FOREIGN ADVERSARY, OR 5 STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM. 6 Section 203 of the International Emergency Eco- 7 nomic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702) is amended— 8 (1) by redesignating subsection (c) as sub- 9 section (d); and 10 (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol- 11 lowing new subsection: 12 ‘‘(c)(1) Notwithstanding subsection (b), the authority 13 granted to the President by this section includes the au- 14 thority to regulate or prohibit transactions using mobile 15 applications or software programs that— 16 ‘‘(A) engage in the theft of or transmits a 17 user’s data in an unauthorized manner; and 18 ‘‘(B) provide to a covered country, or covered 19 foreign political party, access to such data. 20 ‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘covered country’ 21 means any of the following: 22 ‘‘(A) A Communist country. 23 ‘‘(B) A foreign adversary. 24 ‘‘(C) A state sponsor of terrorism. 25 ‘‘(3) In this subsection: 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:58 Jan 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H57.IH H57 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 57 IH ‘‘(A) The term ‘communist country’ has the 1 meaning given such term in section 620(f)(1) of the 2 Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 3 2370(f)(1)). 4 ‘‘(B) The term ‘foreign adversary’ has the 5 meaning given such term in Executive Order 13920, 6 issued on May 1, 2020, entitled ‘Securing the 7 United States BulkPower System’, and including the 8 list of foreign adversaries identified by the Depart- 9 ment of Energy’s Office of Electricity pursuant to 10 such Executive Order on July 7, 2020, as in effect 11 on January 19, 2021. 12 ‘‘(C) The term ‘state sponsor of terrorism’ 13 means a country the government of which the Sec- 14 retary of State determines has repeatedly provided 15 support for international terrorism pursuant to— 16 ‘‘(i) section 1754(c)(1)(A) of the Export 17 Control Reform Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 18 4813(c)(1)(A)); 19 ‘‘(ii) section 620A of the Foreign Assist- 20 ance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2371); 21 ‘‘(iii) section 40 of the Arms Export Con- 22 trol Act (22 U.S.C. 2780); or 23 ‘‘(iv) any other provision of law. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:33 Jan 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H57.IH H57 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 57 IH ‘‘(4) In this subsection, the term ‘covered for- 1 eign political party’ means the Chinese Communist 2 Party (CCP).’’. 3 SEC. 3. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO MO- 4 BILE APPLICATIONS OR SOFTWARE PRO- 5 GRAMS THAT ENGAGE IN THE THEFT OF 6 USER DATA. 7 (a) IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS.—Notwithstanding 8 any other provision of law, the President is authorized to 9 impose the sanctions described in subsection (b) with re- 10 spect to any foreign person that the President determines 11 has developed, maintains, provides, owns, or controls a 12 mobile application or software program that— 13 (1) engages in the theft of or transmits a user’s 14 data in an unauthorized manner to servers located 15 in China; and 16 (2) provides to the Government of the People’s 17 Republic of China (PRC), the Chinese Communist 18 Party (CCP), or any person owned by or controlled 19 by the PRC or CCP access to such data. 20 (b) SANCTIONS DESCRIBED.— 21 (1) IN GENERAL.—The sanctions described in 22 this subsection with respect to a foreign person de- 23 termined by the President to be subject to sub- 24 section (a) are the following: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:58 Jan 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H57.IH H57 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 57 IH (A) ASSET BLOCKING.—The President 1 shall exercise all powers granted to the Presi- 2 dent by the International Emergency Economic 3 Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the ex- 4 tent necessary to block and prohibit all trans- 5 actions in property and interests in property of 6 the foreign person if such property and inter- 7 ests in property are in the United States, come 8 within the United States, or are or come within 9 the possession or control of a United States 10 person. 11 (B) INADMISSIBILITY OF CERTAIN INDI- 12 VIDUALS.— 13 (i) INELIGIBILITY FOR VISAS, ADMIS- 14 SION, OR PAROLE.—In the case of a for- 15 eign person who is an individual, the for- 16 eign person is— 17 (I) inadmissible to the United 18 States; 19 (II) ineligible to receive a visa or 20 other documentation to enter the 21 United States; and 22 (III) otherwise ineligible to be 23 admitted or paroled into the United 24 States or to receive any other benefit 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:58 Jan 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H57.IH H57 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 57 IH under the Immigration and Nation- 1 ality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.). 2 (ii) CURRENT VISAS REVOKED.— 3 (I) IN GENERAL.—In the case of 4 a foreign person who is an individual, 5 the visa or other documentation 6 issued to the person shall be revoked, 7 regardless of when such visa or other 8 documentation is or was issued. 9 (II) EFFECT OF REVOCATION.— 10 A revocation under subclause (I) 11 shall— 12 (aa) take effect immediately; 13 and 14 (bb) automatically cancel 15 any other valid visa or entry doc- 16 umentation that is in the per- 17 son’s possession. 18 (2) PENALTIES.