[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 190 (Friday, December 20, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7267-S7268]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 993

  Ms. MASTO. Mr. President, throughout my career, I have been committed 
to tackling the drug problem in this country and protecting our 
communities. I have passed bills to hold criminals accountable and 
crack down on fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking.
  But I am here today because our work to protect Americans from these 
harmful drugs is far from over. As we continue our work to keep our 
families safe from fentanyl, we must also focus on new drugs that are 
emerging, like xylazine. Drug traffickers have been adding xylazine to 
fentanyl to increase the potency of the drug and to boost their 
profits.
  Its nickname is ``tranq'' because it is an animal tranquilizer, and 
it is surging, unfortunately, across the United States. I have been 
hearing from law enforcement in Nevada about how xylazine is spreading 
to the West. Between the years 2019 and 2022, the number of overdose 
deaths in this country related to xylazine skyrocketed by 276 percent.
  Xylazine can do catastrophic damage to our communities, and, right 
now, it is almost entirely unregulated. We have to get ahead of that. 
That is why I have introduced the bipartisan, bicameral Combating 
Illicit Xylazine Act with Senators Chuck Grassley and Maggie Hassan. 
This bill has the support of over 115 bipartisan Members of Congress in 
both Chambers because it is essential.
  This legislation would make xylazine a schedule III drug and give the 
DEA, or the Drug Enforcement Administration, and local law enforcement 
the resources they need to get it off our streets, while also 
protecting its use as a veterinary tranquilizer for our farmers and 
ranchers.
  Let me stress this again. This legislation also gives our 
veterinarians the ability to still have access to this drug, which they 
need, as a tranquilizer for their animals.
  This is not a partisan issue. We all want to keep our families safe 
from horrific drugs like xylazine. We must act now to pass the 
Combating Illicit Xylazine Act and get this harmful drug out of our 
neighborhoods and out of the hands of our kids so that we can save 
lives.
  So, Mr. President, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding 
rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary 
be discharged from further consideration of S. 993 and the Senate 
proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the Cortez Masto-
Grassley substitute amendment at the desk be agreed to; that the bill, 
as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the 
motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I thank 
Senator Cortez Masto for being such a leader on fighting the opioid 
epidemic. She is on the frontline of conducting that battle against 
this scourge. We are both here on the floor today in an effort to find 
the best solutions for addressing this crisis.
  We lost over 105,000 Americans to overdose last year. That is over 1 
million people in a decade who have died,

[[Page S7268]]

