Rep. Kustoff Bill to Combat Drug Cartels, Fight Opioid Crisis Passes House

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative David Kustoff (TN-08), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, today applauded unanimous passage of his bill, the National Strategy for Combating the Financing of Transnational Criminal Organizations Act (H.R. 4768). This legislation directs the U.S. Department of Treasury to develop a national strategy for tracking down and eliminating the illicit financial networks of cartels and transnational criminal organizations – groups that are responsible, in large part, for drug trafficking and the escalating opioid epidemic in America.

"With the opioid epidemic sweeping across the nation, it is time to implement a bold strategy for combating the dangerous cartels that traffic drugs into our communities," said Congressman Kustoff. "In order to defeat these criminal organizations, we must track down their financial networks and cut them off at the source. I fought drug trafficking as a U.S. attorney, and now, I will work with President Trump and my colleagues to put an end to the destructive financial crimes committed by transnational criminal organizations."

The Congressman's bill is a response to President Donald Trump's Executive Order 13773 on "Enforcing Federal Law with Respect to Transnational Criminal Organizations and Preventing International Trafficking" which was introduced on February 9, 2017. The Executive Order recognizes that transnational criminal organizations – mostly through transnational drug cartels – have infiltrated our country and continue to threaten American safety and security.

This legislation directs the Treasury Department to work in coordination with the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, State and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and produce a yearly report outlining a strategy for the U.S. government to prevent these financial crimes.

Click here for full bill text.

Congressman Kustoff is a member of the House Financial Services Committee, serving on three subcommittees for the 115th Congress: Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, Oversight and Investigation and Terrorism and Illicit Finance. He previously served as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee under President George W. Bush.