Chairman Goodlatte Statement at Markup of H.R. 4985, the "Kingpin Designation Improvement Act of 2016"

Chairman Goodlatte: Nearly 21 years ago, the President issued an Executive Order to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to our national security, foreign policy, and economy posed by narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia.  The actions of these narcotics traffickers produced an extreme level of violence, corruption and harm in the United States and abroad. The following year, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued the Narcotics Trafficking Sanctions Regulations, which implemented that Executive Order.  These Regulations blocked the property and interests in property in the United States, or in the possession or control of U.S. persons of anyone determined to be a specially designated narcotics trafficker. After OFAC had demonstrated its success in using its authorities under the Executive Order, Congress decided that similar authorities should be used worldwide.  Congress passed the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (the “Kingpin Act”).  On December 3, 1999, the President signed into law the Kingpin Act which applied the same types of authority that were previously used against Columbian narcotics traffickers to traffickers worldwide. The names of persons and entities designated pursuant to the Kingpin Act, whose property and interests in property are therefore blocked, are published in the Federal Register and incorporated into the list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List). The SDN List is available through OFAC’s web site.  Whenever OFAC makes a designation, the list is updated and distributed in various forms to banks and financial institutions. Since June 2000, OFAC has designated more than 1,800 persons under the Kingpin Act, all of whom are non-U.S. persons.  Listed individuals are permitted to seek removal of the OFAC sanctions via a “de-listing” process and challenge adverse findings in federal court. OFAC’s designations, under both the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Kingpin Act, are often based upon classified information.  Under IEEPA, OFAC is permitted to submit such information ex parte and in camera to a court.  However, the Kingpin Act does not contain such a mechanism to protect classified information from release during a “de-listing” process.  That means OFAC may lose the opportunity to designate a high-level drug kingpin because it cannot risk the disclosure of classified information. H.R. 4985 would address this issue by ensuring that OFAC can submit classified information to defend its designations ex parte and in camera, thereby harmonizing the Kingpin Act with the OFAC authorities under IEEPA and protecting classified information from disclosure. Such protections are critical to defend the Kingpin Actdesignations based upon classified information. I urge my colleagues to support this important measure. For more on today’s markup, click here.