Press Releases

Washington, D.C.— Today, Congressman Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced legislation that would restrict the ability of national security professionals to work for certain foreign-government backed organizations for five years after a position which required a security clearance. In an age where our adversaries are looking at every possibility to obtain sensitive information to gain any advantage, such a measure is necessary.

Said Rep. Banks, “As we enter into information warfare with peer competitors, the United States government should do everything in their power to reduce the possibility of sensitive information being leaked to our adversaries. My bill, Safe Career Transitions for Intelligence and National Security Professionals, ensures that professionals who hold a security clearance continue to safeguard this information by limiting ties with companies linked with adversarial foreign government within five years of their clearance expiring.”

Background:

The bill prevents six companies already banned from working with the federal government from being able to hire U.S. security professionals shortly after they have access to sensitive and classified information. These companies, such as Huawei, ZTE, and Kaspersky, disguised as operatives for adversarial governments, threaten our national security. In order to mitigate this evolving threat, the bill allows the Director of National Intelligence and other federal partners to modify the list as additional companies are found to have financial connections to the governments of China, Russia, Iran or North Korea.

This bill was created out of the concern that, without action, there was an avenue for more actors to emerge like Samir Jain. Reported by the WSJ, Samir Jain, the Obama Administration senior director for cybersecurity, violated trust given to security clearance holders. Mr. Jain registered as a lobbyist on behalf of Huawei and his technical background knowledge may be used in support of their activities.

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Congressman Jim Banks represents Indiana’s 3^rd Congressional District and serves on the House Armed Services Committee, Committee on Veterans Affairs, and Committee on Education and Labor.  Please direct all press inquiries to Tim.Goeglein@mail.house.gov.