[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 48 (Thursday, March 13, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1739-S1740]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           HALT FENTANYL ACT

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam President, I voted today to oppose cloture to 
end debate on the HALT Fentanyl Act. Our Nation and my State of 
Maryland are experiencing a crisis with synthetic opioids like fentanyl 
and related drugs, and I strongly support action to combat drug 
trafficking and prevent overdoses. We need public health solutions that 
will help American families and our communities, but instead, the bill 
before us could lead to harmful unintended consequences, including 
limiting the potential for less addictive

[[Page S1740]]

pain therapies and treatments like Naloxone that could prevent and 
reverse overdose. It also expands mandatory minimums, which increase 
incarceration but do not reduce crime, and applies them to a broad 
class of drugs regardless of their actual physiological effects, so 
that someone could be incarcerated for a decade or more for drugs that 
are effectively harmless.
  I continue to hope that we will have the opportunity to amend this 
legislation, including with amendments put forward by my colleague 
Senator Booker. However, as we still do not have an agreement to hold 
amendment votes, I voted against cloture to end debate on the bill 
today. I urge my colleagues to work to improve the bill in order to 
address the possible unintended consequences of this legislation so 
instead the bill focuses on tackling dangerous drugs and allows for 
lifesaving research and development of potential treatments.

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