[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 74 (Thursday, April 29, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2323-S2324]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   EXTENDING TEMPORARY EMERGENCY SCHEDULING OF FENTANYL ANALOGUES ACT

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, we are in the midst of the worst opioid 
epidemic in a generation, and one tragic aspect of this is the 
widespread use of fentanyl, a deadly opioid that has killed thousands 
of people in America.
  In 2018, the Drug Enforcement Administration took the unprecedented 
step of placing all fentanyl-related substances, also known as fentanyl 
analogs, on schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act. That makes 
it easier to prosecute any individual who sells or even simply 
possesses fentanyl analogs, and it subjects those individuals to stiff 
mandatory minimum penalties regardless of individual circumstances. 
Typically, a drug is only added to schedule I after the Department of 
Health and Human Services conducts a scientific study to determine if 
it has a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use.
  The DEA has had the temporary authority to bypass this process for 2 
years. The authority was scheduled to expire on February 6 of last 
year, 2020. The DEA warned us of the dire consequences if it expired. 
In response, I worked with Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Feinstein 
and authored legislation extending the authority for 15 months, until 
May 6, 2021.
  So what did the Trump administration do for the 12 months that it was 
in office with this issue still looming? Nothing and neither did 
Congress.
  Now the Biden administration has asked Congress for an additional 
extension of the DEA's temporary authority in order to evaluate this 
issue. Just last week, the Senate confirmed Lisa Monaco as Deputy 
Attorney General. She will oversee the Drug Enforcement Administration. 
President Biden's nominee to head the DEA, Anne Milgram, is still to be 
considered by the Senate, so this request now for a temporary extension 
seems reasonable.
  Let me add, though, at the same time as we grapple with the opioid 
epidemic, we are also in the midst of a national reckoning about racism 
and massive incarceration in America. We hold more prisoners, by far, 
than any country in the world. This is largely due to our failed War on 
Drugs, which has disproportionately targeted people of color. While the 
majority of illegal drug users and drug dealers in our country is 
White, the vast majority of

[[Page S2324]]

people incarcerated for drug offenses is African American or Latino. 
That is a fact.
  More than three decades ago--and I remember this well as I served in 
the House at the time--Congress responded to the dramatic rise in the 
use of crack cocaine by dramatically increasing sentences for 
nonviolent drug offenders; for example, with a sentencing guideline for 
crack cocaine as compared to powder cocaine of 100 to 1. Well, that was 
it. We were going to get tough. We were going to send a message. It 
didn't work. The overall use of illegal drugs actually increased after 
we increased these penalties between 1990 and 2014, and the 
availability of drugs like heroin and methamphetamine, instead of going 
down, increased.
  Senator Cory Booker is the chair of the Criminal Justice and 
Counterterrorism Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary. He has brought 
these concerns to the floor of the Senate time and again. I was proud 
to join him as well as Senator Grassley and Senator Lee. We authored 
the FIRST STEP Act to begin reforming our criminal justice system from 
the previous effort with our War on Drugs.
  Senator Booker has raised serious concerns about extending the DEA's 
order when it comes to these fentanyl analogs. For example, he notes 
the significant racial disparity in fentanyl analog prosecutions. 
People of color comprise 68 percent of those being sentenced. He also 
notes that addiction is, in fact, a public health crisis and that we 
cannot prosecute ourselves out of the opioid epidemic, a lesson we 
should have learned with the War on Drugs.
  So there is an important debate to be had about how to effectively 
combat the abuse of fentanyl, but we cannot resolve it today on the 
floor of the Senate. The DEA's authority is scheduled to expire next 
week, and we will be gone. Last week, the House passed a bill extending 
the scheduling order until October 22. Senator Booker has agreed not to 
object to the House bill so that the Senate will have an opportunity to 
debate the future of this DEA authority and consider other important 
reforms to our criminal justice system.
  Mr. President, at this point, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 2630, which was received 
from the House and is at the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 2630) to amend the Temporary Reauthorization 
     and Study of the Emergency Scheduling of Fentanyl Analogues 
     Act to extend until October 2021, a temporary order for 
     fentanyl-related substances.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read 
a third time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill was ordered to a third reading and was read the third time.
  Mr. DURBIN. I know of no further debate on the bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there further debate?
  If not, the bill having been read the third time, the question is, 
Shall the bill pass?
  The bill (H.R. 2630) was passed.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or 
debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________