Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Pallone for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 27. I am here to say this is not business as usual right now in Washington, D.C., or all across the country.

House Republicans are offering this bill as window dressing, Mr. Speaker, to a lot of the illegality that is going on across the agencies that is distracting from the White House's stop work orders and payment freeze orders that have been deemed illegal and have been restrained by Federal courts.

This is a window dressing bill to distract from what is happening to payments with our partner States and nonprofit agencies like Head Start centers, infrastructure projects, and medical research across the country.

This is window dressing to distract us from the incursion into Treasury and Medicare payment systems by an unelected billionaire, Elon Musk, and based on some fake, made-up agency, a so-called Department of Government Efficiency. This is a distraction from the illegal and dangerous purge of law enforcement officers and intelligence agents in other agencies.

Mr. Speaker, this is a way to distract and spin your wheels at a time when Elon Musk has just decided to ride into a congressionally appropriated agency in USAID and just say that we are closed for business, which runs completely counter to the United States Constitution.

Where are the Republicans? The American people are demanding answers. Where are the House Republicans?

Mr. Speaker, your silence is deafening.

Federal courts have issued orders to stop this illegal and dangerous activity, and we are not going to allow these illegal operators to run amuck.

Instead, what are House Republicans doing here today? They are offering a flawed bill to address opioid addiction.

I would say to my good friends and colleagues: Your record does not match your rhetoric because there is a back story that belies what House Republicans are bringing here today. First of all, this bill doesn't get the job done. My providers back home say that this is overbroad and really fails to meet the moment of our opioid addiction crisis.

Here is the back story: The SUPPORT Act was adopted in a bipartisan fashion in 2018. It was the largest congressional investment in overdose prevention at the time, and it directed resources to communities that need it to save lives through community-based treatment and recovery. It required Medicaid to cover medications for opioid use disorder. The SUPPORT Act and everything was broadly successful and appreciated. It was working to help free people from fentanyl addiction.

We have to do so much more, however. That is why in the last Congress we worked together to pass a new and more robust SUPPORT Act to address the third wave of the opioid crisis. However, when it came to the year- end appropriations package that was crafted to include it, who shows up but Elon Musk to throw a wrench into our year-end compromise between Democrats and Republicans to address the opioid crisis through reauthorizing the SUPPORT Act.

The Republicans let him do it. You are allowing it to happen again, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, why didn't Republicans bring the SUPPORT Act to the floor, something that really meaningfully helps families and communities address the opioid addiction crisis and the fentanyl crisis?

Second, by standing by and allowing the White House and the Justice Department to purge FBI agents and CIA personnel, Mr. Speaker, Republicans are taking the cops off the beat who are tracking the drug traffickers who are trying to break up the fentanyl cartels. So Republicans are making us less safe and are heaping a lot of costs on families that just don't need this chaos.

Third, Mr. Speaker, Republicans have this sneaky and chaotic halt to the flow of healthcare dollars back home, medical research and NIH. Medicaid, we know from all of the reporting, is on Republicans' chopping block. Medicaid is the backbone to providing healthcare and substance abuse treatment for people all across America. Mr. Speaker, Republicans have that in their sights, too.

Tell me whose record doesn't match their rhetoric. I would say it is the House Republicans. No one has the legal authority to turn Treasury payments into means of political retribution. No one in the executive branch has the authority to cancel or ignore congressional appropriations. That is a basic constitutional precept.

Why do Republicans serve in Congress if they want to be a royal subject to a king rather than a Representative of the Article I branch?

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this simply is not business as usual today. They bring a bill, H.R. 27, in an effort to paper over the crisis that is going on out there.

Mr. Speaker, I just have to ask my Republican colleagues, because we have so few opportunities to do it in public officially, where is your backbone? Where is your backbone to stand up for Article I and tell the executive branch they are not allowed to destroy agencies that have been constitutionally and congressionally funded?

The Republicans can't allow some made-up department to come in and steal away an agency that we have authorized. Where is your courage?

This bill is also such a diversion from what we should be doing, which is funding opioid-use addiction. They can bring H.R. 27 and say it is the be-all and end-all, but everyone has weighed in to say it doesn't get the job done.

