[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 73 (Tuesday, May 10, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H2173-H2175]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              KINGPIN DESIGNATION IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2016

  Mr. MARINO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 4985) to amend the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act 
to protect classified information in Federal court challenges.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 4985

       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 ``Kingpin Designation 
     Improvement Act of 2016''.

     SEC. 2. PROTECTION OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION IN FEDERAL COURT 
                   CHALLENGES RELATING TO DESIGNATIONS UNDER THE 
                   NARCOTICS KINGPIN DESIGNATION ACT.

       Section 804 of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation 
     Act (21 U.S.C. 1903) is amended by adding at the end the 
     following:
       ``(i) Protection of Classified Information in Federal Court 
     Challenges Relating to Designations.--In any judicial review 
     of a determination made under this section, if the 
     determination was based on classified information (as defined 
     in section 1(a) of the Classified Information Procedures Act) 
     such information may be submitted to the reviewing court ex 
     parte and in camera. This subsection does not confer or imply 
     any right to judicial review.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Marino) and the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. 
Cicilline) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania.


                             General Leave

  Mr. MARINO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to 
include extraneous materials on this measure.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. MARINO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I am pleased 
to call up the Kingpin Designation Improvement Act, which was favorably 
reported this week by the Judiciary Committee on which I also sit.
  This bipartisan bill, introduced by the gentleman and gentlewoman 
from New York, Mr. Katko and Miss Rice, helps to ensure that classified 
information used in the designation of foreign drug kingpins may be 
protected from public disclosure so that it cannot be used by drug 
lords and terrorists.
  Under current law, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets 
Control, otherwise known as OFAC, is able to designate international 
drug traffickers as kingpins. These designations are published in the 
Federal Register, and the individuals are added to the list of 
specially designated nationals, which effectively blocks any U.S.-based 
asset and their access to the U.S.

[[Page H2174]]

financial system. This is a potent weapon against international drug 
traffickers.
  Since the enactment of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act 
16 years ago, OFAC has designated more than 1,800 individuals, all of 
them non-U.S. persons. These include not only high-profile drug 
traffickers, but also individuals who are using drug proceeds to 
support international terrorism.
  Now, listed persons can seek removal of those sanctions by 
challenging them in Federal court. The tricky part arises when OFAC 
designations are based on classified information. We do not want to 
hand drug lords and terrorists the sources and methods we have for 
uncovering their nefarious activities. We also do not want OFAC to be 
deterred from making the designations our national security requires 
because they are worried that such classified info may be publicly 
disclosed.
  For these reasons, other key OFAC sanctions laws, like the 
International Emergency Economic Powers Act, provide protections for 
classified information. Under that statute, OFAC can submit such 
information ex parte and in camera directly to the judge outside of 
public view.
  H.R. 4985 just incorporates that same protection in the Narcotics 
Kingpin Designation Act. Also, it is worth remembering that these 
designations are not something done secretly in the dead of night. They 
result from the coordination of five Federal agencies. They are 
published publicly, and they are reported to 10 congressional 
committees, 5 in the House and 5 in the Senate, some of which receive 
the classified background on the designated persons.
  I want to thank Foreign Affairs Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, 
Judiciary Chairman Goodlatte, and Ranking Member Conyers for moving 
this bipartisan bill promptly to the floor.
  H.R. 4985 is an important tool in our fight against high-level 
narcotics traffickers and deserves our unanimous support.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this legislation and 
yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I would like to thank Representative Katko and Representative Rice 
for introducing this bill, H.R. 4985, the Kingpin Designation 
Improvement Act, which helps ensure that Federal courts can review 
sanctions against drug kingpins without forcing law enforcement or the 
intelligence community to publicly release classified information.
  H.R. 4985 would amend the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act 
modeled on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The Kingpin 
Act allows the President to designate and apply economic sanctions 
against any significant foreign narcotics trafficker. This authority 
provides a powerful tool to combat narcotics trafficking around the 
world.
  For example, just last month, the Treasury Department's Office of 
Foreign Assets Control, which administers these sanctions, targeted a 
Mexican drug cartel and the three brothers who run it, freezing their 
assets and banning U.S. persons from doing business with them.
  As with the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, designations 
made under the Kingpin Act may be challenged in court. However, unlike 
IEEPA, the Kingpin Act contains no explicit authority for judges to 
privately review classified information. This gap in authority means it 
is only a matter of time until the government will be forced to choose 
between disclosing classified material and allowing a confirmed 
narcotics trafficker to avoid justice.
  H.R. 4985 would address this issue by adding a new section that 
explicitly authorizes the government to allow judges to privately 
review classified information when individuals challenge their 
designation as kingpins under the act. This provides a simple fix to a 
gap in current law, bringing the Kingpin Act in line with the 
International Emergency Economic Powers Act and improving our ability 
to ensure the law functions as intended.
  I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for its introduction, and I 
urge my colleagues to support the legislation.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. MARINO. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may to consume to 
the gentleman from New York (Mr. Katko), the author of this bill.
  Mr. KATKO. Mr. Speaker, let me start by thanking Judiciary Committee 
Chairman Goodlatte for his efforts and his committee's efforts in 
shepherding this bill through the committee, where it received 
unanimous support.
  I also want to thank my colleague across the aisle, Representative 
Rice. We have partnered together on many bills that have passed the 
House to help keep our country safe and to keep it free from drug 
trafficking. Both of us having a background as prosecutors on a Federal 
level will help us going forward.
  This legislation makes important changes that strengthen the Kingpin 
Act and enhance the protection of classified information. The Kingpin 
Act has played an important role in our Nation's efforts to fight drug 
trafficking for nearly two decades. In the last two decades, I was 
heavily involved with drug trafficking as a Federal organized crime 
prosecutor, so I understand the importance of the statute on a 
firsthand basis.
  The act established a process to sanction individuals involved in 
international narcotics trafficking. More than 1,800 individuals, all 
non-U.S. persons, have been designated as drug kingpins by the 
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control under the Kingpin Act. This 
designation precludes these traffickers from using the U.S. financial 
system and, in so doing, places a major obstacle in front of their 
efforts to move and use their ill-gotten gains.
  Many of the individuals placed on the kingpin list are put there on 
the basis of classified information. The law provides a process by 
which these individuals can seek removal from the list in Federal 
court, but, unfortunately, the law currently doesn't protect classified 
information in such delisting cases. This opens up the possibility that 
some kingpins won't be sanctioned at all or will be removed from the 
kingpin list, despite significant evidence of their illicit activities, 
in order to protect classified information.
  This bill simply makes it clear that the Office of Foreign Assets 
Control may submit classified information in defense of its kingpin 
designations in a nonpublic, protected setting in order to safeguard 
classified information. This bill will make it easier to sanction 
international drug kingpins who cause enormous problems both in the 
United States and in their home countries. It will make it harder for 
these criminals to carry out their dangerous and destructive drug 
trade.
  Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the House's consideration of this 
bill, alongside several other important measures, to fight back against 
the opioid epidemic gripping much of our Nation, and certainly in my 
district as well.
  My district has been extremely hard-hit by this epidemic as well as a 
scourge of dangerous synthetic substances, which I hope to address at a 
later time during this Congress. Almost every family in my district has 
been affected by this epidemic or knows someone who has.
  We need to fight back against the kingpins for profiteering off this 
misery. It is gratifying to see the House working together across the 
aisle to tackle these enormous problems, and our country will be better 
off for it.
  Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  I want to thank the gentleman from New York for the introduction of 
this bill. It closes an important gap in the statute, which will 
enhance the safety of our country and provide essential review 
confidentially.
  I urge my colleagues to support the bill.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. MARINO. Mr. Speaker, I just want to echo what my good friend from 
Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline) has stated.
  As a former prosecutor, and Mr. Katko, who was a former prosecutor, 
and my good friend from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline), who was a mayor 
and had jurisdiction over law enforcement agencies, we all know what 
the importance of this legislation is.
  I want to thank the authors of this. I want to thank the staff 
members who worked on this. This is going to improve the lives of not 
only Americans, but people around the world.

