Senators Promote Sanctions Bill to Fight Fentanyl
The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing Jan. 11 to renew its push for congressional passage of the Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act, which would use sanctions and anti-money laundering measures to counter the illicit fentanyl supply chain that is blamed for tens of thousands of American deaths annually.
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The bill received support from the hearing’s three witnesses: Grammy-nominated country singer Jason “Jelly Roll” DeFord; Christopher Urben, a retired official at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; and Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police.
"Americans are dying every day, and at a staggering rate," said DeFord, a former drug dealer. "The essential truth is that enacting legislation to combat the supply and distribution of fentanyl will save lives."
"We must reduce the loss of life through vigorous interdiction of the drug supply train, relentless pursuit of the dealers, cartels, and suppliers, greater availability of [overdose treatment] naloxone to law enforcement and emergency responders, as well as passing the FEND Off Fentanyl Act," Yoes said. "We need every tool in our toolbox to get a handle on this deadly epidemic."
The bill was included in the Senate version of the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in July (see 2307280052), but it did not make it into the final NDAA that Congress passed in December {see 2312070054). Banking Committee members, including Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Ranking Member Tim Scott, R-S.C., urged the House to pass the fentanyl bill.
“I certainly hope that my friends in the House are paying attention” to the hearing, Scott said. The fentanyl bill “not already being law is a travesty.”
The U.S. has sanctioned Mexican cartels (see 2312060032) for making fentanyl with Chinese precursor chemicals and then smuggling the powerful drug into the U.S. Brown said Chinese entities also help the cartels launder proceeds from their fentanyl trafficking.
The FEND Off Fentanyl Act would require the president to sanction transnational criminal organizations and key cartel members engaged in international fentanyl trafficking. It would also make the proceeds of traffickers’ forfeited, sanctioned property available for law enforcement operations, and it would require the Treasury Department to prioritize identifying fentanyl-related financial transactions.
“On this committee, our purview … is often money,” Brown said. The fentanyl bill would “use that authority to hit the cartels and chemical suppliers directly where it hurts: their bank accounts.”