Title: Hezbollah Kingpin Designation Act
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Hezbollah Kingpin Designation Act
This bill directs the President to: (1) determine whether Hezbollah is a significant foreign narcotics trafficker, and (2) submit to Congress a determination whether to designate Hezbollah as a transnational criminal organization for purposes of the Office of Foreign Assets' list of specially designated nationals and blocked persons. Such designations subject an entity to economic and entry sanctions, including freezing of U.S.-based property and property interests.
The Department of the Treasury shall report to Congress with an estimate of the total assets controlled by Hezbollah-linked leaders of political parties or movements in the United States.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5035 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5035

   To require the President to determine whether Hezbollah should be 
     designated as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker or a 
      transnational criminal organization, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 15, 2018

 Mr. Budd (for himself and Mr. Zeldin) introduced the following bill; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require the President to determine whether Hezbollah should be 
     designated as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker or a 
      transnational criminal organization, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Hezbollah Kingpin Designation Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Since 2010, Lebanese-based Hezbollah has been linked 
        with South American drug trafficking organizations.
            (2) The Drug Enforcement Administration's ``Project 
        Cassandra'' has identified Hezbollah as a major supplier of 
        cocaine into the United States.
            (3) On January 11, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions 
        announced the creation of the Hezbollah Financing and 
        Narcoterrorism Team to investigate individuals and networks 
        providing support to Hezbollah's narcoterrorist activities.
            (4) Michael Braun testified before the Committee on 
        Financial Services of the House of Representatives, on June 8, 
        2016, that ``hundreds of tons of cocaine, over [a] 15-year 
        period and move massive amounts of currency, hundreds of, 
        millions, perhaps billions of dollars in currency around the 
        world in the most sophisticated money laundering scheme that we 
        have ever witnessed''.
            (5) In 2011, the Drug Enforcement Administration indicted 
        Ayman Saied Joumaa, a Lebanese-Colombian dual national, for 
        using a global network of companies operating out of Latin 
        America, West Africa, and Lebanon to launder as much as 
        $200,000,000 a month in drug proceeds for Mexican and Colombian 
        cartels.
            (6) The House of Representatives passed H.R. 3329, the 
        Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act, on October 
        25, 2017, to provide additional resources to enforcement 
        agencies to counter Hezbollah's other criminal enterprises 
        including money laundering.

SEC. 3. DESIGNATIONS REQUIRED.

    (a) Kingpin Designation.--Not later than 120 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, the President shall, in accordance with the 
requirements for additional determinations under section 804(h)(1) of 
the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (21 U.S.C. 
1903(h)(1)), determine whether Hezbollah is a ``significant foreign 
narcotics trafficker'', as such term is defined for purposes of such 
section.
    (b) Transnational Criminal Organization Designation.--Not later 
than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
President shall submit to Congress a determination whether to designate 
Hezbollah as a ``transnational criminal organization'', as such term is 
defined for purposes of the list of specially designated nationals and 
blocked persons maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of 
the Department of the Treasury.

SEC. 4. ASSET REPORT.

    Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of the Treasury shall issue a report to the Committees on 
Financial Services and Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives 
and the Committees on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and Foreign 
Relations of the Senate containing an estimate of the total assets 
under direct or indirect control by Hezbollah-linked leaders of 
political parties or movements who are located in the United States.
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