Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 467. I have deep concerns with the partisan approach my Republican colleagues have taken on this bill and the harmful implications it would have on our communities if adopted.
The substance-use and overdose crisis impacts all our communities, and the American people deserve bipartisan solutions that address both public safety and public health. This bill fails on both fronts and simply continues the status quo, allowing opioid use disorder and the overdose crisis to continue to devastate American families across the Nation.
In 2018, the Drug Enforcement Administration first issued a temporary classwide scheduling order of fentanyl-related substances under schedule I, the strictest classification for drugs. Congress has voted to extend the temporary order multiple times, most recently in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023.
Despite this action over the last 4 years, overdoses have not gone down, and we have, unfortunately, not made a dent in the incidence of opioid use disorders. Fentanyl and synthetic opioids continue to flood into the country. In testimony before our committee, the DEA administrator noted the DEA seized more than 50 million fake pills and 10,000 pounds of fentanyl in 2022.
In other words, the HALT Fentanyl Act is a partisan distraction from the hard, bipartisan work that actually has to be done to address a longstanding, intractable problem that faces our communities.
We lost over 100,000 people in 2022 to overdoses. This is one of the biggest public health crises our Nation has ever faced, and now is not the time for a partisan approach. Now is the time for comprehensive bipartisan work.
Democrats stand ready to work with Republicans on addressing the fentanyl crisis. We stand ready to work on permanent scheduling, so long as it is carefully designed to avoid exacerbating inequities in our criminal justice system.
In committee, Democrats offered amendments to improve the HALT Fentanyl Act. We asked that Republicans consider additions to the bill that reflect the Biden administration's commonsense interagency proposal. The proposal would permanently schedule FRS but establish a set of guardrails that promote a scientific and equitable approach. The administration's proposal is reflected in bipartisan legislation that was introduced by Representatives Pappas, Gonzales, and Newhouse and includes an off-ramp to allow for expedited descheduling of FRS that are found to be either inert or have medical applications. There is already evidence that at least one FRS could have potential applications for reversing overdoses, similar to naloxone, and we must provide for such substances to be rapidly descheduled.
The Biden administration's proposal also strikes the right balance on public safety by ensuring that permanent scheduling of FRS does not exacerbate existing inequities in our criminal justice system. It eliminates mandatory minimum standards involving FRS unless an offense results in serious bodily injury or death. Instead, the Republican majority has opted to continue failed punitive mandatory minimum sentencing that we know will disproportionately impact communities of color while doing nothing to address the underlying opioid crisis.
Now, as this bill comes to the House floor, Republicans are continuing to refuse to make this legislation better. Almost 90 amendments were filed for consideration on this bill, and Republicans ruled nearly all of them out of order, including the bipartisan Pappas amendment. An amendment from Representative Pettersen of Colorado would have provided the off-ramp for rapid descheduling of FRS that are inert or have medical applications. An amendment offered by Representative Crockett of Texas would have ensured that Federal law does not stand in the way of the use of fentanyl test strips which have proven to reduce overdoses from fentanyl and FRS. Unfortunately, Republicans refused to make any of these commonsense amendments in order, despite the fact that they are clearly germane.
We simply cannot incarcerate our way out of a public health crisis. The HALT Fentanyl Act does not provide any resources for research, prevention, treatment, recovery, or harm reduction. It also does not provide law enforcement or public health agencies with any additional resources to detect and intercept illicit drugs entering the country.
In fact, nearly every House Republican voted in favor of the default on America act, which would inflict devastating cuts that would force communities to lay off thousands of law enforcement officers and first responders, and that is in addition to the significant cuts the default on America act would make to substance use programs that help treat patients in our communities.
The reality is that this bill, paired with Republican efforts to slash vital public health and safety funding, will leave our communities worse off and exacerbate existing inequities in our criminal justice system.
Madam Chair, I can't support the underlying bill in its current form. I encourage my colleagues to oppose it. I hope that at some point we can get back to doing some bipartisan work that will really make a difference in terms of this opioid and fentanyl crisis.
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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Chair, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Delaware (Ms. Blunt Rochester), a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER. Madam Chair, I thank Ranking Member Pallone for yielding me time.
Madam Chair, today, I rise to talk about a public health emergency impacting every corner of our Nation: fentanyl.
As Congress debates the best approach to combating synthetic opioids, what we can all agree on is that every single one of us is impacted. I urge my colleagues to keep our focus on comprehensive and sustainable solutions.
In 2021, in my small State of Delaware, we lost over 500 family members, friends, coworkers, and neighbors to overdoses. Of the more than 500 Delawareans lost to overdose, 80 percent involved fentanyl. Those numbers, unfortunately, are poised to get worse.
As the former deputy secretary of health and social services in Delaware, my career has made me look at these challenges through a lens of public health. That is why I was proud to join my colleagues Representative Annie Kuster and Don Bacon in introducing the STOP Fentanyl Overdoses Act.
Our bipartisan bill takes a comprehensive public health approach to reducing fentanyl overdoses by expanding testing, improving data collection and analysis, and expanding treatment for opioid use disorder.
Our approach is supported by a broad and diverse coalition, including the Drug Policy Alliance, American Psychological Association Services, and Partnership to End Addiction.
As we continue to work to combat the fentanyl crisis, an issue that I know we all care deeply about, I hope we will keep a comprehensive public health approach top of mind.
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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Chair, I know the Republicans have a number of speakers, so I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Chair, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Lee).
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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Chair, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Kamlager-Dove).
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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Chair, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne).
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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Chair, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey.
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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Chair, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Hampshire (Ms. Kuster), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Chair, I don't like to disagree with my colleague from Arizona who I respect, but she did say that when the Democrats were in the majority that we didn't address the issue, and that is not accurate.
In fact, last Congress we did pass out of the Energy and Commerce Committee a bipartisan mental health and substance use treatment package, H.R. 7666, which became law as part of the consolidated appropriations bill last December, and that bill, H.R. 7666, that came out of our committee, when it came to the floor of the House, was supported by over 400 Members. Only 20 Members didn't vote for it, and it was later signed into law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act. That new law includes the MAD Act and the MAiD Act, historic pieces of legislation that ensure medical practitioners are prepared to identify and treat substance use disorders and increase access to medication-assisted treatment, such as buprenorphine.
H.R. 7666 also reauthorized billions of dollars in public health programs that addressed the mental health and substance use crisis, including both the substance use prevention treatment and recovery services block grant and State opioid response grants.
Now, I am not suggesting that this is the end all. Obviously, more needs to be done, but part of what I think you are hearing from the Democratic side of the aisle today is that this legislation on the floor doesn't really deal with all these things. It doesn't deal with treatment. It doesn't deal with the border. It doesn't deal with law enforcement and more resources to address the fentanyl crisis.
We believe that a law that is going to really make a difference would do that, and that is the reason that we are saying that this bill that is before us, the HALT Fentanyl Act, really doesn't do anything because it just says that it is going to be in schedule I beyond 2024.
Right now, you already have synthetic fentanyl scheduled in I until the end of next year, and we haven't really seen any progress with that.
We would like to see a comprehensive approach that takes into account treatment that is a follow up on what we passed in the last Congress.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I just want to correct the record, or at least set the record straight, on what the DEA and the Biden administration are saying. I heard what my colleague on the committee said, but I want you to understand that no one on our side of the aisle, certainly not the Biden administration or the DEA, is saying that we should get rid of the current law, which says that synthetic fentanyl is on schedule I. That is the case now. We have extended it many times. As the gentlewoman said, it is actually extended until December of 2024.
What the Biden administration, in conjunction with the DEA, is saying is that before you go ahead and permanently extend, that you should look at some of the other things that we have talked about on the Democratic side of the aisle. In other words, they say, in this task force from the administration with the DEA, that there is a real possibility that research will find that there are synthetic fentanyl substances that might actually help deal with the crisis and reverse an overdose in certain circumstances.
What they recommend is that we have an off-ramp to ensure that substances that are deemed to have a potential medical application are not improperly classified. If you pass this permanently, then you have to pass another law in order to take something off the list.
Also, they are not recommending that we have mandatory minimum incarceration involving synthetic fentanyl unless an offense results in serious bodily injury or death. This is what some of my colleagues on the Democratic side are saying, that incarceration, mandatory minimum sentencing, is not the answer. We know it hasn't been for years with other drugs, as well.
In addition to that, there should be funding to deal with the research, funding to deal with treatment, funding for law enforcement so they can prevent more fentanyl from coming into the country. None of that is included in this bill.
I just don't want my colleagues on the other side to misrepresent what DEA or what the Biden administration are saying. We all understand the nature of this crisis. We don't think that this bill is going to do anything to change that, because it just basically extends the status quo and doesn't do anything for all of these other things that have been mentioned on the Democratic side.
I think it is really important for you to understand where we are coming from on this. We don't disagree with putting this on schedule I, but we want to see a comprehensive approach, because what we are doing now has failed.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume to close.
The point that I have been trying to make and my colleagues have been trying to make on this side of the aisle is that Republicans continue to push punitive and partisan policies with regard to the opioid crisis rather than real solutions to address the substance abuse crisis, strengthen border security, or fix our immigration system.
The partisan HALT Fentanyl Act would not meaningfully address substance abuse. It would simply result in more incarceration.
This bill takes a one-sided approach by only requiring permanent class-wide scheduling of fentanyl-related substances in an attempt to incarcerate our way out of a public health crisis.
By contrast, the Biden administration has put forth an interagency proposal, which I have discussed, to permanently schedule synthetic fentanyl within schedule I without exacerbating existing sentencing disparities and inequities in our criminal justice system, as well as creating an off-ramp to remove or reschedule these substances shown to have medical or therapeutic value.
Now, I know that we hear from the other side: What have you done? What are you doing?
Well, the bottom line is that the Biden administration has taken aggressive action to combat the overdose epidemic. Congress and the administration should be working together on a bipartisan solution to address the fentanyl crisis, but the Republicans are threatening a default crisis right now that would seriously undermine these efforts.
Last year, the Biden administration announced its inaugural National Drug Control Strategy which expands access to lifesaving interventions, like naloxone and buprenorphine, while providing additional resources to law enforcement agencies to intercept illegal drugs.
To support this strategy and address illicit fentanyl, President Biden has called on Congress to make a historic investment of $46 billion in funding for efforts to reduce the supply of illicit fentanyl and stop drug trafficking, as well as expand access to treatment and prevention to reduce overdose deaths across the country.
Now, at the same time, Republicans are threatening a default crisis unless Democrats go along with their drastic cuts that would seriously undermine our ability to combat the fentanyl and opioid crisis.
According to the administration, the cuts demanded by Republicans would force Border Patrol to ax more than 2,000 agents and drastically reduce funding for the DEA and the FBI. These things are crucial to interdiction and anti-drug-trafficking efforts.
The Republican proposal, the default on America act, would reduce funding for treatment for opioid use disorders resulting in thousands more Americans losing access to treatment and recovery. It would also threaten to take health insurance away from millions of low-income individuals, including those struggling with substance use disorders and the opioid epidemic, and it imposes a cruel and unnecessary work requirement on Medicaid.
Now, all we are trying to say on our side of the aisle is in this war on drugs, mandatory sentencing, incarcerate everybody, has not worked. It didn't work for other drugs. It is not going to work for fentanyl.
At the same time, the Biden administration has put forward a proposal, and it has been put into bill form, the STOP Fentanyl Act, that looks at all of this and tries to increase treatment, tries to increase interdiction and help law enforcement, and tries to do more research to see to what extent we can find uses for synthetic fentanyl that actually will stop, if you will, or prevent overdoses from killing people.
We are just asking for a comprehensive approach. I haven't heard anything from the other side of the aisle that says you are going to do anything more than continue with the current law, which says that we are going to make synthetic fentanyl part of schedule I, which is already the law, at least until the end of next year.
All we are saying is, let's sit down and actually try to come up with something here on a bipartisan basis that is going to make a difference for this fentanyl crisis. What we have done in the past hasn't worked. If we are going to just reduce funding for all of these things, that is certainly not going to work. That is only going to make it worse.
I guess I am just pleading with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: Rethink this. We have the time now to come up with a comprehensive approach that will make a difference here. If you pass this partisan bill, it is going to go nowhere in the Senate, it is not going to become law, and we will have accomplished nothing.
Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill, and let's look for a comprehensive solution along the line of what the President has proposed.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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