116

CONGRESS

ESSION

H. R. 7356

To prohibit biometric surveillance by the Federal Government without explicit

statutory authorization and to withhold certain Federal public safety

grants from State and local governments that engage in biometric surveil-

lance.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

UNE

25, 2020

Ms. J

AYAPAL

(for herself, Ms. P

RESSLEY

, Ms. T

LAIB

, and Ms. C

LARKE

New York) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-

mittee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Oversight

and Reform, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker,

in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the juris-

diction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To prohibit biometric surveillance by the Federal Government

without explicit statutory authorization and to withhold

certain Federal public safety grants from State and local

governments that engage in biometric surveillance.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1

tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Facial Recognition and 4

Biometric Technology Moratorium Act of 2020’’. 5

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SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 1

In this Act: 2

(1) B

IOMETRIC SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

.—The 3

term ‘‘biometric surveillance system’’ means any 4

computer software that performs facial recognition 5

or other remote biometric recognition in real time or 6

on a recording or photograph. 7

(2) B

YRNE GRANT PROGRAM

.—The term 8

‘‘Byrne grant program’’ means the grant program 9

authorized under subpart 1 of part E of title I of 10

the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 11

1968 (34 U.S.C. 10151 et seq.), whether character-12

ized as the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local 13

Law Enforcement Assistance Programs, the Local 14

Government Law Enforcement Block Grants Pro-15

gram, the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assist-16

ance Grant Program, or otherwise. 17

(3) F

ACIAL RECOGNITION

.—The term ‘‘facial 18

recognition’’ means an automated or semi-automated 19

process that— 20

(A) assists in identifying an individual, 21

capturing information about an individual, or 22

otherwise generating or assisting in generating 23

surveillance information about an individual 24

based on the physical characteristics of the indi-25

vidual’s face; or 26

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(B) logs characteristics of an individual’s 1

face, head, or body to infer emotion, associa-2

tions, activities, or the location of an individual. 3

(4) F

EDERAL OFFICIAL

.—The term ‘‘Federal 4

official’’ means any officer, employee, agent, con-5

tractor, or subcontractor of the Federal Government. 6

(5) I

N THE UNITED STATES

.—The term ‘‘in the 7

United States’’ means all areas within the external 8

boundary of the United States, its territories and 9

possessions, including airports, ports of entry, and 10

border zones. 11

(6) O

THER REMOTE BIOMETRIC RECOGNI

-12

TION

.—The term ‘‘other remote biometric recogni-13

tion’’— 14

(A) means an automated or semi-auto-15

mated process that— 16

(i) assists in identifying an individual, 17

capturing information about an individual, 18

or otherwise generating or assisting in gen-19

erating surveillance information about an 20

individual based on the characteristics of 21

the individual’s gait or other immutable 22

characteristic ascertained from a distance; 23

(ii) uses voice recognition technology; 24

or 25

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(iii) logs such characteristics to infer 1

emotion, associations, activities, or the lo-2

cation of an individual; and 3

(B) does not include identification based 4

on fingerprints or palm prints. 5

(7) V

OICE RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY

.—The 6

term ‘‘voice recognition technology’’ means the auto-7

mated or semi-automated process that assists in 8

identifying or verifying an individual based on the 9

characteristics of an individual’s voice. 10

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON FEDERAL GOVERNMENT USE OF 11

BIOMETRIC SURVEILLANCE. 12

(a) I

ENERAL

.—Except as provided in subsection 13

(b), it shall be unlawful for any Federal agency or Federal 14

official, in an official capacity, to acquire, possess, access, 15

or use in the United States— 16

(1) any biometric surveillance system; or 17

(2) information derived from a biometric sur-18

veillance system operated by another entity. 19

(b) E

XCEPTION

.—The prohibition set forth in sub-20

section (a) does not apply to activities explicitly authorized 21

by an Act of Congress that describes, with particularity— 22

(1) the entities permitted to use the biometric 23

surveillance system, the specific type of biometric 24

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authorized, the purposes for such use, and any pro-1