Don't take it from me. Take it from the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the doctors and counselors who treat our neighbors who suffer from addiction. They say, on behalf of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, which is a national medical specialty representing more than 8,000 physicians and associated health professionals who specialize in the prevention and treatment of addiction, they write to urge that the amendments to mitigate the unintended negative consequences be added.

In the end, though, they said, if you are not going to allow us to offer real amendments to fix the bill, they recommend not passing the HALT Fentanyl Act. They say it just preserves the deadly status quo.

However, what do they say in the end? They say they support the SUPPORT Act for patients and communities. That was the agreement at year-end, which Republicans let Elon Musk pull out of the year-end appropriations package.

Republicans shouldn't come today and say, oh, we are solving this problem when they are now complicit in doing it.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from the American Society of Addiction Medicine. American Society of Addiction Medicine, February 3, 2025. RE Halt Lethal Trafficking (HALT) Fentanyl Act Hon. Chuck Grassley, Chairman, Judiciary Committee, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Hon. Richard Durbin, Ranking Member, Judiciary Committee, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Hon. Buddy Carter, Chairman, Subcommittee on Health Energy and Commerce Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Diana DeGette, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Health Energy and Commerce Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Grassley, Ranking Member Durbin, Chairman Carter, and Ranking Member DeGette: On behalf of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), a national medical specialty society representing more than 8,000 physicians and associated health professionals who specialize in the prevention and treatment of addiction, I write to urge amendments to the Halt Lethal Trafficking (HALT) Fentanyl Act to mitigate unintended negative consequences and encourage further Congressional action to address the demand side of our national addiction and overdose crisis.

Opioid overdose deaths are always tragic, especially because they are preventable with evidence-based addiction prevention, treatment, and overdose reversal medications. Even through drug overdose deaths dropped last year, the United States (US) has far to go in ending our national addiction and overdose crisis. We still rank highest in drug overdose deaths per capita in the world.

Illicitly manufactured, high-potency synthetic opiods, including fentanyl, are key drivers of overdose deaths in the US. Therefore, policies aiming to decrease their illegal importation and distribution are critically important. However, we are concerned that some of the policies proposed in the HALT Fentanyl Act may have unintended consequences. Some minor adjustments may support a better return on investment. Enacting smart legislation is critical to saving more American lives.

Specifically, ASAM urges the following amendments to The HALT Fentanyl Act:

Revise its definition of ``fentanyl-related substances'' to consider potency and mu opioid receptor activity in the brain, rather than simply specifying the precise structures of drugs that would qualify for Schedule I. Strict structural specification provides a blueprint for drug cartels and chemists to modify substances to avoid detection or conviction. Unfortunately, this can lead to more dangerous substances being manufactured and distributed across the US-- resulting in higher potency substances on the streets and more severe addictions involving substances for which existing treatments may not work. Additionally, prosecutions need to focus on the trafficking and distribution of fentanyl-related substances that pose a danger to humans; the bill's current definition may include substances that do not have ``abuse'' potential;

Expand the federal mandatory minimum safety valve across all substances to end the practice of low-level drug offenders with substance use disorders receiving excessive and expensive sentences. Redirecting associated savings toward evidence-based addiction treatments would be more effective;

Refine the expedited research procedures to reference ``substance(s)'' instead of ``substance'' throughout to clarify that researchers can submit one application for multiple substances;

Amend the expedited research procedures to remove the requirement to demonstrate that the researcher is authorized to conduct research with respect to the substance(s) under the laws of the State in which the research will take place. This often creates a catch-22 for researchers. A State won't approve the research until the researchers can demonstrate that is approved federally, and the DEA won't approve it until the researchers can demonstrate that it is approved at the state level. We recommend deferring to the States to include the requirement to demonstrate federal approval; and

Express a sense of Congress that, while the legislation may facilitate prosecutions and seizures of fentanyl-related substances, increased and sustained Congressional efforts are needed to address the demand side of our national addiction and overdose crisis if the primary goal is to save lives. the halt lethal trafficking (halt) fentanyl act

ASAM agrees with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)'s assessment that the current scheduling framework under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) does not offer necessary flexibility to combat the threat posed by emerging synthetic substances. Chemists can constantly adjust their formulations to evade US scheduling, and law enforcement faces significant challenges staying ahead of these threats.

