H. R. 8663 

One Hundred Eighteenth Congress 

of the 

United States of America 

AT THE SECOND SESSION 

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday, 

the third day of January, two thousand and twenty-four 

An Act 

To require the Science and Technology Directorate in the Department of Homeland 

Security to develop greater capacity to detect and identify illicit substances in 

very low concentrations. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLES. 

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Detection Equipment and Technology Evaluation to Counter the Threat of Fentanyl and Xylazine 

Act of 2024’’ or the ‘‘DETECT Fentanyl and Xylazine Act of 2024’’. 

SEC. 2. ENHANCING THE CAPACITY TO DETECT AND IDENTIFY DRUGS 

SUCH AS FENTANYL AND XYLAZINE. 

Section 302 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 

182) is amended— 

(1) in paragraph (13), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

(2) in paragraph (14), by striking the period at the end 

and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

(3) by adding at the end the following: 

‘‘(15) carrying out, in coordination with the Drug Enforcement Administration, research, development, testing, evaluation, and cost-benefit analyses to improve the safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of equipment and the effectiveness and 

efficiency of reference libraries for use by Federal, State, local, 

Tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies for the accurate 

detection of drugs, such as fentanyl and xylazine, including— 

‘‘(A) portable equipment that can detect and identify 

drugs with minimal or no handling of the sample; 

‘‘(B) equipment that can separate complex mixtures 

containing low concentrations of drugs and high concentrations of cutting agents into their component parts to enable 

signature extraction for field identification and detection; 

and 

‘‘(C) technologies that use machine learning or artificial 

intelligence (as defined in section 5002 of the National 

Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 

9401)) and other techniques to predict whether the substances in a sample are controlled substance analogues 

or other new psychoactive substances not yet included in 

available reference libraries.’’. 
H. R. 8663—2 

SEC. 3. REQUIREMENTS. 

In carrying out section 302(15) of the Homeland Security Act 

of 2002, as added by section 2, the Under Secretary for Science 

and Technology shall— 

(1) follow the recommendations, guidelines, and best practices described in the Artificial Intelligence Risk Management 

Framework (NIST AI 100–1) or any successor document published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology; 

and 

(2) establish the Directorate of Science and Technology’s 

research, development, testing, evaluation, and cost-benefit 

analysis priorities under such section 302(15) based on the 

latest available information, including specific drugs identified 

as threats in— 

(A) the latest Homeland Threat Assessment published 

by the Department of Homeland Security; 

(B) the latest State and Territory Report on Enduring 

and Emerging Threats published by the Drug Enforcement 

Administration; or 

(C) any successor documents. 

SEC. 4. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

Nothing in this Act may be construed to limit the authority 

of agencies currently managing, overseeing, or otherwise involved 

in drug equipment and reference libraries. 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.