---
kind: "section"
citation: "22 U.S.C. § 10501"
title: "22"
title_heading: "Foreign Relations and Intercourse"
number: "10501"
heading: "Definitions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/22/10501"
units:
  - "Chapter 112 — Combating Global Corruption"
---

# §10501. Definitions


In this chapter:

- (1) The term “appropriate congressional committees” means—
  - (A) the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate; and
  - (B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on Financial Services, and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives.
- (2) The term “corrupt actor” means—
  - (A) any foreign person or entity that is a government official or government entity responsible for, or complicit in, an act of [corruption](#3); and
  - (B) any company, in which a person or entity described in [subparagraph (A)](#2-A) has a significant stake, which is responsible for, or complicit in, an act of [corruption](#3).
- (3) The term “corruption” means the unlawful exercise of entrusted public power for private gain, including by bribery, nepotism, fraud, or embezzlement.
- (4) The term “significant corruption” means [corruption](#3) committed at a high level of government that has some or all of the following characteristics:
  - (A) Illegitimately distorts major decision-making, such as policy or resource determinations, or other fundamental functions of governance.
  - (B) Involves economically or socially large-scale government activities.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 118–31, div. E, title LIV, § 5402, Dec. 22, 2023, 137 Stat. 944.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Short Title

Pub. L. 118–31, div. E, title LIV, § 5401, Dec. 22, 2023, 137 Stat. 944, provided that: “This subtitle [subtitle A (§§ 5401–5406) of title LIV of div. E of Pub. L. 118–31, enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Combating Global Corruption Act’.”