McCaul’s bipartisan bill seeks enhanced protections for American diplomats abroad

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) on Feb. 8 introduced a bipartisan measure to safeguard American diplomats and agency development workers around the world from location-tracking devices that reveal their whereabouts.

“Every day, diplomats work to advance the interests of the United States often at embassies and consulates in the most dangerous pockets of the world. They risk their lives to be our nation’s frontline civilians and are faced with having to adapt to changing technologies that often come with security risks — including location-tracking consumer devices that reveal movements around the world,” according to a joint statement from McCaul and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX).

The congressmen introduced the Protecting Diplomats from Surveillance Through Consumer Devices Act, H.R. 4989.

“As lawmakers, we have a moral responsibility to take all necessary steps to ensure these brave diplomats and development workers have the protections they deserve,” said Rep. McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Castro, who also serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

If enacted, H.R. 4989 would direct the U.S. Department of State to create a policy on location-tracking consumer device use by U.S. government and contractors, local employees and other agency staff members who are deployed or stationed at U.S. diplomatic and consular facilities, according to the text of the bill.

The use policy also would cover GPS-enabled devices under H.R. 4989, which would require that existing and new employees be informed of the policy and instructed on the use of location-tracking devices on and off premises, among other provisions in the bill.

H.R. 4989 awaits consideration by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.