[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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