Protect America’s Innovation and Economic Security from CCP Act (HR1398)

Current understanding

HR1398 would reestablish the Department of Justice’s former China Initiative as the ‘CCP Initiative’ within the DOJ National Security Division, with a statutory mandate to counter Chinese espionage, trade secret theft, hacking, and threats to U.S. critical infrastructure. The bill revives an enforcement framework previously terminated by DOJ in 2022, with implications for economic espionage prosecutions that intersect trade-secret protection and technology export controls. Status: introduced in the 119th Congress; scope of covered conduct, resourcing, and coordination with export-enforcement agencies not yet characterized.

Evidence log

• 2026-07-16 — Stop PRC Economic Espionage Act of 2026: cross-connection with stop-prc-economic-espionage-act-2026: Both are 119th Congress vehicles targeting PRC/CCP-linked threats to U.S. economic and technological interests, differing in chamber and committee routing. (novelty: 2)
• 2025-05-06 — Economic Espionage Prevention Act: cross-connection with economic-espionage-prevention-act: Both target technology theft by foreign adversary (esp. CCP-linked) actors; HR1398 pursues criminal prosecution while HR1486 adds sanctions tools for the same underlying conduct. (novelty: 3)
• 2025-03-11 — SHIELD Against CCP Act: cross-connection with shield-against-ccp-act: Overlapping scope on CCP economic/technology threats; SHIELD’s working group would evaluate trade practices and illicit finance that HR1398 targets from an innovation-security angle. (novelty: 2)
• 2026-06-15 — Protect America’s Innovation and Economic Security from CCP Act: cross-connection with ccp-technology-transfer-foreign-investment-risks: HR1398’s statutory CCP Initiative names technology transfer by nontraditional collectors and China-related foreign investment as core enforcement objectives, giving the DOJ an enumerated mandate over the risk categories tracked on the technology-transfer page. (novelty: 3)
• 2026-06-18 — China Exchange Rate Accountability Act of 2026: cross-connection with china-exchange-rate-accountability-act: Both bills form part of the 119th Congress China-focused trade/economic security package, with HR8290 addressing currency practices and HR1398 addressing IP/economic-espionage enforcement. (novelty: 2)
• 2024-09-16 — Protect America’s Innovation and Economic Security from CCP Act of 2024: cross-connection with stop-ccp-visas-act: Companion China-adversary measures in the 119th Congress: HR1398 revives DOJ’s China Initiative as an enforcement program, while HR2147 restricts visas for CCP-affiliated individuals. (novelty: 3)

Open questions

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