[[Page H2175]]

  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend from Virginia, 
Judiciary Chairman Goodlatte, his Ranking Member, Mr. Conyers, and the 
gentleman and gentlelady from New York--Mr. Katko and Miss Rice--for 
their work on H.R. 4985, the Kingpin Designation Improvement Act, which 
deserves our support.
  In the context of today's floor debate, it is important that we 
discuss the extensive role of Iran's primary regional proxy--
Hezbollah--in the international drug trade.
  Earlier this year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced 
that they have, in cooperation with law enforcement agencies from 7 
other nations, disrupted a global criminal enterprise Hezbollah was 
using to finance its participation in the Syrian conflict, as well as 
to plan for a future war with Israel.
  Unfortunately, this is nothing new. For years, Hezbollah has had 
business connections with South American drug cartels, and has been 
using them to enter the narcotics trafficking business. In 2011 and 
2013, the Department of the Treasury and other agencies designated core 
Hezbollah members and affiliates for engaging in international 
narcotics networks.
  As a result, the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 
2015, which I authored and passed into law in December, required 
specific Administration reporting on Hezbollah's international 
narcotics trafficking networks.
  Unfortunately, once a terrorist organization enters this business, 
they seldom leave. Sanctions relief for Iran as a result of the 
Administration's flawed deal with that regime, and the resulting inflow 
of Iranian money to Hezbollah will not likely cause them to turn away 
from the lucrative drug industry. Rather, it may enable Hezbollah to 
double down on their efforts to finance their destructive regional 
activities.
  For example, instead of 150,000 rockets on Israel's northern border, 
Hezbollah could afford to field 300,000, financed by the Iranian regime 
and Hezbollah's trafficking of narcotics into our communities.
  With this in mind, it is important that we have robust Narcotics 
Kingpin Designation Act authorities in place, which this legislation 
ensures. I support the bill.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Marino) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4985.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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