Sec. 2. Findings; sense of Congress

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Congress makes the following findings: According to testimony by the Director of National Intelligence before the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate on February 9, 2016, ISIL, with its self-described caliphate in Syria and Iraq, its affiliates and emerging affiliates in other countries, and its increasing ability to direct and inspire attacks against a wide range of targets around the world, has been identified as the preeminent terrorist threat to the United States. On February 2, 2015, General John Allen, who was then serving as the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL— stated that the United States cannot defeat ISIL through military efforts alone ; and highlighted the need to deprive the group of access to financial resources.

The United States and its partners have committed to curtailing ISIL’s financial resources through— United Nations Security Council Resolution 2170, adopted August 15, 2014; Arab League Resolution 7804, adopted September 7, 2014; the Jeddah Communique, published September 11, 2014; United Nations Security Council Resolution 2199, adopted February 12, 2015; the statement of the International Syria Support Group of November 14, 2015; United Nations Security Council Resolution 2249, adopted November 20, 2015; and United Nations Security Council Resolution 2253, adopted December 17, 2015.

Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute has reported that ISIL exploits many revenue streams in addition to oil revenue and charitable donations. In a November 18, 2015, article, Mr. Levitt states [ISIL] steals livestock; sells foreign fighter passports; taxes minorities and farmers and truckers; runs a sophisticated extortion racket; kidnaps civilians for ransom payments; loots antiquities; and much more. . The United States and 35 other countries and multinational organizations have acted in concert through the Counter-ISIL Finance Group— to cut off ISIL from the international financial system; to counter the extortion and exploitation by ISIL of economic assets and resources; to deny funding for ISIL from abroad; and to prevent ISIL from providing financial or material support to foreign affiliates.

These actions have included— Coalition airstrikes on oil facilities, which reduced ISIL oil revenue by 30 percent between November 2015 and January 2016; the designation of 30 ISIL-linked senior leaders and financiers in 2015, which inhibited their use of the international financial system and limited the ability of ISIL to access revenue; and the unanimous adoption, on February 12, 2015, of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2199, which— warned that ISIL and other extremist groups were trafficking cultural heritage items from Iraq and Syria to fund their recruitment efforts and carry out terrorist attacks; and called on all United Nations member states to prevent such trafficking.

The Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, has issued 40 recommendations to serve as global standards— to protect the integrity of the international financial system; and to enhance international cooperation on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism measures. On April 15, 2016, finance ministers from the Group of Twenty

(G20)called on the FATF to strengthen its work on identifying and tackling loopholes and deficiencies that remain in the financial system and ensure that the FATF standards are effective and comprehensive, and fully implemented. . The February 2015 FATF report entitled Financing of the Terrorist Organisation Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant highlighted the use of money and value transfer services (referred to in this paragraph as MVTS ), which avoid the banking system by relying on trust-based relationships with other MVTS providers to order payment or receipt of hard currency over email, fax, or phone. It is the sense of Congress that— it is in the interest of peace and stability for regional members of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL to continue their commitment to, and increase their involvement in, addressing the threat posed by ISIL; all Coalition partners should prioritize action against the financial and facilitation networks to deprive ISIL of revenue as a key line of effort in degrading and ultimately defeating ISIL; the Department of Justice, the Department of State, and the Department of the Treasury should appropriately increase their efforts— to build the capacity of partner nations to investigate, prosecute, and hold accountable terrorist financiers; to exchange relevant information regarding investigations of terrorist financiers and facilitators operating in violation of United States sanctions; and to build the capacity to request extradition, as appropriate; countries in regions in which ISIL has a presence should, as appropriate, regulate and shut down informal exchange houses used by foreign fighters to funnel funds in and out of territory held by ISIL; Turkey and other countries in the region should take steps to ensure that fighters, hard currency, energy resources, cultural heritage items, agricultural commodities, and other goods bound to or coming from ISIL are prevented from crossing its border; and the President, acting through the Secretary of the Treasury, and in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, should update the National Money Laundering Strategy required under section 5341 of title 31, United States Code, which has not been updated since 2007.