Foreign Adversary Federal Offense Act of 2025

Summary

Expands federal criminal penalties for economic espionage and adds unspecified changes to the statute governing gathering/transmitting defense information. It raises mandatory prison terms and fines when the theft of trade secrets is done to advance the interests of a foreign "covered nation," and establishes much larger financial penalties for organizations based on the value of the stolen secrets. The bill also inserts new material into the statute that governs unlawful handling of defense information, but the text of that insertion is not provided, so its effects are unknown.

• Raises criminal penalties for economic espionage committed to advance the interests of a designated foreign "covered nation."
• Individuals face a mandatory minimum of 10 years' imprisonment (up to 15 years), and up to 20 years if the offense causes defined "severe harm."
• Individuals may be fined up to $5,000,000 and are ineligible for supervised release for covered-nation offenses.
• Organizations face a fine equal to the greater of $20,000,000 or five times the value of the stolen trade secret (including R&D and reproduction-cost savings).
• Defines "severe harm" to include theft of nonpublic critical-infrastructure information that could likely incapacitate or destroy infrastructure if used.
• Amends 18 U.S.C. § 1831 (economic espionage) and inserts new material into 18 U.S.C. § 793 (defense information statute), though the § 793 insertion text is not provided.
• No funding, implementation dates, or agency-level directives are included in the provided text.
• Targets acts that benefit foreign adversaries as defined by existing law (10 U.S.C. § 4872).