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December 21, 2022
Press Release

(Washington, DC) Congress has adopted legislation spearheaded by Representative Tom Malinowski and Senator Ron Wyden to prevent Americans from working with or aiding foreign police and intelligence agencies that spy on dissidents, on journalists, and on American citizens. The provision was included in the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and represents the largest expansion of presidential export control authority in several years.

“Americans should not be helping foreign dictatorships spy on their political opponents or on our own citizens,” said Representative Malinowski (D-NJ). “This new law gives the President the authority to treat the export of sophisticated hacking tools and expertise just as we treat the export of sensitive military technology, to make sure it doesn’t fall into dangerous hands.”

“American technology shouldn’t be used to help authoritarians spy on their citizens or hack their political rivals. I’m proud to have partnered with Congressman Malinowski, Senator Cornyn, and Chairman Brown to pass this provision. I look forward to working with the administration to ensure that U.S-made surveillance technology is not exported to intelligence and security agencies in countries with a record of abusing human rights,” said Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR).

“Given the alarming increase of cyber threats to U.S. citizens, preventing American technology from falling into the wrong hands is critical to our national security,” said Senator John Cornyn (R-TX). “This provision will strengthen the ability of the American government to deny services to foreign civilian intelligence agencies, and I am grateful to my colleagues for their leadership on this important issue.”  

“This key provision will expand our ability to deprive certain foreign national security and law enforcement services from accessing sensitive U.S. technologies. I thank my colleagues for their work on this provision and look forward to working with BIS to implement strong export controls using this new authority,” said Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

“Congress needs to ensure that Americans are not contributing to surveillance efforts and human rights abuses abroad. I was proud to secure the inclusion of this important provision in the NDAA and thank Representative Malinowski for championing it,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Representative Gregory Meeks (D-NY).

Current law allows the President to block Americans from providing any services to a foreign military intelligence agency, but not to a civilian intelligence or police-type entity. In 2019, Reuters uncovered that the United Arab Emirates exploited weak controls to hire more than a dozen former U.S. intelligence operatives to hack dissidents, journalists, and Americans. Under this new law, the President could prohibit Americans from providing support to that surveillance agency or any of the dozens of security agencies around the world that have used advanced technology — such as the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware — against journalists, human rights defenders, and opposition politicians. The law will also give the President a new tool to prevent American technologies or services from helping build China’s system of mass surveillance, within and beyond its borders.

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The export controls provision was included as Section 5589(b) of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), having previously been offered as an amendment to FY21 NDAA, FY22 NDAA (Sec 1344), House China competition bill (Sec 30326), and FY23 NDAA (Senator Wyden).

As Vice Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Malinowski has focused on the use of Commerce Department-managed export controls tools to tackle the threats to global human rights from 21st century digital surveillance:

-Hearing with Commerce/BIS U/S Estevez on the new authority passed in the NDAA

-Statement on administration policy on PRC semiconductors

-Letters to Secretary Raimondo and Secretary Blinken on export control polices related to surveillance technologies 

-Led congressional calls for use of entity list against NSO Group

-Regulatory feedback on BIS controls on surveillance items with HR risks

All official press releases from Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ)