HR 2158
Countering Transnational Repression Act of 2025
Take action
Record your position on this measure.
Sign in to record your position, submit testimony, or contact your legislator.
Sign in to take action- Introduced
- Passed House
- Passed Senate
- To President
- Became Law
Bill overview
This bill establishes a new working group within the Department of Homeland Security dedicated to analyzing and monitoring transnational repression. Transnational repression refers to actions by foreign governments or their agents targeting individuals in the United States or abroad, including intimidation, threats, and surveillance. The working group will coordinate with intelligence agencies and other federal partners to assess and address this growing threat, and will submit annual reports to Congress on incidents of transnational repression.
Key provisions
- Creates a Transnational Repression Working Group within DHS.
- The Working Group will analyze and monitor transnational repression threats.
- The Director of the Working Group will report to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the DHS Investigations Director.
- The Working Group can employ detailees from intelligence and other federal agencies.
- The Working Group will incorporate information from various partners, including fusion centers.
- The Working Group will submit annual reports to Congress assessing transnational repression incidents.
- The Secretary will conduct research and development on technologies to counter transnational repression.
- The Working Group must operate in accordance with constitutional, privacy, and civil liberties protections.
Who is affected
- Department of Homeland Security
- Intelligence Community
- Federal, State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Officials
Sponsors
Official sponsors from legislative records.
Primary sponsor
Cosponsors
Arguments in favor
Reasons to support this legislation.
No arguments in favor have been submitted.
Submit yoursArguments opposed
Reasons to oppose this legislation.
No arguments opposed have been submitted.
Submit yoursRead the latest version inline or switch to a previous version.
119th CONGRESS — 1st Session
H. R. 2158
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
A BILL
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize a dedicated transnational repression working group within the Department of Homeland Security to analyze and monitor transnational repression and terrorism threats related to transnational repression, and for other purposes.
This Act may be cited as the Countering Transnational Repression Act of 2025
.
It is the sense of Congress that—
agents acting on behalf of hostile foreign governments employ a range of transnational repression tactics, including making threats, intimidation, harassment, surveillance, stalking, silencing, and planning physical harm or the kidnapping of individuals in the United States; and
the Department of Homeland Security must take steps to recognize, assess, and help address this threat, thereby reducing risks to the people of the United States.
There is established a Working Group, to be known as the Transnational Repression Working Group
(in this section referred to as the Working Group
), within the Department, which shall be responsible for, in coordination with the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, analyzing and monitoring transnational repression and terrorism threats related to transnational repression.
The head of the Working Group shall be a Director of the Transnational Repression Working Group, who shall be appointed by the Director of Homeland Security Investigations.
The Director of the Transnational Repression Working Group shall report to the Secretary and the Director of Homeland Security Investigations regarding all administrative, operational, and security matters of the Working Group.
has a sufficient number of employees to perform required duties; and
has at least one employee dedicated to ensuring compliance with privacy laws and regulations.
The Working Group may accept and employ detailees with expertise in countering transnational repression and terrorism threats related to transnational repression or related fields from any element of the intelligence community, or any other Federal agency the Director of the Transnational Repression Working Group determines appropriate, with or without reimbursement, consistent with applicable laws and regulations regarding such employees.
The Working Group, in coordination with the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, shall review information relating to transnational repression and terrorism threats related to transnational repression that is gathered by Federal, State, local, Tribal, and territorial partners, and the National Network of Fusion Centers, and incorporate such information, as appropriate, into the Working Group’s own information relating to transnational repression and terrorism threats related to transnational repression. The Working Group shall ensure the dissemination to Federal, State, local, Tribal, and territorial partners, and the National Network of Fusion Centers, of information related to transnational repression and terrorism threats related to transnational repression.
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this section and annually thereafter for seven years, the Director of Homeland Security Investigations, acting through the Director of the Transnational Repression Working Group, in coordination with the Office of Intelligence and Analysis and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as appropriate, shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a report that assesses incidents of transnational repression and terrorism threats related to transnational repression during the immediately preceding 12 months.
Each assessment submitted under subparagraph (A) shall also include the following:
An analysis of attempted incidents of transnational repression and terrorism threats related to transnational repression.
A quantitative analysis of transnational repression and terrorism threats related to transnational repression, including the number of individuals responsible for or associated with such transnational repression or terrorism threats related to transnational repression, and an identification of the country of citizenship or nationality of each such individual, and the roles of the foreign governments of such countries in enabling, preventing, mitigating, and responding to transnational repression and terrorism threats related to transnational repression.
Subject to appropriate protections for sensitive information regarding law enforcement investigations and operations, a description of efforts by the Federal Government to disrupt through investigation transnational repression and terrorism threats related to transnational repression.
Any other matters the Director of Homeland Security Investigations determines relevant.
Each assessment under subparagraph (A) shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex only for the protection of intelligence sources and methods relating to the matters contained in such assessment. The Director of Homeland Security Investigations shall post on a publicly available website of the Department the unclassified portion of each such assessment.
The Working Group shall terminate on the date that is seven years after the date of the enactment of this section.
Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary, in coordination with the Under Secretary for Science and Technology of the Department, the Director of the Transnational Repression Office, and the Director of Homeland Security Investigations, shall, to the extent practicable, carry out research and development, including operational testing, of technologies and techniques for enhancing the Department’s support to Federal, State, local, Tribal, and territorial officials relating to countering transnational repression and terrorism threats related to transnational repression.
All activities carried out pursuant to this section—
shall be carried out in accordance with applicable constitutional, privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties protections; and
may not infringe upon the lawful exercise of free speech by United States persons.
In this section:
The term agent of a foreign government
means an individual or entity that operates subject to the direction and control of—
a foreign government; or
an official or entity of such foreign government.
The term foreign government
means the government of a foreign country.
The term fusion center
has the meaning given such term in subsection (j) of section 210A.
The term intelligence community
has the meaning given such term in section 3(4) of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003(4)).
The term National Network of Fusion Centers
means a decentralized arrangement of fusion centers intended to enhance individual State and urban area fusion centers’ ability to leverage the capabilities and expertise of all such fusion centers for the purpose of enhancing analysis and homeland security information sharing nationally.
The term transnational repression
means an action of a foreign government or an agent of a foreign government that satisfies each of the following:
The action involves—
any effort intended to coerce, harass, or digitally or physically threaten, including by force or reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury or imprisonment of a person or an immediate family member of a person, a person to take an action in the interest of such a foreign government;
any effort intended to harass or coerce, including by force or fear, a person to forebear from exercising the First Amendment rights of such person or any other right guaranteed to such person by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to retaliate against a person for having exercised such a right;
an extrajudicial killing; or
any act intended to further the efforts specified in clause (i), (ii), or (iii).
The action is engaged in for or in the interests of such a foreign government.
The action—
occurs, in whole or in part, in the United States; or
is committed against a United States person.
The term United States person
has the meaning given such term in section 1637(d)(10) of the Carl Levin and Howard P. Buck
McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal year 2015 (50 U.S.C. 1708(d)(10)).
The table of contents in section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 890D the following new item: