II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 938
To establish the Joint Task Force to Counter the Illicit Synthetic Narcotics.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH11 (legislative day, MARCH10), 2025
Mr. M
CCORMICK(for himself, Mr. COONS, Mrs. BRITT, and Mr. FETTERMAN)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To establish the Joint Task Force to Counter the Illicit
Synthetic Narcotics.
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 ‘‘Joint Task Force to 4
Counter Illicit Synthetic Narcotics Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
(1) The United States is experiencing a crisis 8
of substance abuse and addiction resulting in the 9
deaths of hundreds of thousands of people of the 10
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United States. Most of these deaths involve some 1
form of opioids. 2
(2) There are many elements of Federal, State, 3
territorial, Tribal, and local governments working to 4
combat the opioid epidemic. 5
(3) No central entity exists at the appropriate 6
level whereby different agencies can share informa-7
tion and coordinate efforts to combat the opioid cri-8
sis. 9
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 10
In this Act: 11
(1) C
ONTROLLED SUBSTANCE ; LISTED CHEM-12
ICAL.—The terms ‘‘controlled substance’’ and ‘‘listed 13
chemical’’ have the meanings given the terms in sec-14
tion 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 15
U.S.C. 802). 16
(2) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 17
the Director of the JTF–ISN. 18
(3) I
LLICIT SYNTHETIC NARCOTIC .—The term 19
‘‘illicit synthetic narcotic’’ means— 20
(A) a controlled substance with the excep-21
tion of— 22
(i) a substance of natural origin; or 23
(ii) a medication— 24
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(I) that is lawful under the laws 1
of the United States; and 2
(II) for which the Drug Enforce-3
ment Administration has provided an 4
import permit to the importing orga-5
nization for the import of the medica-6
tion; 7
(B) a listed chemical; and 8
(C) an active pharmaceutical ingredient or 9
chemical that is used in the production of a 10
controlled substance or listed chemical in sub-11
paragraphs (A) and (B). 12
(4) JTF–ISN.—The term ‘‘JTF–ISN’’ means 13
the Joint Task Force to Counter Illicit Synthetic 14
Narcotics established under section 4. 15
SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF JOINT TASK FORCE TO 16
COUNTER ILLICIT SYNTHETIC NARCOTICS. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—There is established a Joint Task 18
Force to Counter Illicit Synthetic Narcotics. 19
(b) M
EMBERSHIP.—The JTF–ISN shall be composed 20
of representatives of the following entities: 21
(1) The Department of Justice, including— 22
(A) the Drug Enforcement Administration; 23
(B) the Federal Bureau of Investigation; 24
and 25
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(C) assistant United States attorneys and 1
trial attorneys, as the Director determines are 2
appropriate. 3
(2) The Department of the Treasury, includ-4
ing— 5
(A) the Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force; 6
(B) the Internal Revenue Service Criminal 7
Investigation; 8
(C) the Financial Crimes Enforcement 9
Network; 10
(D) the Office of Foreign Assets Control; 11
and 12
(E) Office of Intelligence and Analysis. 13
(3) The Department of Homeland Security, in-14
cluding— 15
(A) Homeland Security Investigations; 16
(B) U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 17
including the National Targeting Center; 18
(C) Immigration and Customs Enforce-19
ment; and 20
(D) the United States Coast Guard. 21
(4) The Department of State. 22
(5) The Department of Commerce. 23
(6) The Department of Defense. 24
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(7) The Office of the Director of National Intel-1
ligence. 2
(8) Any other agency the Director deems appro-3
priate. 4
(c) D
IRECTOR.— 5
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The JTF–ISN shall be led 6
by a Director who shall be appointed by the Presi-7
dent, by and with the advice and consent of the Sen-8
ate. 9
(2) C
OMPENSATION.—The Director shall be 10
compensated at the rate of basic pay prescribed for 11
level II of the Executive Schedule under section 12
5313 of title 5, United States Code. 13
(d) R
EPORTING.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Director shall report to 15
the Attorney General. 16
(2) R
EPORTS AND BRIEFINGS .—Not later than 17
180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 18
and every 180 days thereafter, the Director shall 19
submit to the Committee on the Judiciary and the 20
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 21
Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on the Ju-22
diciary and the Committee on Homeland Security of 23
the House of Representatives a report, and upon re-24
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quest of the chairman or ranking member of any 1
such committee, a briefing that includes— 2
(A) a comprehensive plan covering the 2- 3
year period beginning on the date on which the 4
report is submitted or the briefing is made, as 5
applicable, that includes— 6
(i) a description of the goals of the 7
JTF–ISN; 8
(ii) description of areas of improve-9
ment with respect to collaboration among 10
the participating agencies; and 11
(iii) an estimate of the funding and 12
staff needed for the continued work of the 13
JTF–ISN; 14
(B) a statement of the budget priorities of 15
the JTF–ISN for each year in the 2-year pe-16
riod; 17
(C) a description of the efforts of the 18
JTF–ISN to investigate and prosecute illicit 19
synthetic narcotics trafficking crimes, including 20
raids conducted, assets seized, assets forfeited 21
and indictments brought and convictions; and 22
(D) efforts of the JTF–ISN to address 23
matters related to the role of the People’s Re-24
public of China in the opioids crisis. 25
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SEC. 5. PRIMARY MISSIONS OF JTF–ISN. 1
The primary mission of the JTF–ISN shall be to di-2
rect counter opioid and synthetic narcotics activities, in-3
cluding disruption activities and associated investigations, 4
and provide strategic coordination on related activities, in-5
cluding sanctions enforcement, conducting joint oper-6
ations, raids, and other tactical actions in coordination 7
with Federal, State, territorial, Tribal, and local law en-8
forcement agencies through memorandums of under-9
standing such as legal actions against traffickers and for-10
eign entities, particularly in the People’s Republic of 11
China, complicit in the opioid trade. 12
SEC. 6. AUTHORITY AND LIMITATIONS. 13
(a) A
UTHORITY.—The JTF–ISN shall be vested with 14
power and authority to— 15
(1) investigate and prosecute violations of Fed-16
eral law relating to— 17
(A) the trafficking of illicit synthetic nar-18
cotics and related offenses, such as money laun-19
dering and other financial crimes; and 20
(B) smuggling, false statements, and any 21
matter that arises or might arises directly from 22
its investigations; 23
(2) in the case of a prosecution relating to non- 24
United States persons outside of the United States, 25
bring a case— 26
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(A) in the district where the crime was 1
committed; 2
(B) in the district where the Drug En-3
forcement Administration is located; or 4
(C) in a district described in section 3238 5
of title 18, United States Code; 6
(3) facilitate the sharing of information between 7
members of the JTF–ISN in a timely manner; 8
(4) establish protocols for interagency referrals 9
and procedures for referring cases to prosecuting 10
and sanctions designating authorities as appropriate; 11
(5) develop strategies to address the role of the 12
People’s Republic of China in the illicit synthetic 13
narcotics crisis; 14
(6) work cooperatively with State, territorial, 15
Tribal, and local law enforcement agencies to combat 16
and prosecute trafficking of illicit synthetic nar-17
cotics; 18
(7) assess and improve existing methods of in-19
vestigating and prosecuting illicit synthetic narcotics 20
trafficking crimes; and 21
(8) conduct direct operational activities, includ-22
ing joint operations, raids, and other tactical ac-23
tions, to disrupt illicit synthetic narcotics trafficking 24
networks and bring offenders to justice. 25
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(b) LIMITATION.—The Director may not direct the 1
execution of operational activities outside the scope of 2
counter-opioid efforts related to illicit synthetic narcotics 3
suppliers and their networks pursuant to the primary mis-4
sions of the JTF–ISN. 5
SEC. 7. INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF JTF–ISN. 6
(a) I
NTELLIGENCE COORDINATION.—The Director 7
shall establish and maintain within the JTF–ISN an intel-8
ligence coordination element, which shall have primary re-9
sponsibility within the United States Government for anal-10
ysis of illicit synthetic narcotics and related trafficking or-11
ganizations from all sources of intelligence, whether col-12
lected inside or outside the United States. 13
(b) S
TRATEGICOPERATIONALPLANNING.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Director shall establish 15
and maintain within the JTF–ISN a strategic oper-16
ational planning element, which shall provide stra-17
tegic operational plans for counter-opioid operations 18
conducted by the United States Government, and in-19
clude the mission, objectives to be achieved, tasks to 20
be performed, interagency coordination of oper-21
ational activities, and the assignment of roles and 22
responsibilities. 23
(2) M
ONITORING.—The Director shall monitor 24
the implementation of strategic operational plans 25
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and shall obtain information from each element of 1
the intelligence community, and from each other de-2
partment, agency, or element of the United States 3
Government relevant for monitoring the progress of 4
such entity in implementing such plans. 5
(c) O
FFICE OFGENERALCOUNSEL.—The Director 6
shall establish and maintain within the JTF–ISN an Of-7
fice of General Counsel, which shall provide legal advice 8
in support of the JTF–ISN and its directorates. 9
(d) O
FFICE OFCONGRESSIONALCOORDINATION.— 10
The Director shall establish and maintain within the 11
JTF–ISN an Office of Congressional Coordination, which 12
shall coordinate communications of the JTF–ISN with 13
Congress and ensure compliance with reporting and brief-14
ing obligations under this Act. 15
SEC. 8. RETENTION OF EXISTING AUTHORITIES. 16
Each member of the JTF–ISN shall maintain their 17
existing authorities to investigate and prosecute traf-18
ficking crimes relating to illicit synthetic narcotics. 19
SEC. 9. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 20
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize 21
the JTF–ISN to investigate, target, or prosecute individ-22
uals for personal drug use or to pursue enforcement ac-23
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tions against low-level drug dealing that does not involve 1
significant connections to larger trafficking networks. 2
Æ
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