SPIES Act

The SPIES Act, formally titled the Strengthening Prosecution Integrity for Espionage Statutes Act, proposes to eliminate the statute of limitations for several espionage-related crimes. This means that individuals accused of certain offenses could be prosecuted at any time, regardless of how much time has passed since the alleged crime occurred. The bill would affect prosecutions for violations involving unlawful activities of foreign agents, the gathering or delivery of national defense information to aid a foreign government, and fraudulent acts regarding naturalization or citizenship that support foreign agent activities. The overall goal of the legislation is to strengthen the ability of authorities to prosecute espionage-related crimes and enhance national security enforcement. Since this bill has only been introduced and has not yet received committee action, it remains in the early stages of the legislative process and most introduced bills do not advance further.