hibited uses; 2

(2) standards for use and management of infor-3

mation derived from the biometric surveillance sys-4

tem, including data retention, sharing, access, and 5

audit trails; 6

(3) auditing requirements to ensure the accu-7

racy of biometric surveillance system technologies, 8

standards for minimum accuracy rates, and accuracy 9

rates by gender, skin color, and age; 10

(4) rigorous protections for due process, pri-11

vacy, free speech and association, and racial, gender, 12

and religious equity; and 13

(5) mechanisms to ensure compliance with the 14

provisions of the Act. 15

UDICIAL

NVESTIGATIONS AND

ROCEEDINGS

.— 16

(1) A

DMISSIBILITY

.—Except in a judicial inves-17

tigation or proceeding alleging a violation of this sec-18

tion, information obtained in violation of this section 19

is not admissible by the Federal Government in any 20

criminal, civil, administrative, or other investigation 21

or proceeding. 22

(2) C

AUSE OF ACTION

.— 23

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(A) I

N GENERAL

.—A violation of this sec-1

tion constitutes an injury to any individual ag-2

grieved by a violation of this Act. 3

(B) R

IGHT TO SUE

.—An individual de-4

scribed in subparagraph (A) may institute pro-5

ceedings against the Federal Government whose 6

official is alleged to have violated this section 7

for the relief described in subparagraph (D) in 8

any court of competent jurisdiction. 9

NFORCEMENT BY STATE ATTORNEYS

GENERAL

.—The chief law enforcement officer 11

of a State, or any other State officer authorized 12

by law to bring actions on behalf of the resi-13

dents of a State, may bring a civil action, as 14

parens patriae, on behalf of the residents of 15

that State in an appropriate district court of 16

the United States to enforce this Act, whenever 17

the chief law enforcement officer or other State 18

officer has reason to believe that the interests 19

of the residents of the State have been or are 20

being threatened or adversely affected by a vio-21

lation of this Act. 22

(D) R

ELIEF

.—In a civil action brought 23

under subparagraph (B) in which the plaintiff 24

prevails, the court may award— 25

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(i) actual damages; 1

(ii) punitive damages; 2

(iii) reasonable attorneys’ fees and 3

costs; and 4

(iv) any other relief, including injunc-5

tive relief, that the court determines to be 6

appropriate. 7

(d) C

IVIL

ENALTIES

.—Any Federal official who is 8

found to have violated this section may be subject to re-9

training, suspension, termination, or any other penalty, as 10

determined in an appropriate tribunal, subject to applica-11

ble due process requirements. 12

(e) F

EDERAL

UNDING

.— 13

(1) I

N GENERAL

.—No Federal funds may be 14

obligated or expended by a Federal law enforcement 15

agency for the purchase or use of a biometric sur-16

veillance system. 17

(2) U

NALLOCATED FUNDS

.—No Federal agency 18

may use any unallocated funds appropriated to the 19

agency for the purchase or use of a biometric sur-20

veillance system. 21

(f) R

ULES OF

ONSTRUCTION

.—Nothing in this sec-22

tion may be construed— 23

(1) to prohibit the National Institute of Stand-24

ards and Technology (NIST) from testing or re-25

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searching biometric surveillance systems or other re-1

mote biometric recognition technologies in commer-2

cial use; or 3

(2) to preempt or supersede any Federal, State, 4

or local law that imposes a more stringent limitation 5

than the limitations described in this section. 6

SEC. 4. MORATORIUM ON STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT 7

USE OF BIOMETRIC SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS. 8

(a) F

EDERAL

INANCIAL

SSISTANCE

.—Beginning 9

on the first day of the first fiscal year beginning after the 10

date of the enactment of this Act, a State or unit of local 11

government is ineligible to receive Federal financial assist-12

ance under the Byrne grant program unless the State or 13

unit of local government is complying with a law or policy 14

that is substantially similar to the prohibition set forth 15

in section 3(a). 16

(b) R

ULE OF

ONSTRUCTION

.—Nothing in this sec-17

tion may be construed to preempt or supersede any Fed-18

eral, State, or local law that imposes a more stringent lim-19

itation than the prohibition set forth in section 3(a). 20

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