STALKERS Act of 2011

Simplifying The Ambiguous Law, Keeping Everyone Reliably Safe Act of 2011 or the STALKERS Act of 2011 - Amends the federal criminal code to revise the definition of stalking and impose criminal penalties on anyone who, with intent to kill, physically injure, harass, or intimidate a person or to place a person under surveillance with the intent to kill, physically injure, harass, or intimidate such person, travels in interstate or foreign commerce or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States or enters or leaves Indian country and: (1) causes or attempts to cause bodily injury or serious emotional distress to another person; or (2) engages in conduct that would be reasonably expected to cause serious emotional distress to another person.

Imposes the same criminal penalties on anyone who, with intent to kill, physically injure, harass, or intimidate a person, engages in a course of conduct in or substantially affecting interstate or foreign commerce that: (1) causes or attempts to cause bodily injury or serious emotional distress to another person; or (2) occurs in circumstances where the conduct would be reasonably expected to cause another person serious emotional distress.

Increases penalties for stalking offenses if: (1) the offense involves conduct in violation of a protection order; or (2) the victim of the offense is under the age of 18 or over the age of 65.

Requires the annual report of the Attorney General to include an evaluation of efforts to enforce laws relating to stalking and to identify and describe elements of such efforts that constitute the best practices for the enforcement of such laws.

Provides for compliance of the budgetary effects of this Act with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010.

[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 196 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 196

 To amend title 18, United States Code, with respect to the offense of 
                               stalking.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 6, 2011

   Ms. Loretta Sanchez of California (for herself, Ms. Foxx, and Mr. 
   Boswell) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
  Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on the 
 Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
   each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend title 18, United States Code, with respect to the offense of 
                               stalking.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Simplifying The Ambiguous Law, 
Keeping Everyone Reliably Safe Act of 2011'' or the ``STALKERS Act of 
2011''.

SEC. 2. STALKING.

    (a) In General.--Section 2261A of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended to read as follows:
``Sec. 2261A. Stalking
    ``(a) Whoever, with intent to kill, physically injure, harass, or 
intimidate a person, or place under surveillance with the intent to 
kill, physically injure, harass, or intimidate a person, travels in 
interstate or foreign commerce or within the special maritime and 
territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or enters or leaves 
Indian country, and in the course of, or as a result of, such travel--
            ``(1) causes or attempts to cause bodily injury or serious 
        emotional distress to a person other than the person engaging 
        in the conduct; or
            ``(2) engages in conduct that would be reasonably expected 
        to cause the other person serious emotional distress;
shall be punished as provided in subsection (c).
    ``(b) Whoever, with intent to kill, physically injure, harass, or 
intimidate a person, engages in a course of conduct in or substantially 
affecting interstate or foreign commerce that--
            ``(1) causes or attempts to cause bodily injury or serious 
        emotional distress to a person other than the person engaging 
        in the conduct; or
            ``(2) occurs in circumstances where the conduct would be 
        reasonably expected to cause the other person serious emotional 
        distress;
shall be punished as provided in subsection (c).
    ``(c) The punishment for an offense under this section is the same 
as that for an offense under section 2261, except that--
            ``(1) if the offense involves conduct in violation of a 
        protection order; and
            ``(2) if the victim of the offense is under the age of 18 
        years or over the age of 65 years, the offender has reached the 
        age of 18 years at the time the offense was committed, and the 
        offender knew or should have known that the victim was under 
        the age of 18 years or over the age of 65 years;
the maximum term of imprisonment that may be imposed is increased by 5 
years over the term of imprisonment otherwise provided for that offense 
in section 2261.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The item relating to section 2261A in the 
table of sections at the beginning of chapter 110A of title 18, United 
States Code, is amended to read as follows:

``2261A. Stalking.''.

SEC. 3. BEST PRACTICES REGARDING ENFORCEMENT OF ANTI-STALKING LAWS TO 
              BE INCLUDED IN ANNUAL REPORT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL.

    In the annual report under section 529 of title 28, United States 
Code, the Attorney General shall--
            (1) include an evaluation of Federal, tribal, State, and 
        local efforts to enforce laws relating to stalking; and
            (2) identify and describe those elements of such efforts 
        that constitute the best practices for the enforcement of such 
        laws.

SEC. 4. PAYGO COMPLIANCE.

    The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of complying 
with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall be determined by 
reference to the latest statement titled ``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO 
Legislation'' for this Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional 
Record by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, provided that 
such statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.
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