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The Temporary Reauthorization and Study of the Emergency Scheduling of Fentanyl Analogues Act (S.

Floor Speech

Date: Feb. 6, 2020
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Health and Health Care Drugs Legislative Branch

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to S. 3201, The Temporary Reauthorization and Study of the Emergency Scheduling of Fentanyl Analogues Act.

Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have caused tens of thousands of deaths in recent years and Congress has an obligation to continue to offer solutions to this ongoing public health crisis. Unfortunately, the measures taken in S. 3201 go too far in expanding mandatory minimum sentencing and would place further burdens on our already-strained criminal justice system.

S. 3201 extends the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) ``class- wide'' scheduling of fentanyl-related substances, causing more individuals to be prosecuted seeking burdensome and ineffective mandatory minimum sentences. This expansion of DEA authority raises civil liberty concerns and has the potential of reversing meaningful criminal justice reform.

In 2018, I was proud to vote in favor of the First Step Act (P.L. 115-391), bipartisan reform that overwhelmingly passed Congress and was eventually signed into law. Among other things, this bill addressed the growing bipartisan consensus that mandatory minimums are unsustainably costly and counterproductive. Rather than building on this success, S. 3201 expands outdated mandatory minimum sentences even for those caught with trace amounts of illicit fentanyl-related substances. This issue is particularly burdensome because according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, roughly 85 percent of individuals charged with trafficking fentanyl were unaware that that they were in fact in possession of the illegal substance.

All levels of government must continue to strive towards removing illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances from our communities. However, any legislation that addresses this issue cannot simply overcorrect the problem and must instead form a sustainable drug enforcement strategy.

Madam Speaker, I urged my colleagues to vote against The Temporary Reauthorization and Study of the Emergency Scheduling of Fentanyl Analogues Act.

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