Preventing the Financing of Illegal Synthetic Drugs Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1076, the Preventing the Financing of Illegal Synthetic Drugs Act sponsored by the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. De La Cruz), a bill that I am pleased to cosponsor and co-lead.

Thanks to collaboration on both sides of the aisle, this bill offers a well-written study focused on the financing and proceeds of the illicit synthetic drug trade that is victimizing communities across the country. By following the money behind the multibillion-dollar drug trade, we are able to understand the traffickers' operations and improve our ability to disrupt their activities.

The effects of this trafficking have been staggering. Deaths involving synthetic opioids, such as illicit fentanyl and methamphetamine, increased by 22 percent in 2021, resulting in the deaths of more than 100,000 of our family members and neighbors. In 2022, there were also nearly 200,000 nonfatal opioid overdoses in the U.S. In 2021, overdose death rates increased 44 percent for Black people and 39 percent for American Indian and Alaska Natives, showing troubling trends and widening disparities among population groups.

Combating the opioid epidemic is one of the reasons why I ran for Congress. Like too many Americans, my family has been impacted by the opioid crisis. My mom's addiction began with the overprescription of opioids, which led to heroin and ultimately fentanyl when it started to take over the drug supply chain in 2016. Unfortunately, my mom's story is not unique in Jefferson County, in Colorado, or in this country.

The opioid epidemic is now more lethal than ever as we continue to see drugs become more and more potent and easier to traffic. It is going to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to stop the flow of fentanyl and other illicit synthetic opioids in this country. Ensuring that we understand the financial networks of drug trafficking organizations is a critical tool that we need to protect American lives.

This bill will not solve all the issues related to the opioid crisis. We need to do more to increase access to substance use disorder treatment and recovery services, and we need to do more to help support the workforce shortages. We need to crack down on social media companies that are permitting the sale of illegal drugs to young Americans, and we need to ensure that the financial system has the tools to quickly identify bad actors and break up their drug trafficking rings.

As a member of the House Financial Services Committee, I advocate for leveraging every financial tool at our disposal to pursue the traffickers of illicit fentanyl and other drugs. In this role, I also advocate for every individual family and community that has suffered or will suffer from misguided antidrug policies' physical, social, and economic damage to have the support that they need.

Thus, I urge my fellow Members to vote for this needed trafficking study bill, but I also urge them to consider that we must take the time to learn the lessons of past epidemics and take further steps to eliminate harmful and counterproductive policies.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative De La Cruz for her collaboration on this bill. Together, we can better understand the financing of drug trafficking and how the traffickers move and hide their proceeds. Doing so will help Congress and other policymakers to better disrupt their operations, protecting innocent Americans from the deadly harm that they cause in communities across the country.

Mr. Speaker, I again urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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