NARCO Act of 2025

Bill: 119-hr-4645
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Davidson, Warren [R-OH-8]
Introduced: 2025-07-23
Policy area: International Affairs
Latest action: action_date: 2025-07-23
text: Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Summaries:

tv_txt: I 119th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 4645 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.

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 . 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. .