H.R. 4985 would allow the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the Department of the Treasury to submit classified information in certain court cases involving narcotics trafficking in a manner that would protect it from disclosure.
Currently, OFAC has the authority to apply certain sanctions to persons found to have been involved with narcotics trafficking under both the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (the “Kingpin”Act.) In court proceedings involving persons sanctioned under IEEPA, OFAC is permitted to protect certain information from disclosure; for persons sanctioned under the Kingpin Act, OFAC is not permitted to do so.
H.R. 4985 would amend the Kingpin Act to allow OFAC to protect classified information in court proceedings, in the same manner such information is protected under IEEPA. CBO estimates that enacting the bill would have no significant effect on the federal budget because it would have a negligible effect on the workload of the U.S. courts.
Because enacting H.R. 4985 would not affect direct spending or revenues, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 4985 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027.
H.R. 4985 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.