at that pace. And to put this in more concrete terms, we lost more 
Americans in a single year to overdose than in the entirety of the 
Vietnam war or the Korean war--in just 1 year, 105,000 people.
  For every death, we unleash waves of grief and hurt on families and 
communities that lose one of their own. Now, 105,000 deaths is more 
than unacceptable; it is a tragedy. And this epidemic is made worse by 
the scourge of xylazine. The tragedy does call for immediate, full-
scale solutions. Americans need solutions that work.
  In developing those solutions, we must be conscious about any 
unintended consequences, and I am concerned about the unintended 
consequences of passing the Combating Illicit Xylazine Act.
  The bill would require scheduling xylazine under the Controlled 
Substances Act as a schedule III drug. And these schedules are meant to 
create restrictions based on a balance of the substance's legitimate 
medical use and their potential for abuse. It is a balance. And in the 
United States we actually have a process to schedule xylazine and other 
drugs. We have a process that is time tested, that requires the 
Department of Health and Human Services to provide a scientific and 
medical evaluation.
  And as the Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA, has indicated, 
they have already started that process. So instead of waiting for the 
scientific and medical evaluation to be completed, this bill would 
actually require we skip the process and let Congress decide what 
scheduling is the most appropriate.
  But, ultimately, this process is something which I believe has to be 
given due respect. If we schedule this without waiting for the experts, 
this could lead to more people struggling with addiction, having a hard 
time asking for help, and less research into xylazine testing, overdose 
reversal, and treatment.
  So, from my perspective, I just don't think we should be skipping 
over expert recommendations that would help us avoid those unintended 
consequences. And efforts to skip medical and scientific evaluation 
should certainly not be supported by the DEA, working to undercut the 
administration's own health experts in their role in developing a 
scheduling recommendation.
  So there is a tension here that exists between the DEA and between 
our health officials in terms of the processes that we should be using. 
And I understand that part of the justification for a legislative 
solution is to create exemptions for veterinary medicine to avoid 
unnecessary interference in legitimate uses of xylazine. We can do that 
once we have a complete medical and scientific recommendation, and I 
look forward, obviously, to working with my great friend Senator Cortez 
Masto--she is, again, a great leader in this battle against the opioid 
epidemic--to identify the appropriate legislative solution once we have 
obtained that medical recommendation from the medical experts.
  I also look forward to working with the Drug Enforcement 
Administration in making a serious effort to support Americans who are 
struggling with addiction, and that includes increasing access to 
medication treatment, including methadone, for opioid use disorder.
  Senator Cortez Masto and I agree xylazine is dangerous. Our overdose 
epidemic is unacceptable, and we need solutions. I am honored to work 
with Senator Cortez Masto in this fight. We have solutions that we can 
pursue. We need to pass the Support Act Reauthorization. We need to 
give communities the tools to test and respond to substances coming 
into their communities. We need to train and support law enforcement 
and health providers responding to overdose after overdose. We need to 
break down old War on Drug structures that make it nearly impossible 
for Americans to get treatment they need without being criminalized, 
penalized, and stigmatized. But in pursuing these goals, we cannot 
provide solutions that offer the potential of undermining the process 
that has been in place to rely upon medical and scientific evaluation 
and then work in coordination with the Drug Enforcement Agency.
  For that set of reasons, at this time, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Nevada.
  Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, I absolutely respect my colleague 
from Massachusetts and look forward to working with him.
  Let me just put on the record here the concern in why this 
legislation is so necessary. Time is of the essence here. We are 
talking about saving lives.
  Never, ever would we want to undermine the process to move forward, 
but unfortunately, in this case, the process of moving forward is going 
to take, one, time that we know is very bureaucratic; two, the process 
moving forward, if we are to wait for it, does not take into 
consideration our veterinarians, farmers, and ranchers. If we wait for 
the proposal to come forward from the DEA, that proposal will not carve 
out and still allow this particular drug, xylazine, to be utilized by 
our veterinarians and farmers. It will absolutely make it a schedule 
III and take it off completely.
  That is why this legislation was essential. That is why, working with 
our veterinarians and working with the DEA and the entire executive 
branch, we wanted to bring them into this process, without undermining 
that process, to make sure we were doing everything possible to address 
this in a timely manner.
  It is also why, earlier this year, the executive branch issued 
several legislative proposals in its ``Detect and Defeat'' Counter-
Fentanyl Proposal, which was shared with Congress. Those proposals made 
a provision to make xylazine a schedule III drug. That legislation 
proposed to place xylazine in schedule III by the executive branch is 
supported by the entire executive branch, including specifically the 
Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug 
Administration. They have been brought into the process. Those are the 
health experts.
  That is what this is about. The goal was to bring everybody together 
now, to bring all the key stakeholders so we can make this timely 
legislation and move it because time is of the essence if we are to 
save lives. That is why, honestly, many of the veterinarian 
associations across the country, including in Massachusetts, support 
this process. They do not want to be left out.
  If we are to wait for the DEA process to go forward, there is not 
going to be a carve-out for veterinarians to access this drug.
  This was my attempt and Senator Grassley's and so many of us working 
with all the key stakeholders on good legislation that makes sense, 
that is common sense to move forward here. Nobody was left out of the 
process, including the health experts.
  I am disappointed we can't move this today, but I am hopeful, working 
with my colleague from Massachusetts, that we can provide him with the 
necessary information that he is seeking to move this legislation in a 
timely manner. I know he cares about this issue, about saving lives, as 
well.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.