[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1542 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1542
To require a report that identifies each person in the People's
Republic of China and Chinese Government official involved in the
production of fentanyl and its trafficking into the United States, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 5, 2019
Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Suozzi, Mr. Fleischmann, Mr.
Green of Tennessee, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Lipinski, Miss Gonzalez-Colon of
Puerto Rico, and Mr. Ratcliffe) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to
the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require a report that identifies each person in the People's
Republic of China and Chinese Government official involved in the
production of fentanyl and its trafficking into the United States, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Combating Illicit Fentanyl Act of
2019''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) America's overdose epidemic is spreading
geographically, is increasing across all demographic groups and
the sharp increase in drug overdose deaths in the United States
between 2015 to 2016 was fueled by a surge in illicit fentanyl,
a highly potent drug about 80 to 100 times as strong as
morphine by weight and is 30 to 40 times stronger than heroin
by weight, as well as fentanyl-related compound analogue
overdoses.
(2) Fentanyl began to appear on United States streets in
the early 2000s, in recent years it has become a major
international drug control issue as overdose deaths from its
abuse continue to rise, with a spike beginning in 2013.
Foreign-sourced fentanyl killed more Americans in 2016 than all
other illicit drugs, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and
tramadol accounted for more than 29,000 United States drug
overdose deaths in 2017, according to provisional data from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Illicit fentanyl is
not a diverged pharmaceutical product, is illicitly
manufactured, and is clandestinely distributed and integrated
into the illicit drug supply, usually sold as ``heroin'' in
powder form, or as counterfeit opioid or benzodiazepine pills.
(3) In Ocean County, New Jersey, based on data from the
Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, in 2014, 10 percent of all
overdose deaths had fentanyl in their systems, and by 2018 that
number had risen to 80 percent.
(4) The Drug Enforcement Administration reports that of the
illicit fentanyl class substances and hundreds of other
designer drugs it has identified, ``the vast majority . . . are
manufactured in China''. In 2018, a year-long congressional
probe found that illicit fentanyl could easily be bought online
from Chinese ``labs'' and mailed to the United States due to
gaps in oversight in the United States Postal Service, and
despite increased cooperation between United States and Chinese
counter-narcotics agencies, illicit fentanyl is still shipped
to the United States.
(5) According to written testimony submitted to Congress by
the RAND Corporation, regulatory capacity in China is
inadequate to effectively police its expansive pharmaceutical
and chemical industries, and according to the United States-
China Economic and Security Review Commission, corrupt
practices among local officials limit the effectiveness of
regulations and allows criminal actors to facilitate the
fentanyl trade.
(6) In June 2018, $1,700,000 worth of Chinese fentanyl was
detected by counternarcotics agents in a Philadelphia port
during a routine inspection, China has publicly gone to great
lengths to shirk responsibility for illicit fentanyl emanating
out of the country, and in June 2018, Chinese official Liu
Yuejin blamed the crisis on the American people, saying ``When
fewer and fewer Americans use fentanyl, there would be no
market for it'', ignoring the Chinese supply of the illicit
substance, and China fails to effectively regulate precursor
chemicals, including fentanyl precursors.
(7) According to Dr. Daniel Ciccarone's street-based
research, fentanyl lacks a lingo or slang, indicating that this
is more of a supply than a demand issue and its intentional use
is far outweighed by non-intentional use. On September 6, 2018,
at a hearing before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and
International Organizations, expert private witnesses from
diverse professional and academic backgrounds all concurred
that China can do more to stem the flow of fentanyl.
(8) According to the United Nations General Assembly, the
drug trade poses a threat to ``development, peace and security
and human rights'', and the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime (the Palermo Convention), a
multilateral treaty against transnational organized crime
including in the realm of narcotics signed and ratified by
China which entered into force in 2003, obligates States
Parties to ``ensure effective action by its authorities in the
prevention, detection and punishment of the corruption of
public officials''.
(9) Combating illicit fentanyl is a top priority of the
Trump Administration and the President has called it
``outrageous'' that fentanyl comes from China. The Trump
Administration has both highlighted China's role in the crisis
and targeted Chinese manufacturers and traffickers, and at an
August 16, 2018, cabinet meeting, President Trump directed then
Attorney General Sessions to step up efforts to stem inflows of
fentanyl from China.
(10) Statewide in New York, the number of fentanyl related
deaths increased by nearly 160 percent from 2015 to 2016. In
April 2018, in Suffolk County, New York, Federal agents seized
more than 90 lbs of fentanyl and heroin with $10,000,000 street
value, the largest opioid bust in Suffolk County history to
date.
(11) At the 2018 G20 summit in Buenos Aires, China had
agreed to tighten fentanyl controls. However, there has not yet
been demonstratable and sustained evidence of commitment.
SEC. 3. REPORT.
(a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of State
and the Secretary of the Treasury shall jointly submit to the
appropriate congressional committees a report that identifies each
person in the People's Republic of China and Chinese Government
official involved in the production of fentanyl and its trafficking
into the United States.
(b) Form.--The report required by subsection (a) shall be submitted
in unclassified form, but may contain a classified annex.
(c) Appropriate Congressional Committees Defined.--In this section,
the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(1) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on
Financial Services, and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of
the House of Representatives; and
(2) the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation, and the Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate.
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the President should impose financial sanctions under
the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701
et seq.) against each person and government official identified
in the report required by section 3;
(2) the President should impose sanctions under section
1263(b) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2017 (22 U.S.C. 2656 note) against each person and
government official identified in the report required by
section 3 that meet the criteria under paragraph (3) or (4) of
section 1263(a) of such Act;
(3) the President should impose financial sanctions
pursuant to section 805 of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin
Designation Act (21 U.S.C. 1904) against each person and
government official identified in the report required by
section 3; and
(4) the President should exclude each person and government
official identified in the report required by section 3 as
ineligible for visas or admission to the United States pursuant
to section 212(a)(2)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act
(8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2)(C)).
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