Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB2024 Compare Versions

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11 I
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION H. R. 2024
55 To establish the Joint Task Force to Counter the Illicit Synthetic Narcotics.
66 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
77 MARCH11, 2025
88 Mr. N
99 EWHOUSE(for himself, Mr. MOOLENAAR, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr.
1010 A
1111 UCHINCLOSS, Mr. DUNNof Florida, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. JOHNSONof
1212 South Dakota, and Mr. T
1313 ORRESof New York) introduced the following
1414 bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addi-
1515 tion to the Committees on Financial Services, Foreign Affairs, and Intel-
1616 ligence (Permanent Select), for a period to be subsequently determined
1717 by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
1818 within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
1919 A BILL
2020 To establish the Joint Task Force to Counter the Illicit
2121 Synthetic Narcotics.
2222 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
2323 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2424 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2525 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Joint Task Force to 4
2626 Counter Illicit Synthetic Narcotics Act of 2025’’. 5
2727 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
2828 Congress finds the following: 7
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3232 (1) The United States is experiencing a crisis 1
3333 of substance abuse and addiction resulting in the 2
3434 deaths of hundreds of thousands of people of the 3
3535 United States. Most of these deaths involve some 4
3636 form of opioids. 5
3737 (2) There are many elements of Federal, State, 6
3838 territorial, Tribal, and local governments working to 7
3939 combat the opioid epidemic. 8
4040 (3) No central entity exists at the appropriate 9
4141 level whereby different agencies can share informa-10
4242 tion and coordinate efforts to combat the opioid cri-11
4343 sis. 12
4444 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 13
4545 In this Act: 14
4646 (1) C
4747 ONTROLLED SUBSTANCE ; LISTED CHEM-15
4848 ICAL.—The terms ‘‘controlled substance’’ and ‘‘listed 16
4949 chemical’’ have the meanings given the terms in sec-17
5050 tion 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 18
5151 U.S.C. 802). 19
5252 (2) D
5353 IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 20
5454 the Director of the JTF–ISN. 21
5555 (3) I
5656 LLICIT SYNTHETIC NARCOTIC .—The term 22
5757 ‘‘illicit synthetic narcotic’’ means— 23
5858 (A) a controlled substance with the excep-24
5959 tion of— 25
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6363 (i) a substance of natural origin; or 1
6464 (ii) a medication— 2
6565 (I) that is lawful under the laws 3
6666 of the United States; and 4
6767 (II) for which the Drug Enforce-5
6868 ment Administration has provided an 6
6969 import permit to the importing orga-7
7070 nization for the import of the medica-8
7171 tion; 9
7272 (B) a listed chemical; and 10
7373 (C) an active pharmaceutical ingredient or 11
7474 chemical that is used in the production of a 12
7575 controlled substance or listed chemical in sub-13
7676 paragraphs (A) and (B). 14
7777 (4) JTF–ISN.—The term ‘‘JTF–ISN’’ means 15
7878 the Joint Task Force to Counter Illicit Synthetic 16
7979 Narcotics established under section 4. 17
8080 SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF JOINT TASK FORCE TO 18
8181 COUNTER ILLICIT SYNTHETIC NARCOTICS. 19
8282 (a) I
8383 NGENERAL.—There is established a Joint Task 20
8484 Force to Counter Illicit Synthetic Narcotics. 21
8585 (b) M
8686 EMBERSHIP.—The JTF–ISN shall be composed 22
8787 of representatives of the following entities: 23
8888 (1) The Department of Justice, including— 24
8989 (A) the Drug Enforcement Administration; 25
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9393 (B) the Federal Bureau of Investigation; 1
9494 and 2
9595 (C) assistant United States attorneys and 3
9696 trial attorneys, as the Director determines are 4
9797 appropriate. 5
9898 (2) The Department of the Treasury, includ-6
9999 ing— 7
100100 (A) the Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force; 8
101101 (B) the Internal Revenue Service Criminal 9
102102 Investigation; 10
103103 (C) the Financial Crimes Enforcement 11
104104 Network; 12
105105 (D) the Office of Foreign Assets Control; 13
106106 and 14
