II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1619
To require the Secretary of Defense to develop a strategy to counter fentanyl
trafficking in the United States, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MAY16, 2023
Ms. E
RNST(for herself and Mr. KAINE) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Defense to develop a strategy
to counter fentanyl trafficking in the United States, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Disrupt Fentanyl Traf-4
ficking Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 6
It is the sense of Congress that— 7
(a) fentanyl trafficking across the borders of the 8
United States, and the consequences of that trafficking, 9
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constitute an unprecedented, nontraditional, and long- 1
term threat to the national security of the United States; 2
(b) transnational criminal organizations have estab-3
lished effective control over significant areas within Mex-4
ico, which has enabled the development of fentanyl produc-5
tion and trafficking infrastructure; 6
(c) combating fentanyl trafficking demands— 7
(1) improved interagency command, control, 8
communications, and intelligence sharing to enhance 9
the effectiveness of the interdiction of fentanyl at 10
the borders of the United States; and 11
(2) whole-of-government solutions comprised of 12
an integrated and synchronized interagency organi-13
zational construct committed to dismantling the 14
process of trafficking fentanyl from chemical pre-15
cursor to production to delivery in the United States 16
and enabling partner nations to do the same; 17
(d) it is within the national security interest of the 18
United States for Federal, State, and local law enforce-19
ment agencies, the Department of Defense, the Depart-20
ment of State, other counter-drug agencies, and stake-21
holders to effectively communicate and that the failure of 22
effective communication affects the prevention, interdic-23
tion, and prosecution of fentanyl trafficking and distribu-24
tion into and within the United States; and 25
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(e) the United States must partner with Mexico and 1
Canada to combat fentanyl trafficking through institution 2
building, the dismantling of cartels, and seizures of 3
fentanyl in Mexico, Canada, and intrastate transit zones. 4
SEC. 3. DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGY TO COUNTER 5
FENTANYL TRAFFICKING AND REPORT. 6
(a) S
TRATEGY.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days 8
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-9
retary of Defense, in coordination with other Federal 10
agencies as the Secretary considers appropriate, 11
shall develop and submit to the appropriate congres-12
sional committees a strategy to use existing authori-13
ties, including the authorities under section 124 of 14
title 10, United States Code, as appropriate, to tar-15
get, disrupt, or degrade threats to the national secu-16
rity of the United States caused or exacerbated by 17
fentanyl trafficking. 18
(2) C
ONTENTS.—The strategy required by 19
paragraph (1) shall outline how the Secretary of De-20
fense will— 21
(A) leverage existing authorities regarding 22
counterdrug and counter-transnational orga-23
nized crime activities with a counter-fentanyl 24
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nexus to detect and monitor activities related to 1
fentanyl trafficking; 2
(B) support operations to counter fentanyl 3
trafficking carried out by other Federal agen-4
cies, State, Tribal, and local law enforcement 5
agencies, or foreign security forces; 6
(C) coordinate efforts of the Department 7
of Defense for the detection and monitoring of 8
aerial, maritime, and surface traffic suspected 9
of carrying fentanyl bound for the United 10
States, including efforts to unify the use of 11
technology, surveillance, and related resources 12
across air, land, and maritime domains to 13
counter fentanyl trafficking, including with re-14
spect to data collection, data processing, and in-15
tegrating sensors across such domains; 16
(D) provide military-unique capabilities to 17
support activities by the United States Govern-18
ment and foreign security forces to detect and 19
monitor the trafficking of fentanyl and pre-20
cursor chemicals used in fentanyl production, 21
consistent with section 284(b)(10) of title 10, 22
United States Code; 23
(E) leverage existing counterdrug and 24
counter-transnational organized crime programs 25
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of the Department to counter fentanyl traf-1
ficking; 2
(F) assess existing training programs of 3
the Department and provide training for Fed-4
eral, State, Tribal, and local law enforcement 5
agencies conducted by special operations forces 6
to counter fentanyl trafficking, consistent with 7
section 284(b) of title 10, United States Code; 8
(G) engage with foreign security forces to 9
ensure the counterdrug and counter- 10
transnational organized crime programs of the 11
Department— 12
(i) support efforts to counter fentanyl 13
trafficking; and 14
(ii) build capacity to interdict fentanyl 15
in foreign countries, including programs to 16
train security forces in partner countries to 17
counter fentanyl trafficking, including 18
countering illicit flows of fentanyl precur-19
sors, consistent with sections 284(c) and 20
333 of title 10, United States Code; 21
(H) use the North American Defense Min-22
isterial and the bilateral defense working groups 23
and bilateral military cooperation round tables 24
with Canada and Mexico to increase domain 25
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awareness to detect and monitor fentanyl traf-1
ficking; and 2
(I) evaluate existing policies, procedures, 3
processes, and resources that affect the ability 4
of the Department to counter fentanyl traf-5
ficking consistent with existing counterdrug and 6
counter-transnational organized crime authori-7
ties. 8
(3) F
ORM.—The strategy required by para-9
