The current NAFUSA officers and directors met in Washington, D.C. on September
6-7, for their semi-annual Board of Directors meeting. The event was hosted by
King & Spalding, of which NAFUSA President John Richter is a partner, at their
impressive offices on Pennsylvania Avenue. Sixteen directors and staff attended in
person and were treated to amazing views of the Washington Monument from
the penthouse conference room, while several members took advantage of video
conferencing to participate.

The financial report presented by the Executive Director included a summary of
the success of the NAFUSA 2023 conference in Half Moon Bay, California, (HMB)
last April. There were just under 240 registered attendees at the HMB conference,
a record attendance. There was also a record amount of sponsorship money
donated with 30 sponsors contributing a total of $262,500, including a very
generous donation from Guidepost Solutions for the Wednesday night reception.
The feedback about the conference, the programming and the beautiful location
was overwhelmingly positive.

There was considerable discussion of ways to increase NAFUSA membership, both
by recruiting new members from the current administration as they leave office
and by identifying former United States Attorneys who might be receptive to
learning about the many advantages of NAFUSA membership. One of those
advantages is, of course, ability to attend NAFUSA’s annual conferences. In
fact, planning is well underway for the next conference to be held in Oklahoma
City on September 25-27, 2024. As previously reported, the conference will be
held in a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel – the National – which is listed on
the National Register of Historic Places. NAFUSA will have the entire hotel for its
conference! A conference committee was formed at the board meeting, and ideas
and suggestions are always welcome.

At the conclusion of the business portion of the meeting, FBI Director, and lifetime
NAFUSA member, Chris Wray joined the group for informal remarks and a lively
question-and-answer session. After joking that it was a pleasure to be invited to
speak to a friendly audience, Director Wray spoke for several minutes about the
challenges facing the men and women of the FBI, as well as the often-under-reported successes that have been achieved. He also talked about FBI successes in
identifying and preventing domestic terrorism, and on the importance and
difficulty in detecting and preventing international cyber-attacks. The FBI has been
increasing its ranks of technology and cyber experts to address this threat.
Director Wray concluded by describing positive developments regarding FISA and
how crucial the information is to counterterrorism efforts. He praised the internal
audit improvements the Bureau has made and added that the FBI is seeing
positive improvement in reporting by state and locals.

Following Director Wray, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram addressed the board
through video conferencing. Her remarks followed up on her presentation at the HMB
conference with the latest developments on the fentanyl epidemic and DEA’s
efforts to stem the alarming tide of fentanyl distribution and related deaths.
Among other efforts, she described new initiatives focused on two cartels who are
laundering money for Chinese fentanyl manufacturers impacted by the limits
placed by the Chinese government on cash leaving China. DEA has set up illicit
financing teams including IRS agents to target this activity. Administrator
described the integration of the Dept of Treasury into the money laundering focus
against fentanyl distribution as a “game changer.”