Republican Senator Rob Portman (R-Okla.).
A bipartisan bill to address the security threats associated with the leasing of foreign corporate property by U.S. federal agencies has been passed and was recently signed into law by President Trump.
Under the law, the federal government is required to develop a system to identify property owners, including direct owners, top-level owners and beneficial owners, before federal agencies can rent foreign company properties for high-level security purposes.
The General Services Administration (GSA), which is responsible for managing office space for U.S. government departments, must implement the system by January 2023.
The law also requires that lease agreements for high-security areas of the GSA and other federal agencies include specific provisions that prohibit direct access to the area by the property owner and management company.
The Act is called the Secure Federal Leases from Espionage And Suspicious Entanglements Act, or “The Secure Federal LEASEs Act (S.1869). President Trump signed it into law on Dec. 30, 2020.
The bill was co-sponsored by Republican Senator Rob Portman (R-Okla.) and Democratic Senator Gary Peters (D-N.Y.) in June 2019.
In a Jan. 4 statement, Portman praised President Trump for signing the bill and said it helps federal agencies prepare for the risks posed by espionage and unauthorized cyber hacking and direct access to buildings.
He added, “The bill, now in law, will ensure that the federal government is informed of ownership information on relevant properties to better protect our nationals and intelligence.”
The two aforementioned senators drafting the bill said the move was largely in response to a 2017 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). That report revealed possible security risks when federal agencies rent space in foreign companies’ buildings, including espionage, unauthorized cyberattacks and direct access to related facilities, as well as damage to related building facilities, such as possible damage to the building’s communications infrastructure and the possibility of surveillance equipment being surreptitiously placed inside the building to gather intelligence.
The report also notes that the federal General Services Administration began leasing a total of 3.3 million square feet of space in 20 buildings from foreign companies for high-level security protection areas in March 2016, involving six federal agencies, including the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which are headquartered in Canada, China, Israel, Japan and South Korea.
The report specifically highlights the security threat of renting property from Chinese companies, the possible connection of the Chinese companies in question to the Communist government, and the cyber espionage from China that poses a significant security risk.
The Communist Party began implementing a national intelligence law in 2017 that requires Chinese companies and institutions to cooperate with and assist the Communist Party’s national intelligence service. This law allows Beijing authorities access to all intelligence data within China.
The aforementioned report details U.S. agencies that rent properties from foreign companies, as well as all parties to the properties in question. Among the U.S. federal agencies renting property to Chinese companies are the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Social Security Administration (SSA).
The federal General Services Administration signed a total of 1,406 leases for high-security protected areas, of which the federal government could not identify the owners of one-third.
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