graph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified form, 10
but may include a classified annex. 11
(4) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 45 days after 12
the submission of the strategy required by para-13
graph (1), the Secretary shall provide to the appro-14
priate congressional committees a briefing on the 15
strategy and plans for its implementation. 16
(b) R
EPORT ONLAWENFORCEMENT REIMBURSE-17
MENT.—The Secretary of Defense shall submit to the ap-18
propriate congressional committees a report on— 19
(1) any goods or services provided under section 20
1535 of title 31, United States Code (commonly 21
known as the ‘‘Economy Act’’), during the period 22
beginning on January 1, 2010, and ending on the 23
date on which the report is submitted, by the De-24
partment of Defense to Federal civilian law enforce-25
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ment agencies for counterdrug and counter- 1
transnational organized crime operations on the 2
southern border of the United States; and 3
(2) any payments made for such goods or serv-4
ices under such section during such period. 5
SEC. 4. COOPERATION WITH MEXICO. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense shall 7
seek to enhance cooperation with defense officials of the 8
Government of Mexico to target, disrupt, and degrade 9
transnational criminal organizations within Mexico that 10
traffic fentanyl. 11
(b) R
EPORT ONENHANCEDSECURITYCOOPERA-12
TION.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 14
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-15
retary of Defense shall submit to the appropriate 16
congressional committees a report on efforts to en-17
hance cooperation with defense officials of the Gov-18
ernment of Mexico specified in subsection (a). 19
(2) C
ONTENTS.—The report required by para-20
graph (1) shall include— 21
(A) an assessment of the impact of the ef-22
forts to enhance cooperation described in para-23
graph (1) on targeting, disrupting, and degrad-24
ing fentanyl trafficking; 25
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(B) a description of limitations on such ef-1
forts, including limitations imposed by the Gov-2
ernment of Mexico; 3
(C) recommendations by the Secretary on 4
actions to further improve cooperation with de-5
fense officials of the Government of Mexico; 6
(D) recommendations by the Secretary on 7
actions of the Department of Defense to further 8
improve the capabilities of the Government of 9
Mexico to target, disrupt, and degrade fentanyl 10
trafficking; and 11
(E) any other matter the Secretary con-12
siders relevant. 13
(3) F
ORM.—The report required by paragraph 14
(1) may be submitted in unclassified form but shall 15
include a classified annex. 16
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 17
In this Act: 18
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -19
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-20
mittees’’ means— 21
(A) the Committee on Armed Services of 22
the Senate; and 23
(B) the Committee on Armed Services of 24
the House of Representatives. 25
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(2) FENTANYL.—The term ‘‘fentanyl’’ means 1
fentanyl and any fentanyl-related substance. 2
(3) F
ENTANYL-RELATED SUBSTANCE .—The 3
term ‘‘fentanyl-related substance’’— 4
(A) means any substance that is struc-5
turally related to fentanyl by 1 or more modi-6
fications of— 7
(i) replacement of the phenyl portion 8
of the phenethyl group by any monocycle, 9
whether or not further substituted in or on 10
the monocycle; 11
(ii) substitution in or on the phenethyl 12
group with alkyl, alkenyl, alkoxyl, 13
hydroxyl, halo, haloalkyl, amino, or nitro 14
groups; 15
(iii) substitution in or on the piper-16
idine ring with alkyl, alkenyl, alkoxyl, 17
ester, ether, hydroxyl, halo, haloalkyl, 18
amino, or nitro groups; 19
(iv) replacement of the aniline ring 20
with any aromatic monocycle whether or 21
not further substituted in or on the aro-22
matic monocycle; and 23
(v) replacement of the N-propionyl 24
group with another acyl group; and 25
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(B) does not include a substance described 1
in subparagraph (A) that is— 2
(i) controlled by action of the Attor-3
ney General pursuant to section 201 of the 4
Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 5
811); 6
(ii) expressly listed in Schedule I of 7
section 202(c) of that Act (21 U.S.C. 812) 8
or another schedule by a statutory provi-9
sion; or 10
(iii) removed from Schedule I, or re-11
scheduled to another schedule, pursuant to 12
section 201(k) of that Act (21 U.S.C. 13
811(k)). 14
(4) I
LLEGAL MEANS .—The term ‘‘illegal 15
means’’ includes the trafficking of money, human 16
trafficking, illicit financial flows, illegal trade in nat-17
ural resources and wildlife, trade in illegal drugs and 18
weapons, and other forms of illegal means deter-19
mined by the Secretary of Defense. 20
(5) S
ECURITY COOPERATION PROGRAM .—The 21
term ‘‘security cooperation program’’ has the mean-22
ing given that term in section 301 of title 10, United 23
States Code. 24
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(6) TRANSNATIONAL CRIMINAL ORGANIZA -1
TION.— 2
(A) I
N GENERAL .—The term 3
‘‘transnational criminal organization’’ means a 4
group, network, and associated individuals who 5
operate transnationally for the purpose of ob-6
taining power, influence, or monetary or com-7
mercial gain, wholly or in part by illegal means, 8
while advancing their activities through a pat-9
tern of crime, corruption, or violence and pro-10
tecting their illegal activities through a 11
transnational organizational structure and the 12
exploitation of public corruption or 13
transnational logistics, financial, or communica-14
tion mechanisms. 15
(B) A
DDITIONAL ORGANIZATIONS .—The 16
term ‘‘transnational criminal organization’’ in-17
cludes any transnational criminal organization 18
identified in the most recent Drug Threat As-19
sessment of the Drug Enforcement Agency. 20
Æ
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