In 2018, the DEA exercised its authority to place non- scheduled fentanyl-related substances into Schedule I for two years. Congress has extended this temporary class-wide scheduling on several occasions. While this approach has had success in reducing law enforcement encounters with new fentanyl-related substances in the illicit market, it has been unable to curb the overall flow of illicitly manufactured fentanyl into the US. Drug cartels have continued large-scale production and distribution of high- potency synthetic opioids.

Between 2017 and 2023, the number of illicit fentanyl seizures in the U.S. skyrocketed by more than 1,700 percent. Concurrently, the proportion of fentanyl seizures involving counterfeit prescription pills-- that further exacerbate the risk of overdose by misleading Americans as to what substance they are ingesting--increased fourfold. Sadly, overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone (primarily illicitly manufactured fentanyl) have climbed since 2018 to more than 73,000 in 2022.

In short, the HALT Fentanyl Act merely preserves a deadly status quo.

Additionally, the legislation would continue (1) imposing mandatory minimum sentences for quantity-based offenses involving fentanyl-related substances and (2) defining the class by chemical structure, regardless of potency or actual impact on opioid receptors and related risks. Unfortunately, mandatory minimum sentences are a terrible return on investment when used to punish low-level drug dealers.

These sentences are expensive, needlessly requiring thousands of dollars per individual per year. Research has shown that mandatory minimum sentences do not deter drug use--either before or after incarceration--and can spend tax dollars with little to no impact on drug use, drug-related arrests, or overdose rates. Moreover, a meta-analysis of research studies found that incarceration not only fails to prevent drug use, it may even increase the likelihood of reoffending.

The largest return on criminal justice costs may come from targeting cartel leaders or high-level drug dealers. Unlike low-level dealers, they are responsible for the movement of large quantities of fentanyl-related substances at any given time. Yet, the highest-level drug traffickers represent only 11% of federal drug offenders across substances. In other words, the US currently wastes a significant amount of money incarcerating low-level drug offenders with lengthy sentences. a better ROI: investing in addiction medicine innovation and treatment

Carefully tailored drug scheduling decisions can play a useful role in a supply-side approach to addressing an overdose crisis, but increased and sustained efforts on the demand side present an opportunity for greater progress. While many people reduce or stop using drugs without treatment, those who consume most drugs distributed by drug cartels frequently have moderate to severe substance use disorders that necessitate medical treatment. Threats of punishment are unlikely to deter these Americans, because their disorder has already negatively affected their motivation and judgment regarding their drug use. Instead, effective addiction treatment reduces drug use and improves health and wellbeing.

Addiction treatment is an excellent return on investment, including for low-level drug dealers who are distributing drugs to support their own addiction. Every dollar spent on addiction treatment saves $4 to $7 in criminal justice and other costs. Therefore, rather than inefficiently using taxpayers' money incarcerating low-level dealers of fentanyl- related or other substances, the government can realize positive effects from treating substance use disorders of low-level dealers, including through drug courts that utilize evidence-based practices and other alternatives to incarceration.

Congress can lead the way in promoting helpful addiction treatments. While highly effective medications exist for opioid use disorder, many people are using stimulants, like cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as alcohol. No medications have been approved for stimulant use disorder, and new treatments are urgently needed for all substance use disorders to increase their uptake by both prescribers and patients. Unfortunately, innovation in the addiction field has lagged other medical fields due to limited financial investment and misunderstanding of addiction as a moral rather than a medical condition. Congress could consider establishing incentives for the pharmaceutical industry to enter the under-tapped addiction medicine field. The recent case of GLP-1 medications demonstrates how new medications can change millions of lives, spur economic growth, and provide renewed hope for people suffering from stigmatized medical conditions.

