Schumer Pushes Fentanyl Interdiction Bill in Senate
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on April 11 pushed bipartisan legislation, the International Narcotics Trafficking Emergency Response by Detecting Incoming Contraband with Technology (INTERDICT) Act, which would provide CBP with more tools and resources to detect and seize fentanyl shipped through mail and express carriers, his office said in a statement (here). Overseas labs making the synthetic opioids are taking advantage of CBP’s “limited capabilities” to screen international packages, it said. Suppliers of the drug often mislabel shipments or conceal them in legitimate goods to avoid CBP detection, the statement says. Schumer highlighted the March-introduced legislation in a speech in Schenectady, and noted that Mexico and China are major sources for fentanyl and fentanyl precursor chemicals, respectively.
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The bill would ensure that CBP has “additional” portable chemical screening devices at ports of entry and express consignment facilities, and more fixed chemical screening devices in CBP labs, and would authorize a $15 million appropriation for hundreds of new screening devices, lab equipment, facilities and support personnel. CBP has had difficulty in ascertaining the source and danger of illicit materials it encounters, but the agency has had success in identifying illicit drug shipments through high-tech hand-held chemical screening devices, according to the statement. “The devastation these drugs cause is not a partisan issue, and I’ll be fighting hard to get my colleagues on board to get this bill through the Senate,” Schumer said. The bill sits in the Senate Homeland Security Committee.