[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 130 (Thursday, July 27, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3737-S3738]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FEND OFF FENTANYL ACT

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise tonight to speak about important 
legislation that was included in the National Defense Authorization Act 
tonight and something that will help us fight the scourge of illicit 
fentanyl in the United States of America.
  An urgent public health crisis is gripping our State and many other 
parts of the United States. I want to thank my colleagues Senator Scott 
from South Carolina and Senator Brown from Ohio for their leadership on 
the bipartisan legislation known as the FEND Act that was included in 
tonight's legislation.
  The fentanyl crisis is having a direct and dire impact on families in 
the State of Washington and all throughout the United States. In the 
past 12 months, more than 65,000 Americans have died by overdosing on 
synthetic opioids like fentanyl. That is why it is so important that, 
tonight, included in this legislation is the FEND Act, and that is part 
of a response that we need to have to take this national crisis 
seriously.
  This legislation declares the international trafficking of fentanyl, 
and its precursors needed to make it, a national emergency. This gives 
the President and us the focus that we need to fight, as it says in the 
legislation, ``an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national 
security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.''
  Mr. President, a crisis of this magnitude demands a robust Federal 
response, and that is why this legislation provides the President with 
new tools to stop the illicit fentanyl flooding our borders and those 
who are trying to transport it into our country.
  First, the new tools in this legislation are sanctions targeting 
transnational criminal organizations and foreigners engaged in 
international fentanyl trafficking. The bill specifically calls out 
eight known cartels in Mexico, which means that Treasury can 
investigate suspicious activities involved here and declare sanctions. 
It recognizes that these traffickers, once identified, can have 
sanctions imposed and can have forfeiture of their property.
  Recognizing that fentanyl production is not simply these entities but 
also diverse networks of players, this legislation helps us go after 
those. Sanctions will enable the U.S. Government to try to disrupt the 
flow of this product: the distributors, the brokers, the wholesalers, 
the retailers, the sellers of precursors--anyone who is involved in 
trafficking these deadly pills can now be targeted.
  Second, the Senate-passed legislation goes after financial 
institutions that participate in fentanyl-related money laundering. 
Once caught, property forfeited by international fentanyl traffickers 
can be used by the Department of Justice and State and local law 
enforcements to help participate in additional investigations, and this 
legislation also empowers Treasury to use special measures to pursue 
fentanyl-related and other types of drug laundering activity. For 
example, a foreign financial institution engaged in fentanyl-related 
money laundering, it can impose restrictions on those banks and U.S. 
banks doing business with those foreign entities.
  So the bottom line is there are new tools. Once this legislation 
makes it to the President's desk and through the finish of our 
colleagues working together on a final House and Senate NDAA package, 
it will give the U.S. Government Agencies more tools to disrupt the 
illicit fentanyl trafficking and the supply chains that exist 
internationally.
  Severely penalizing those engaged in fentanyl trafficking is just one 
step. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, my 
State, Washington, experienced the single highest increase among U.S. 
States in reported drug overdoses last year--an increase of more than 
21 percent.

  Hundreds of traumatized families that will never be the same, 
thousands of first responders struggling to cope with this daily 
tragedy that they respond to--the statistics are stunning, but they are 
also just very tragic. Sometimes it is hard to even listen to the 
stories, but I have been going around my State listening to people 
affected by this crisis and talking to those in my State about the 
opportunities to do something--the heart-wrenching stories of 
individuals who have been impacted by this: a mother whose son went off 
to college and just simply didn't come home; a beloved brother who 
fought addiction for years and who got help to kick heroin, got sober, 
and got his life back but then, sadly, succumbed to fentanyl; a woman 
struggling with addiction who realized she needed help but then 
couldn't find a bed available for detox, only to hear, time and time 
again, that such a bed did not exist; a young man who took a single 
pill he thought was Percocet who died from an illicit counterfeit pill 
laced with fentanyl.
  That is why we need legislation. In addition to the FEND Off Fentanyl 
Act, we need to do more with just the supply. In the Tri-Cities, a 
police officer told me that their local task force has already seized 
over 200,000 fentanyl pills this year. Statewide, we have already 
surpassed the number of fentanyl seizures in all of last year. Law 
enforcement in Washington has already seized more than 1.6 million 
fentanyl pills this year compared to a total of 1.3 million in all of 
last year.
  So the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has seized over 379 million 
deadly doses of fentanyl. That was last year. That is more than enough 
supply in the United States. We need to do something now to also aid in 
the stopping and obstruction to make sure that we are preventing this 
from happening in the rest of the United States and to stop it in my 
State of Washington.
  I plan to work with TSA and DEA to make sure that we strengthen the 
laws that allow for the investigation of fentanyl distribution at our 
airports, to make sure that we are tracking the supply and 
investigating and giving our law enforcement any tool that they can use 
to help stop the movement of this product.
  I am also grateful that our colleagues tonight acted in a bipartisan 
way, and I hope they will act in a bipartisan way in the future. There 
are other things that we need to do to stop the cycle of addiction.
  As one doctor told me: We could have access to recovery be as easy as 
access to the drug, but it is not.
  We have heard from people all over the State--from our firefighters, 
from our police officers, from our courts, to our healthcare treatment 
centers--and we have seen unbelievable pilot programs that are being 
used to try to tackle this problem. We have seen fire stations use new 
equipment and first responders so they can quickly get to the scene and 
have the tools in place.
  We have heard from our State and from our healthcare officials like 
Dr. Banta-Green from the University of Washington, who has helped to 
understand and pioneer a program so that people can just walk into a 
facility that is community-based and get access to care and treatment 
immediately. So no more trying to respond every day of where to go or 
having a first responder having to go back to the same place, but 
giving people a place that they can go.
  I hope our colleagues will look at some of these innovative 
prevention

[[Page S3738]]

measures that my State is trying to undertake. I hope that we can work 
in a bipartisan effort to give more tools to DEA, but I hope tonight we 
will be happy that we are now declaring this a national emergency, that 
we have given the President and Treasury and our officials new tools to 
stop the trafficking of this product and to pursue those who are 
involved in it in an aggressive way around the world.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Cantwell). The majority leader.

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