CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION FOR REWARDS PAID USING CRYPTOCURRENCIES.

SEC. 5585. CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION FOR REWARDS PAID USING CRYPTOCURRENCIES. (a) In General.—Section 36(e)(6) of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2708(e)(6)) is amended by adding at the end the following new sentence:“Not later than 15 days before making a reward in a form that includes cryptocurrency, the Secretary of State shall notify the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate of such form for the reward.”. (b) Report.—Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a report on the use of cryptocurrency as a part of the Department of State Rewards program established under section 36(a) of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2708(a)) that— (1) justifies any determination of the Secretary to make rewards under such program in a form that includes cryptocurrency; (2) lists each cryptocurrency payment made under such program as of the date of the submission of the report; (3) provides evidence of the manner and extent to which cryptocurrency payments would be more likely to induce whistleblowers to come forward with information than rewards paid out in United States dollars or other forms of money or nonmonetary items; and (4) examines whether the Department’s use of cryptocurrency could provide bad actors with additional hard-to-trace funds that could be used for criminal or illicit purposes.