107107 (E) Office of Intelligence and Analysis. 15
108108 (3) The Department of Homeland Security, in-16
109109 cluding— 17
110110 (A) Homeland Security Investigations; 18
111111 (B) U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 19
112112 including the National Targeting Center; 20
113113 (C) Immigration and Customs Enforce-21
114114 ment; and 22
115115 (D) the United States Coast Guard. 23
116116 (4) The Department of State. 24
117117 (5) The Department of Commerce. 25
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121121 (6) The Department of Defense. 1
122122 (7) The Office of the Director of National Intel-2
123123 ligence. 3
124124 (8) Any other agency the Director deems appro-4
125125 priate. 5
126126 (c) D
127127 IRECTOR.— 6
128128 (1) I
129129 N GENERAL.—The JTF–ISN shall be led 7
130130 by a Director who shall be appointed by the Presi-8
131131 dent, by and with the advice and consent of the Sen-9
132132 ate. 10
133133 (2) C
134134 OMPENSATION.—The Director shall be 11
135135 compensated at the rate of basic pay prescribed for 12
136136 level II of the Executive Schedule under section 13
137137 5313 of title 5, United States Code. 14
138138 (d) R
139139 EPORTING.— 15
140140 (1) I
141141 N GENERAL.—The Director shall report to 16
142142 the Attorney General. 17
143143 (2) R
144144 EPORTS AND BRIEFINGS .—Not later than 18
145145 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 19
146146 and every 180 days thereafter, the Director shall 20
147147 submit to the Committee on the Judiciary and the 21
148148 Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 22
149149 Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on the Ju-23
150150 diciary and the Committee on Homeland Security of 24
151151 the House of Representatives a report, and upon re-25
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155155 quest of the chairman or ranking member of any 1
156156 such committee, a briefing that includes— 2
157157 (A) a comprehensive plan covering the 2- 3
158158 year period beginning on the date on which the 4
159159 report is submitted or the briefing is made, as 5
160160 applicable, that includes— 6
161161 (i) a description of the goals of the 7
162162 JTF–ISN; 8
163163 (ii) description of areas of improve-9
164164 ment with respect to collaboration among 10
165165 the participating agencies; and 11
166166 (iii) an estimate of the funding and 12
167167 staff needed for the continued work of the 13
168168 JTF–ISN; 14
169169 (B) a statement of the budget priorities of 15
170170 the JTF–ISN for each year in the 2-year pe-16
171171 riod; 17
172172 (C) a description of the efforts of the 18
173173 JTF–ISN to investigate and prosecute illicit 19
174174 synthetic narcotics trafficking crimes, including 20
175175 raids conducted, assets seized, assets forfeited 21
176176 and indictments brought and convictions; and 22
177177 (D) efforts of the JTF–ISN to address 23
178178 matters related to the role of the People’s Re-24
179179 public of China in the opioids crisis. 25
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183183 SEC. 5. PRIMARY MISSIONS OF JTF–ISN. 1
184184 The primary mission of the JTF–ISN shall be to di-2
185185 rect counter opioid and synthetic narcotics activities, in-3
186186 cluding disruption activities and associated investigations, 4
187187 and provide strategic coordination on related activities, in-5
188188 cluding sanctions enforcement, conducting joint oper-6
189189 ations, raids, and other tactical actions in coordination 7
190190 with Federal, State, territorial, Tribal, and local law en-8
191191 forcement agencies through memorandums of under-9
192192 standing such as legal actions against traffickers and for-10
193193 eign entities, particularly in the People’s Republic of 11
194194 China, complicit in the opioid trade. 12
195195 SEC. 6. AUTHORITY AND LIMITATIONS. 13
196196 (a) A
197197 UTHORITY.—The JTF–ISN shall be vested with 14
198198 power and authority to— 15
199199 (1) investigate and prosecute violations of Fed-16
200200 eral law relating to— 17
201201 (A) the trafficking of illicit synthetic nar-18
202202 cotics and related offenses, such as money laun-19
203203 dering and other financial crimes; and 20
204204 (B) smuggling, false statements, and any 21
205205 matter that arises or might arises directly from 22
206206 its investigations; 23
207207 (2) in the case of a prosecution relating to non- 24
208208 United States persons outside of the United States, 25
209209 bring a case— 26
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213213 (A) in the district where the crime was 1