While new treatments are being developed and tested, the US must also quickly expand access to existing evidence-based treatments--including methadone, buprenorphine, and contingency management. Few clinicians offer these treatments, and they are unlikely to do so without increased reimbursement rates from insurers and less red tape around methadone for the treatment of opioid use disorder. For example, Congress could explicitly amend federal law to state that contingency management--the most effective treatment for stimulant use disorder--does not violate federal anti- kickback laws and patient inducement laws. For too long, contingency management has been underused by clinicians who fear prosecution under federal statutes that were not created to address contingency management. Similarly, many pharmacies fear that stocking effective medications, like buprenorphine, will lead to Department of Justice investigations. Recognizing this, Congress could clarify federal statute to ensure that pharmacies' stocking of addiction medications is not an indicator of suspicious activity.

Additionally, Congress could close the dangerous Medicare coverage gap for evidence-based residential addiction treatment. At a minimum, Congress could reauthorize, and update key programs first created by the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act in 2018, after unfortunately letting them lapse in 2024. conclusion

Thank you for considering these recommendations. ASAM remains committed to working with you to promote remission and recovery from addiction, ensuring that all communities are safe, and more Americans can lead healthy, productive lives. For any questions or to discuss, please contact Kelly Corredor, ASAM's Chief Advocacy Officer. Sincerely, Brian Hurley, MD, MBA, FAPA, DFASAM, President, American Society of Addiction Medicine.

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record another letter from 190 national, State, and local public health, criminal justice, and civil rights organizations that also write today to urge us to reject and vote ``no'' on the HALT Fentanyl Act. February 3, 2025. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Speaker Mike Johnson, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. RE Vote NO on the HALT Fentanyl Act (H.R. 27/S. 331)

Dear Majority Leader Thune, Speaker Johnson, Minority Leader Schumer, Minority Leader Jeffries, and Honorable Members of the U.S. Congress: The undersigned 190 national, state, and local public health, criminal justice, and civil rights organizations write today to urge you to reject and vote NO on the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl (HALT) Act (H.R. 27/S. 331). This bill permanently schedules fentanyl-related substances (FRS) on schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) based on a flawed class definition, imposes mandatory minimums, and fails to provide an offramp for removing inert or harmless substances from the drug schedule.

The classwide scheduling approach endorsed in the HALT Fentanyl Act classifies all FRS as schedule I drugs, reserved for substances with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. This class definition, however, is a radical departure from drug scheduling practices as it relies exclusively on chemical structure without accounting for pharmacological effect based on the unproven hypothesis of chemical structure-function relationships. Contrary to this hypothesis, structurally related substances can often have complementary therapeutic values. In fact, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has already acknowledged that some FRS are inert and that at least one may be an opioid antagonist that behaves like naloxone, which is itself an opium derivative that counteracts the effects of opioid drugs. Classifying all FRS in schedule I places undue restrictions on research for therapeutic potential of FRS. This means that researchers and scientists are not able to study these substances at a time when the U.S. is experiencing unprecedented overdose deaths.

The HALT Fentanyl Act also enshrines mandatory minimums for distribution of FRS under the Controlled Substances Act, an inappropriate mandate that criminalizes possibly inert or harmless substances. While some proponents of the HALT Fentanyl Act claim that the bill is not intended to interact with the criminal justice system and that mandatory minimums are primarily a deterrent against foreign import of FRS, this is simply inaccurate. The HALT Fentanyl Act expands mandatory minimums for both foreign importation crimes and domestic drug distribution offenses, including nonviolent drug distribution involving small quantities of drugs. What's more, by automatically scheduling a huge swathe of substances in one fell swoop, the HALT Fentanyl Act would lead to very real criminal justice consequences, posing an unacceptable risk of unnecessary incarceration for substances that carry no potential for abuse. Such miscarriages of justice have already occurred. For instance, Todd Coleman was sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 10 years for sale of cocaine that a crime laboratory said was laced with three fentanyl analogues, only to discover, years later, that the detected adulterants were not illegal fentanyl analogues and most were not even controlled substances.

