SHADOW Act

New State Department hybrid coordinator

This bill would require the Secretary of State to name a senior State Department official as a hybrid warfare Coordinator within 30 days of enactment. The Coordinator would report to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, use existing State Department staff, and the Secretary would send the Coordinator's name and a strategy to Congress within 60 days of designation. The Coordinator would assess and share information on hybrid threats, coordinate with NATO and partners (including Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand), and support resilience in sectors like energy, telecommunications, critical infrastructure, and strategic materials. The Coordinator would give Congress a full report within one year of designation and annual reports for three years. Within 180 days of enactment, the Coordinator would also identify Chinese entities materially supporting Russia's defense industrial base and recommend sanctions, export controls, or other measures; the unclassified portion of that report would be posted on the State Department website and may include a classified annex. For these duties, the bill would define "hybrid warfare activities" to include information campaigns, cyber-attacks, economic coercion, use of irregular forces, weaponized migration, sabotage of onshore or offshore infrastructure, and targeted assassinations as part of broader coercive campaigns.