214214 committed; 2
215215 (B) in the district where the Drug En-3
216216 forcement Administration is located; or 4
217217 (C) in a district described in section 3238 5
218218 of title 18, United States Code; 6
219219 (3) facilitate the sharing of information between 7
220220 members of the JTF–ISN in a timely manner; 8
221221 (4) establish protocols for interagency referrals 9
222222 and procedures for referring cases to prosecuting 10
223223 and sanctions designating authorities as appropriate; 11
224224 (5) develop strategies to address the role of the 12
225225 People’s Republic of China in the illicit synthetic 13
226226 narcotics crisis; 14
227227 (6) work cooperatively with State, territorial, 15
228228 Tribal, and local law enforcement agencies to combat 16
229229 and prosecute trafficking of illicit synthetic nar-17
230230 cotics; 18
231231 (7) assess and improve existing methods of in-19
232232 vestigating and prosecuting illicit synthetic narcotics 20
233233 trafficking crimes; and 21
234234 (8) conduct direct operational activities, includ-22
235235 ing joint operations, raids, and other tactical ac-23
236236 tions, to disrupt illicit synthetic narcotics trafficking 24
237237 networks and bring offenders to justice. 25
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241241 (b) LIMITATION.—The Director may not direct the 1
242242 execution of operational activities outside the scope of 2
243243 counter-opioid efforts related to illicit synthetic narcotics 3
244244 suppliers and their networks pursuant to the primary mis-4
245245 sions of the JTF–ISN. 5
246246 SEC. 7. INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF JTF–ISN. 6
247247 (a) I
248248 NTELLIGENCE COORDINATION.—The Director 7
249249 shall establish and maintain within the JTF–ISN an intel-8
250250 ligence coordination element, which shall have primary re-9
251251 sponsibility within the United States Government for anal-10
252252 ysis of illicit synthetic narcotics and related trafficking or-11
253253 ganizations from all sources of intelligence, whether col-12
254254 lected inside or outside the United States. 13
255255 (b) S
256256 TRATEGICOPERATIONALPLANNING.— 14
257257 (1) I
258258 N GENERAL.—The Director shall establish 15
259259 and maintain within the JTF–ISN a strategic oper-16
260260 ational planning element, which shall provide stra-17
261261 tegic operational plans for counter-opioid operations 18
262262 conducted by the United States Government, and in-19
263263 clude the mission, objectives to be achieved, tasks to 20
264264 be performed, interagency coordination of oper-21
265265 ational activities, and the assignment of roles and 22
266266 responsibilities. 23
267267 (2) M
268268 ONITORING.—The Director shall monitor 24
269269 the implementation of strategic operational plans 25
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273273 and shall obtain information from each element of 1
274274 the intelligence community, and from each other de-2
275275 partment, agency, or element of the United States 3
276276 Government relevant for monitoring the progress of 4
277277 such entity in implementing such plans. 5
278278 (c) O
279279 FFICE OFGENERALCOUNSEL.—The Director 6
280280 shall establish and maintain within the JTF–ISN an Of-7
281281 fice of General Counsel, which shall provide legal advice 8
282282 in support of the JTF–ISN and its directorates. 9
283283 (d) O
284284 FFICE OFCONGRESSIONALCOORDINATION.— 10
285285 The Director shall establish and maintain within the 11
286286 JTF–ISN an Office of Congressional Coordination, which 12
287287 shall coordinate communications of the JFT–ISN with 13
288288 Congress and ensure compliance with reporting and brief-14
289289 ing obligations under this Act. 15
290290 SEC. 8. RETENTION OF EXISTING AUTHORITIES. 16
291291 Each member of the JTF–ISN shall maintain their 17
292292 existing authorities to investigate and prosecute traf-18
293293 ficking crimes relating to illicit synthetic narcotics. 19
294294 SEC. 9. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 20
295295 Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize 21
296296 the JTF–ISN to investigate, target, or prosecute individ-22
297297 uals for personal drug use or to pursue enforcement ac-23
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301301 tions against low-level drug dealing that does not involve 1
302302 significant connections to larger trafficking networks. 2
303303 Æ
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