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Agency Budget Summary
Department of the Treasury
Treasury Forfeiture Fund
I. Resource Summary
Note: Drug Resource personnel are reported directly to ONDCP by each of the Treasury law enforcement bureau.
II. Methodology
- The drug control percentage has been adjusted as a result of a line-by-line review of the drug-related spending from the Fund. A weighted average was calculated and appears in the figures above.
III. Program Summary
- The TFF supports Goal 2, "Increase the safety of America's citizens by substantially reducing drug-related crime and violence," and Goal 4: Shield America's air, land, and sea frontiers from the drug threat:
- Asset Management Expenses. These include expenses incurred in connection with the seizure, inventory, appraisal, packaging, movement, storage, maintenance, security, and disposition (including destruction) of assets.
- Other Asset Specific Expenses. These include case-specific expenses incurred in connection with normal proceedings undertaken to perfect the United States' interest in seized property through forfeiture. Such expenses include fees and other costs ofadvertising, translation, court reporting, expert witness fees, courtroom exhibit services, travel, and subsistence related to a specific proceeding, and other related items. Also included are payments of qualified third party interests, such as expenses incurred in the payment of valid liens, mortgages, and ownership interests pursuant to court order or a favorable ruling on a petition for remission or mitigation of the forfeiture.
- Equitable Sharing Payments. These include distributions of the net proceeds (after recovering direct costs) of forfeitures to foreign governments and to state and local law enforcement agencies in proportion to the degree of their direct participation in the law enforcement effort that resulted in the forfeiture.
- Program Management Expenses. These include expenses incurred in carrying out forfeiture program responsibilities that are not related to any one specific asset or to any one specific seizure or forfeiture (e.g., audits and evaluations). Also included are expenses of forfeiture related automated data processing; contracting for services directly related to the processing of and accounting for assets and forfeiture cases; and certain other management-related expenses.
- Investigative Expenses. These include certain specific expenses incurred in support of, or in furtherance of criminal investigations.
- Other Uses. These include payments under the permanent indefinite portion of the fund for overtime salaries, travel, fuel, training, equipment, and similar costs incurred by state or local law enforcement officers in a joint law enforcement operation with a federal law enforcement agency participating in the fund.
Goal 2: Increase the safety of America's citizens by substantially reducing drug-related crime and violence.
- Federal, state and local law enforcement task forces are supported to fight criminal activity related to drugs and violence.
- Investigations and intelligence gathering efforts are supported which lead to seizures and forfeitures of assets obtained through sales of illegal drugs.
Goal 4: Shield America's air, land, and sea frontiers from the drug threat.
- Multilateral intelligence sharing with other governments regarding drug-related international money laundering has been supported by the TFF.
- Interdiction efforts supported by the TFF are those conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard in vessel seizures in conjunction with the U.S. Customs Service.
IV. Budget Summary
1999 Program
- Drug control resources of the TFF total $158.0 million in FY 1999. This budget is devoted almost exclusively to increasing the safety of America's citizens by substantially reducing drug-related crime and violence. A small amount of the total budget supports activities that shield America's air, land, and sea frontiers from the drug threat.
2000 Request
- The total drug control budget request is $228.0 million.
- A total of $141.9 million in Super Surplus funding is anticipated to be available in FY 2000 for Treasury law enforcement bureaus. The proposed distribution of projected Super Surplus funds in FY 2000:
- $35.0 million for the U.S. Customs Service
- $76.5 million for the U.S. Secret Service
- $20.9 million for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
- $5.5 million for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
- $3.0 million for the Department-wide Systems and Capital Investment Programs.
- $1.0 million for the Internal Revenue Service
V. Program Accomplishments
- Reimbursing proper expenses of seizure and forfeiture, sharing funds with state and local law enforcement agencies, and managing the resources of the fund constitute the main achievements of the TFF. These achievements apply mostly to the investigations into money laundering and illegal drug activity conducted within the United States.
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