Congress eyes whole-of-government plan to disrupt growing cooperation between US adversaries

Lawmakers in both congressional chambers are calling for the creation of a new whole-of-government plan to confront emerging national security threats associated with expanding cooperation between China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — and to ultimately help ensure the U.S. is prepared to counter concurrent challenges from multiple adversaries in the years to come.

Introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., this week, the Defending International Security by Restricting Unlawful Partnerships and Tactics (DISRUPT) Act lays out a plan for multiple federal agencies to collectively disturb and derail some of the most concerning aspects of that adversarial collaboration.

The House version of the DISRUPT Act was co-sponsored by Guam Del. James Moylan, a Republican. Similar legislation was also previously proposed in the Senate by Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and David McCormick, R-Pa., and is attached to the draft version of the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.

“The bill was introduced to demonstrate bipartisan, bicameral support in the House as it continues to move through the NDAA process,” a spokesperson for the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party told DefenseScoop.

Experts have warned in recent years that authoritarian regimes in China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are working together more closely on activities to defy the U.S., including via weapons and munitions transfers, sharing other military and dual-use technologies, launching disinformation campaigns, and coordinating operations that could undermine the interests of America and its allies.

The nearly 20-page DISRUPT Act spotlights a range of recent partnerships and actions the four nations have pursued with one or more of the others, which lawmakers believe could present risks to U.S. interests. 

For instance, their mutual efforts increase “the chances of United States conflict or tensions with any one of such adversaries drawing in another, thereby posing a greater risk that the United States will have to contend with simultaneous threats from such adversaries in one or more theaters,” the bill states.

If passed, the legislation would require the secretaries of State, Defense, Commerce and the Treasury, as well as the directors of National Intelligence and the CIA, to set up task forces to investigate and address this “adversary alignment.”

The bill would also direct the director of National Intelligence to issue a report on the trajectory of the nations’ alignment across the diplomatic, information, military and economic spheres. 

That report would include an assessment of “the risk of technology transfers dramatically increasing the military capabilities of adversaries of the [U.S.] and the impact on the relative balance of [U.S] and allied capabilities as compared to that of the adversary.”

Further, leaders in the specific agencies called out would also be mandated to produce a comprehensive and coordinated government strategy to “disrupt, frustrate, constrain, and prepare for adversary cooperation during the two-year period beginning on the date of the” bill’s enactment.

Notably, Congress also wants a “plan for digitizing and updating war-planning tools of the Department of Defense not later than 1 year after the date on which the report is submitted to ensure that United States war planners are better equipped to update and modify war plans in the face of rapidly evolving information on adversary cooperation.”

Following its introduction, Krishnamoorthi’s bill was referred to the House Committees on Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, and Intelligence (Permanent Select).