High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Program (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
May 3, 2018 |
| Report Number |
R45188 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Finklea, Kristin M. |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
Drug trafficking is a significant public health and safety threat facing the United States. The
federal government has taken a variety of actions aimed at countering this threat. These have
ranged from giving law enforcement more tools for combatting traffickers to establishing
programs and initiatives to reduce the supply of and demand for illegal drugs. Within the larger
framework of the federal government’s efforts to counter drug trafficking is the High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program. The program supports multiagency activities ranging
from enforcement initiatives involving investigation, interdiction, and prosecution, to drug use
prevention and treatment initiatives.
Congress initially created the HIDTA program through the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 (P.L.
100-690) and permanently authorized it in the Office of National Drug Control Policy
Reauthorization Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-469). The HIDTA program provides assistance to law
enforcement agencies—at the federal, state, local, and tribal levels—operating in areas of the
United States that have been deemed as critical drug trafficking regions. The program is designed
with the county as its geographic unit of inclusion. There are 29 designated HIDTAs in the United
States, cutting across all 50 states, the District Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin
Islands.
The HIDTA program is administered by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
However, each of the HIDTA regions is governed by its own Executive Board, which has the
flexibility to design and implement initiatives that confront the specific drug trafficking threats in
its region. For FY2018, Congress appropriated $280.0 million for the HIDTA program, a 10.2%
increase over the FY2017 appropriation of $254.0 million. Each HIDTA receives a base amount
of funding (ranging from approximately $3.1 million to $14.6 million in FY2017) to support
initiatives in its region, and the remainder is allocated to support specific initiatives throughout
the country.
There are several issues that policymakers may consider when they debate the future of the
HIDTA program. A prevailing issue will be how much funding to provide for the program.
Congress may also choose to exercise oversight and evaluate related issues such as whether the
county is still the appropriate unit of inclusion for the HIDTA, whether the criteria for inclusion
remain adequate, whether the program is effective in accomplishing its goals, whether its
tangential effects can be measured, whether the current bounds on the use of HIDTA funds are
still appropriate, and which federal entity may be best suited to administer the program.
