H.R. 5918 — Protect Law Enforcement Task Forces Act

This section states congressional findings concerning the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), established in 1982 as the centerpiece of the Attorney General's strategy against transnational organized crime and illicit narcotics using a prosecutor-led, multi-agency approach. The findings describe OCDETF as the largest U.S. anti-crime task force—with over 500 federal prosecutors, 1,200 federal agents, and 5,000 state and local police across 9 regions and 19 strike forces, supported by the OCDETF Fusion Center for intelligence sharing—and highlight its effectiveness, including $524 million in FY2022 seizures and $423 million in FY2023 seizures (nearly offsetting its funding), plus tens of thousands of arrests and hundreds of tons of narcotics seized since inception.

This section directs the Attorney General, acting through the Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF)—prosecutor-led, multi-agency groups established in 1982 to target drug trafficking and organized crime—not later than 180 days after enactment to structure the OCDETF to combat transnational organized crime and reduce illicit narcotics availability by incorporating covered agencies, including the Departments of the Treasury, Homeland Security, Labor, State, and the U.S. Postal Service. It requires the Attorney General, in conjunction with covered agency heads, to submit to specified Senate and House Judiciary, Homeland Security/Governmental Affairs, and Appropriations committees not later than one year after enactment a joint report on OCDETF successes, in unclassified form to the greatest extent possible (with classified annex if necessary) and with the unclassified portion posted on the Department of Justice and covered agencies' public websites. This section sunsets the Act on January 20, 2029.