HR708-119

What This Bill Does

The SHIELD Against CCP Act requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a Department of Homeland Security working group within 180 days to counter terrorist, cybersecurity, border and port security, and transportation security threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party. The Secretary appoints a Director who reports to the Secretary on administrative, operational, and security matters. DHS must provide enough employees for the working group and at least one employee dedicated to privacy-law compliance. The working group may accept detailees from the intelligence community or other federal agencies with relevant expertise, with or without reimbursement.

The working group must examine, assess, and report on DHS efforts to counter CCP threats. The listed threat areas include exploitation of the U.S. immigration system through identity theft, visa processes, unlawful border crossings, human smuggling, and human trafficking; predatory economic and trade practices such as counterfeit and pirated goods, forced labor, labor exploitation, customs fraud, and theft of intellectual property and technology; direct or indirect support for transnational criminal organizations trafficking fentanyl, precursors, or other controlled substances through the border, international mail, or express consignments; and Chinese Money Laundering Organizations moving proceeds. The working group must account for DHS resources, evaluate program efficacy, build on other DHS evaluations, identify policy and process gaps, facilitate coordination among DHS offices and components, review information with the Office of Intelligence and Analysis from federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and fusion-center partners, and share threat information as appropriate.

Who Benefits and How

DHS component offices, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, CBP border-security teams, CISA cybersecurity teams, Coast Guard port-security teams, TSA transportation-security teams, immigration-fraud investigators, customs-fraud investigators, state fusion centers, local law-enforcement partners, tribal public-safety partners, territorial security partners, and congressional homeland security overseers benefit because the bill centralizes CCP-threat assessment, resource accounting, gap identification, and information sharing across DHS and partner networks.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Secretary of Homeland Security, DHS working group staff, the working group Director, DHS privacy-compliance staff, intelligence community detailees, federal agency detailees, DHS component program managers, and DHS resource-accounting staff bear implementation burdens. CCP-linked counterfeit-goods traffickers, forced-labor importers, customs-fraud networks, fentanyl precursor traffickers, transnational criminal organizations, and Chinese money-laundering organizations face increased scrutiny because DHS must coordinate and report on threats tied to those activities.

Key Provisions

• Requires DHS to establish a CCP-threat working group within 180 days.
• Requires a Director appointed by the Homeland Security Secretary and reporting to the Secretary.
• Requires sufficient staff and at least one privacy-law compliance employee.
• Authorizes intelligence community and federal agency detailees with relevant expertise.
• Requires assessment of CCP threats involving immigration exploitation, human smuggling, trafficking, forced labor, customs fraud, intellectual-property theft, fentanyl trafficking, and money laundering.
• Requires DHS resource accounting, program-efficacy review, gap identification, and coordination among DHS components.
• Requires information review and sharing with DHS Intelligence and Analysis, fusion centers, and federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial partners.