Our country is repeating past missteps when it comes to policy responses to fentanyl and its analogues. In the 1980s, policymakers enacted severe mandatory minimums for small amounts of crack cocaine in response to media headlines and law enforcement warnings that perpetuated mythology and fear. These laws imposed harsher penalties for crack--a substance associated with Black people--than for cocaine--a substance associated with white people--even though the two substances are chemically similar. In the ensuing decades, people of color have been disproportionately incarcerated and sentenced to mandatory minimum sentences for small amounts of crack. This trend of racial disparity also can be seen in prosecutions for offenses involving fentanyl and fentanyl analogues, as Sentencing Commission data from fiscal years 2021 to 2023 provides strong evidence that these prosecutions disproportionately target people of color. Among the 8,048 people convicted in trafficking cases where fentanyl or fentanyl analogues were the primary drug type, Black and Hispanic individuals comprised 78% of all convictions (41% and 37%, respectively). These percentages represent a massive disparity relative to demographic patterns in the general population. Moreover, the emergence of fentanyl-related substances in recent years has fueled similar waves of alarmist media and law enforcement headlines that are informed by mythology rather than science. Any further extension of the classwide scheduling policy threatens to repeat past missteps with crack cocaine that policymakers are still working to rectify.

The classwide scheduling policy expands the application of existing severe mandatory minimum sentencing laws enacted by Congress in the 1980s to a newly scheduled class of fentanyl- related compounds. For example, just a trace amount of a fentanyl analogue in a mixture with a combined weight of 10 grams--10 paper clips--can translate into a five-year mandatory minimum with no evidence needed that the seller even knew it contained fentanyl. In addition, current laws impose a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years for just a trace amount of a fentanyl analogue in a mixture with a combined weight of less than 10 grams. The truth of the matter is that lawmakers do not need to impose new mandatory minimums in order to prosecute fentanyl analogue cases because law enforcement officials already have the ability to prosecute these cases pursuant to the Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act of 1986, which requires that prosecutors show the substances in question are harmful.

Despite the threat of grave injustices in the criminal legal system, the current lack of research on FRS, and indications that some FRS are harmless or hold therapeutic potential, the HALT Fentanyl Act does not include an offramp to reschedule or remove FRS that research has proven to be pharmacologically inactive or do not meet schedule I criteria. Though it includes some research reforms for schedule I substances, the bill excludes the possibility of such research impacting the criminalization of FRS. Without a rescheduling process, the HALT Fentanyl Act may unjustly promote criminalization of harmless or inert substances.

The HALT Fentanyl Act and other bills proposing the permanent classwide scheduling of FRS are yet another iteration of the drug war's ineffective and punitive strategies. To prevent overdose, Congress must invest in public health solutions to mitigate the harms of illicit fentanyl. We urge Congress to support bills that increase access to health services and substance use disorder treatment, improve data collection, and provide funding for FRS research, offering alternative, effective strategies to simultaneously address the opioid epidemic while preventing backsliding on criminal justice reform.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. Please contact Maritza Perez Medina, Director of Federal Affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, for questions about this letter or to further discuss this matter.

Sincerely,

ACLU of Nevada (NV), ACR Health (NY), AIDS Alabama (AL), AIDS Foundation Chicago (IL), AIDS United, Alianza for Opportunity, Alliance for Positive Change (NY), Alliance for Positive Health (NY), American Civil Liberties Union, American Friends Service Committee, Appalachian Learning Initiative (WV), Association of Black Social Workers (Virginia Union University) (VA), Autistic Self Advocacy Network.

Battle Born Progress (NV), Beacon House Aftercare, Louisville (KY), Beauty After the Bars (NC), Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, Better Organizing to Win Legalization, BLM Louisville (KY), Brave Technology Co-Op, Bronx Movil (NY).

C-UR Recovery Services, LLC (MI), Celebrate Recovery (KY), Center for Criminal Justice Reform, University of Baltimore (MD), Center for Disability Rights, Center for Housing & Health (IL), Center for Popular Democracy, Citizen Action of Wisconsin (WI), Clergy for a New Drug Policy, Coalition on Human Needs, Color of Change, Communities United for Status & Protection (CUSP).