—The penalties provided for in 19 subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the Inter- 20 national Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 21 U.S.C. 1705) shall apply to a person that violates, 22 attempts to violate, conspires to violate, or causes a 23 violation of regulations to implement this section to 24 the same extent that such penalties apply to a per- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:58 Jan 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H57.IH H57 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 57 IH son that commits an unlawful act described in sec- 1 tion 206(a) of such Act. 2 (3) EXCEPTION TO COMPLY WITH UNITED NA- 3 TIONS HEADQUARTERS AGREEMENT.—Sanctions 4 under paragraph (1)(B) shall not apply to a foreign 5 person who is an individual if admitting the person 6 into the United States is necessary to permit the 7 United States to comply with the Agreement regard- 8 ing the Headquarters of the United Nations, signed 9 at Lake Success June 26, 1947, and entered into 10 force November 21, 1947, between the United Na- 11 tions and the United States, or other applicable 12 international obligations. 13 (c) WAIVER.—The President may, on a case-by-case 14 basis and for periods not to exceed 180 days, waive the 15 application of sanctions imposed with respect to a foreign 16 person under this section if the President certifies to the 17 appropriate congressional committees not later than 15 18 days before such waiver is to take effect that the waiver 19 is vital to the national security interests of the United 20 States. 21 (d) IMPLEMENTATION AUTHORITY.—The President 22 may exercise all authorities provided to the President 23 under sections 203 and 205 of the International Emer- 24 gency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:58 Jan 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H57.IH H57 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 57 IH for purposes of carrying out this section. The exceptions 1 to the President’s authority described in section 203(b) 2 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as 3 amended by section 1, shall not apply to the President’s 4 authority to exercise authorities under this section. 5 (e) SUNSET.— 6 (1) IN GENERAL.—This section shall terminate 7 on January 1, 2026. 8 (2) INAPPLICABILITY.—Paragraph (1) shall not 9 apply with respect to sanctions imposed with respect 10 to a foreign person under this section before Janu- 11 ary 1, 2026. 12 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 13 (1) ADMITTED; ALIEN.—The terms ‘‘admitted’’ 14 and ‘‘alien’’ have the meanings given those terms in 15 section 101(3) of the Immigration and Nationality 16 Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(3)). 17 (2) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT- 18 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com- 19 mittees’’ means— 20 (A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the 21 Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on 22 Ways and Means, and the Committee on Finan- 23 cial Services of the House of Representatives; 24 and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:58 Jan 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H57.IH H57 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 57 IH (B) the Committee on Foreign Relations 1 and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 2 Urban Affairs of the Senate. 3 (3) FOREIGN PERSON.—The term ‘‘foreign per- 4 son’’ means a person that is not a United States 5 person. 6 (4) UNITED STATES PERSON.—The term 7 ‘‘United States person’’ means— 8 (A) a United States citizen or an alien law- 9 fully admitted for permanent residence to the 10 United States; or 11 (B) an entity organized under the laws of 12 the United States or of any jurisdiction of the 13 United States, including a foreign branch of 14 such an entity. 15 SEC. 4. DETERMINATION WITH RESPECT TO THE IMPOSI- 16 TION OF SANCTIONS ON WECHAT AND 17 TIKTOK. 18 (a) DETERMINATION.—Not later than 90 days after 19 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 20 State shall submit to the appropriate congressional com- 21 mittees a determination, including a detailed justification 22 therefor, regarding whether WeChat, or any component 23 thereof, or any entity owned or controlled by WeChat, or 24 TikTok, or any component thereof, or any entity owned 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:58 Jan 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H57.IH H57 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 57 IH or controlled by TikTok, satisfies the criteria for the appli- 1 cation of sanctions pursuant to— 2 (1) section 2 of this Act; or 3 (2) Executive Order 13694 (50 U.S.C. 1701 4 note; relating to blocking property of certain persons 5 engaged in significant malicious cyber-enabled activi- 6 ties). 7 (b) FORM.—The determination required by sub- 8 section (a) shall be submitted in unclassified form but may 9 contain a classified annex. 10 (c) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES DE- 11 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congres- 12 sional committees’’ means— 13 (1) the Committee on Armed Services, the 14 Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Permanent Select 15 Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Finan- 16 cial Services, and the Committee on the Judiciary of 17 the House of Representatives; and 18 (2) the Committee on Armed Services, the 19 Committee on Foreign Relations, the Select Com- 20 mittee on Intelligence, the Committee on Banking, 21 Housing, and Urban Affairs, and the Committee on 22 the Judiciary of the Senate. 23 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:58 Jan 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H57.IH H57 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS