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Floor Speech

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Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, everyone here--everyone here--everybody in the audience, everybody watching on C-SPAN has a loved one or knows of someone whom they have loved who has either overdosed or died, actually, from an overdose of fentanyl--an incredible scourge on our society right now. Drug overdose is the leading cause of death among young adults 18 to 45, and synthetic opioids like fentanyl are 75 percent of the cause, if you will, of U.S. overdose deaths.

Fentanyl continues to kill almost 200 Americans a day--200 Americans a day. Like, today, 200 Americans will die from a fentanyl overdose--an entire generation, dying. Illegal fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances are flooding into our market from the southern border in unprecedented amounts, with the bulk of it originating from a handful of manufacturers in Wuhan Province, China. By the way, you can't help but point out that this is worsened by the Biden administration's complete failure to secure the southern border.

Currently, fentanyl-related substances are classified as schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act. This classification provides law enforcement with the tools necessary to combat this emergency, going after the criminals who, again, are flooding our communities with these deadly drugs. But schedule I classification expires at the end of the year, and that is less than 8 months away.

Now, for years, Congress has not made this classification permanent, and every day we get closer to this deadline, we risk losing this essential law enforcement tool. If we don't act, the chemical manufacturers in China, the cartels, and the criminals who exploit our communities are emboldened, and we must not allow this to happen.

That is why today I am calling on the Senate to pass the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, or the HALT Fentanyl Act, to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as a schedule I controlled substance. Now, the bill is not controversial. There are no poison pills. All it does is codify current law, ensuring we don't lose tools we need to confront the fentanyl epidemic. The House--with as many problems as the House has had passing legislation--passed this bill on a strong bipartisan basis last year.

And the legislation removes barriers that impede the ability of researchers to conduct studies on these substances and allows for exemptions if the research provides evidence that specific analogs of fentanyl have a valid medical purpose. So we give law enforcement tools, but we also give the scientists, the medical scientists, tools to establish whether one of these analogs is worth having for medical purposes.

Now, it is important to note that this week is National Police Week. We honor police officers and their service to our communities. Now, these officers are on the frontlines of the fentanyl crisis, holding criminals accountable, saving lives by preventing the spread of drugs, but at times giving drugs like Narcan to reverse an overdose.

I am proud to say that we have a letter from 11 national law enforcement organizations supporting the HALT Fentanyl Act. And by passing this legislation, we will send a strong message to law enforcement: We have your back. We have your back as you battle the scourge of deadly drugs in our communities.

The clock is ticking. Failure to act puts Americans in harm's way. We must pass this bill and get it to the President's desk for signature.

Mr. President, now, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 467 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, recognizing that there has been an objection, I would like to point out a couple of things, though.

As regards permanently scheduling fentanyl-related substances would do nothing to limit overdoses: Congress has extended fentanyl scheduling on a temporary basis multiple times, and this has led to fewer overdoses and led to the creation of fewer new fentanyl-related substances.

Next, the idea that designating them all as schedule I would limit the ability of researchers to study fentanyl is just not true. There is no indication that the temporary scheduling of fentanyl analogs has stifled research. The DEA, the Drug Enforcement Agency, has approved every research study since 2018. But this bill goes further by putting a robust process in place to study fentanyl. It does not disrupt ongoing things, but it actually creates an expedited process for certain FDA studies to be done in partnership with Federal Agencies.

Lastly, that somehow this would contribute to overincarceration: The bill does not permanently bar DEA or HHS from continuing to look at the risks associated with it. If something has no risk, they can establish it has no risk. Therefore, it would not lead to overincarceration.

But we do know that fentanyl is a dangerous--a dangerous--substance, and if we are concerned about the overincarceration of a certain population of our society, I can guarantee you that that population, like every population, is having people dying today from fentanyl overdose; that whichever group of Americans we are speaking of, they are losing someone today from fentanyl; and that this bill would help save a life in that particular group and, most importantly, in all groups.

With that, though, recognizing there is an objection, I yield the floor.

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