[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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