H.R. 4645

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

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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.''.
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