Sponsors (3)
The bill improves national security accountability by eliminating time limits on espionage‑related prosecutions, but does so at the cost of greater legal uncertainty and fairness risks for immigrants and defendants and modestly higher potential public expenses.
Victims of espionage, federal investigators, and taxpayers: prosecutors can bring espionage-related charges at any time, enabling pursuit of long-hidden foreign‑agent conduct and increasing the chance of holding spies accountable.
Immigration system and public trust: closes a loophole so naturalization fraud committed to facilitate acting as a foreign agent can be prosecuted when discovered, strengthening immigration integrity.
Naturalized citizens and applicants: may face prosecution decades later for past immigration fraud tied to foreign‑agent activity, creating legal uncertainty for immigrants.
Defendants and the justice system: prosecuting very old conduct makes evidence harder to verify and defenses more difficult, increasing the risk of unfair trials or wrongful outcomes.
Taxpayers: removing time limits for espionage prosecutions could increase investigative and court costs if more cold‑case prosecutions are pursued.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Removes the statute of limitations for prosecutions of acting as a foreign agent, spying, and related citizenship fraud used to facilitate foreign-agent activity.
Introduced July 9, 2025 by John Cornyn · Last progress July 9, 2025
Removes the time limit on bringing federal charges for key espionage offenses: acting as an agent of a foreign government and spying against the United States, and for illegal procurement of citizenship if done to facilitate acting as an agent of a foreign power. It also adds a new chapter and section to Title 18 of the U.S. Code and updates cross-references in the Internal Security Act to reflect the change.