[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 25 (Thursday, February 6, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E146]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE TEMPORARY REAUTHORIZATION AND STUDY OF THE EMERGENCY SCHEDULING OF 
                    FENTANYL ANALOGUES ACT (S. 3201)

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                          HON. BETTY McCOLLUM

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 6, 2020

  Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to S. 3201, The 
Temporary Reauthorization and Study of the Emergency Scheduling of 
Fentanyl Analogues Act.
  Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have caused tens of thousands of 
deaths in recent years and Congress has an obligation to continue to 
offer solutions to this ongoing public health crisis. Unfortunately, 
the measures taken in S. 3201 go too far in expanding mandatory minimum 
sentencing and would place further burdens on our already-strained 
criminal justice system.
  S. 3201 extends the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) ``class-
wide'' scheduling of fentanyl-related substances, causing more 
individuals to be prosecuted seeking burdensome and ineffective 
mandatory minimum sentences. This expansion of DEA authority raises 
civil liberty concerns and has the potential of reversing meaningful 
criminal justice reform.
  In 2018, I was proud to vote in favor of the First Step Act (P.L. 
115-391), bipartisan reform that overwhelmingly passed Congress and was 
eventually signed into law. Among other things, this bill addressed the 
growing bipartisan consensus that mandatory minimums are unsustainably 
costly and counterproductive. Rather than building on this success, S. 
3201 expands outdated mandatory minimum sentences even for those caught 
with trace amounts of illicit fentanyl-related substances. This issue 
is particularly burdensome because according to the U.S. Sentencing 
Commission, roughly 85 percent of individuals charged with trafficking 
fentanyl were unaware that that they were in fact in possession of the 
illegal substance.
  All levels of government must continue to strive towards removing 
illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances from our communities. 
However, any legislation that addresses this issue cannot simply 
overcorrect the problem and must instead form a sustainable drug 
enforcement strategy.
  Madam Speaker, I urged my colleagues to vote against The Temporary 
Reauthorization and Study of the Emergency Scheduling of Fentanyl 
Analogues Act.

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