Press Releases

Today, the language from Rep. Bergman's bill, H.R. 4189, the Homeland and Cyber Threat Act, was included in the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act. This legislation will remove the immunity of foreign states—including foreign officials, employees, or agents—with regard to money damages sought by a national of the United States for personal injury, harm to reputation, or damage to or loss of property resulting from cyberattacks.

On Monday, the House overwhelmingly passed the bipartisan HACT Act amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by a vote of 336-71. This measure carves out a cyberattack exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which currently shields foreign state actors from American lawsuits, protecting them from any form of accountability in cases of state-sponsored cyberattack. 

Recent urgent alerts from both the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have warned of the ongoing threat from foreign-backed hackers and spies working to steal American research in the crash effort to develop vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus.

In a June 24th op-ed in the Petoskey News Review, Rep. Bergman highlighted that "the Chinese government is leading a sophisticated and extensive cyberattack effort against U.S. hospitals, research labs, and health care institutions — seizing on the coronavirus pandemic to victimize the U.S. government, state governments, private entities, and countless individuals." 

Today, the Department of Justice announced it has charged two Chinese hackers with trying to steal U.S. COVID-19 research as well as other sensitive information from businesses and government agencies. This further underscores the need to send this legislation to President Trump's desk - to protect American institutions and citizens from foreign-government sponsored cyber-attacks.

The HACT Act amendment to NDAA is an essential national security measure to protect the United States government, our health care system, and American citizens from the ongoing cyber-threat, crucially important at this time of national trial.