119-hr4645

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4645 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 4645

 To amend the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 to modify 
the authorities of the Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics 
 and Law Enforcement Affairs.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 July 23, 2025

 Mr. Davidson introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
 Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To amend the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 to modify 
the authorities of the Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics 
 and Law Enforcement Affairs.

 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 ``New Authorities Reforming Counter-
narcotic Operations Act of 2025'' or the ``NARCO Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS AND LAW 
 ENFORCEMENT AFFAIRS.

 

Section 1
            (c) (3) of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 
1956 (22 U.S.C. 2651a
            (c) (3) ) is amended--

    (1) in subparagraph
        (A) , by adding at the end the 
 following: ``The Assistant Secretary for International 
 Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs shall report to the Under 
 Secretary for International Security Affairs.''; and

    (2) by striking subparagraphs
        (B) and
            (C) and inserting the 
 following:
 ``
        (B) Responsibilities.--The Assistant Secretary 
 for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs 
 shall be responsible for the following:
 ``
            (i) Maintaining continuous observation 
 and coordination of all matters pertaining to 
 international narcotics, anti-crime, and law 
 enforcement affairs in the conduct of foreign 
 policy, including relevant programs carried out 
 by other United States Government agencies.
 ``
            (ii) Combating international narcotics 
 production and trafficking as well as illicit 
 finance and materials used by transnational 
 criminal organizations, cartels and foreign 
 terror organizations that threaten United 
 States national security.
 ``
            (iii) Strengthening foreign justice 
 systems, including judicial and prosecutorial 
 capacity, appeals systems, law enforcement 
 agencies, prison systems, and the sharing of 
 recovered assets. The Secretary shall allocate 
 no more than 10 percent of total grant funding 
 to activities under this clause.
 ``
            (iv) Training and equipping foreign 
 police, border control, other government 
 officials, and other civilian law enforcement 
 authorities for anti-crime purposes, including 
 ensuring that no foreign security unit or 
 member of such unit receives such assistance 
 from the United States Government without 
 appropriate vetting.
 ``
            (v) Issuing rewards and bounties under 
 the Narcotics Reward Program and the 
 Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program, 
 including allocating up to $25,000,000 for 
 information, capture, interdiction or other 
 activities as designated by the Secretary that 
 lead to the capture or interdiction of persons 
 involved in international criminal activities 
 that the Secretary designates as in the United 
 States national interest to address. The 
 Secretary shall prioritize the programs to 
 address transnational criminal organizations 
 and shall prioritize countering transnational 
 criminal organizations that are also designated 
 foreign terrorist organizations whose 
 operations threaten United States homeland 
 security. The Secretary shall coordinate with 
 the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the 
 Department of Justice, the Drug Enforcement 
 Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs 
 Enforcement, the Department of Defense and the 
 intelligence community as to which priorities 
 to designate for the rewards program described 
 in this clause. All such agencies are 
 authorized to submit to the Assistant Secretary 
 priority lists of organizations and avenues of 
 illicit finance and criminal activity for 
 priority consideration. Unspent funds from 
 amounts allocated under this clause for any 
 fiscal year shall be retained and be made 
 available for the rewards programs in future 
 fiscal years.
 ``
            (vi) Prioritizing administering the 
 Narcotics Rewards Program and the Transnational 
 Organized Crime Rewards Program by issuing 
 bounties and rewards to capture and interdict 
 persons and materials of criminal nature that 
 threaten homeland security. The Secretary shall 
 ensure that at minimum 20 percent of the annual 
 budget authority of the Bureau is utilized by 
 the Narcotics Rewards Program and the 
 Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program 
 for respective bounties and rewards.
 ``
            (vii) Coordinating with the intelligence 
 community, the Department of Treasury, the 
 Department of Justice, the Department of 
 Defense, and the Department of Homeland 
 Security to ensure a full spectrum response to 
 international criminal issues that threaten the 
 lives and well being of United States citizens.
 ``
            (viii) Combating, in conjunction with 
 other relevant bureaus of the Department of 
 State and other United States Government 
 agencies, all forms of transnational organized 
 crime, including human trafficking, illegal 
 immigration, illicit trafficking in arms, 
 wildlife, and cultural property, migrant 
 smuggling, corruption, money laundering, the 
 illicit smuggling of bulk cash, the licit use 
 of financial systems for malign purposes, and 
 other new and emerging forms of crime including 
 the actions of transnational criminal 
 organizations and designated foreign terrorist 
 organizations. The Secretary shall prioritize 
 counteraction of transnational criminal 
 organizations whose actions imperil the lives 
 and securities of United States citizens 
 particularly through narcotics trafficking. The 
 Secretary shall also prioritize the 
 counteraction of designated foreign terrorist 
 organizations including narcotics trafficking, 
 human trafficking, illegal immigration, weapons 
 smuggling and other avenues of illicit finance 
 that further terrorist activities that threaten 
 United States homeland security.
 ``
            (ix) Carrying out timely and substantive 
 consultation with chiefs of mission and, as 
 appropriate, the heads of other United States 
 Government agencies to ensure effective 
 coordination of all international narcotics and 
 law enforcement programs carried out overseas 
 by the Department and such other agencies.
 ``
            (x) Coordinating with the Office of 
 National Drug Control Policy to ensure lessons 
 learned from other United States Government 
 agencies are available to the Bureau.
 ``
            (xi) Developing standard requirements for 
 monitoring and evaluation of Bureau programs, 
 including metrics for success that do not rely 
 solely on the amounts of illegal drugs that are 
 produced or seized.
 ``
            (xii) Developing in partnership with 
 grantees, partners, and contractors a 
 searchable data base comprehensively detailing 
 bureau programming, line-item spending, 
 including grant awards and rewards and 
 accounting of success metrics and evaluation of 
 end point goals of programmatic spending. In 
 coordination with the Under Secretary for 
 International Security Affairs, annually 
 certifying in writing to the Committee on 
 Foreign Relations of the Senate and the 
 Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of 
 Representatives that United States enforcement 
 personnel posted abroad whose activities are 
 funded to any extent by the Bureau are 
 complying with 

section 207 of the Foreign 
 Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 3927).
 ``
            (xiii) Performing such other duties as 
 the Under Secretary for International Security 
 Affairs may from time to time designate.
 ``
            (C) Rule of construction.--Nothing in this 
 paragraph may be construed to limit or impair the 
 authority or responsibility of any other Federal agency 
 with respect to law enforcement, domestic security 
 operations, or intelligence activities as defined in 
 Executive Order 12333.''.
 <all>