Community Catalyst, Community Health Project Los Angeles (CA), Cosmovisiones Ancestrales (CA), CURE (Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants), Dream.org, Drug Policy Alliance, Drug Policy Forum of Hawai`i (HI), Due Process Institute, E5 Enterprise (NY/PA), Elephant Circle (CO), EngageWell IPA (NY), Equal Justice USA, Evergreen Health (NY), Exchanging Pathways (MS).

Fair and Just Prosecution, Faith in Harm Reduction, Family Services Network of New York (NY), FAMM, Federal Public & Community Defenders, Feed Louisville (KY), Filling The Gaps Outreach, Inc. (GA), Florida Harm Reduction Collective (FL), Freedom BLOC (OH), Fruit of Labor Action Research & Technical Assistance, LLC (NC), Full Circle Youth Empowerment, Inc. (CT), FWD.us.

G. Williams & Associates, Inc. (IL), Giving Others Dreams G.O.D. Inc (IL), GLIDE (CA), Hawai`i Health & Harm Reduction Center (HI), HEAL Ohio (OH), Hepatitis C Mentor and Support Group (HCMSG) (NY), Hep Free Hawai`i (HI), Hey Joe Media (AZ), Hip Hop Caucus, HIPS (DC), HomeRise (CA), Hoosier Action (IN), Housing Works (NY), Human Rights Watch.

Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice (IL), Illinois Harm Reduction & Recovery Coalition (IL), Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Interfaith Action for Human Rights (IAHR) (DC) (MD) (VA), Indiana Recovery Alliance (IN), IOAD NC Raleigh Memorial Event (NC), Isaiah House Inc (KY), Interfaith Action for Human Rights, Justice Strategies, JustLeadershipUSA, Juvenile Law Center.

Lacey's Legacy (KY), LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender (IL), The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Legal Action Center, Life Coach Each One Teach One Reentry Fellowship (KY), Lighthouse Consultants Colorado, LLC (CO), Local Progress, Los Angeles Community Action Network (CA), Michigan People's Campaign (MI), Minorities for Medical Marijuana, Mississippi Prison Reform Coalition (MS), Moms for All Paths to Recovery (CA), Monetwork (MO), My Brothers Keeper NEO (OH), My Meta ReEntry Services, Inc. (NC).

NASTAD, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Coalition for the Homeless, National Council of Churches, National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence- Maryland Chapter (MD), National Employment Law Project, National Harm Reduction Coalition, National Health Law Program, National Homelessness Law Center, National Immigrant Justice Center, National Immigration Project (NIPNLG), National Legal Aid & Defender Association, National Organization for Women, National Pain Advocacy Center (CO), NC Harm Reduction Coalition (NC).

Nelsonville Voices/Showing Up for Racial Justice (OH), NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, New Jersey Organizing Project (NJ), New York State Harm Reduction Association (NY), NEXT Distro, OhioCAN/Newark Homeless Outreach (OH), On The Bright Side LLC (NC), ONE Northside (IL), Overdose Crisis Response Fund, PA Stands Up (PA), Parabola Center for Law and Policy, Parole Preparation Project, Pennsylvania Harm Reduction Network (PA), People Advocating Recovery (KY), People's Action, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (NV), Progressive Maryland (MD), Psychotherapy Services DBA (KY).

QLatinx (FL), R Street Institute, REACH-NEO (OH), Reentry Advocacy Project (TX), Reframe Health and Justice, Renew A New, Inc (CA), Revolve Impact, Rights & Democracy (NH/VT), River Valley Organizing (OH), Sana Healing Collective (IL), Smoky Mountain Harm Reduction (NC), Sojourners, Source Corp LLC (OH), South Carolina For Restorative Justice (SC), South Louisville Community Ministries (KY), Southern Tier AIDS Program (NY).

StoptheDrugWar.org, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Sunita Jain Anti-Trafficking Policy Initiative, Loyola Law School, T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, Tacoma Healing Awareness Community (WA), TakeAction Minnesota (MN), TCRC Community Healing Center (PA), Texas Harm Reduction Alliance (TX), The Action Lab, Center for Health Policy and Law, Northeastern University School of Law (MA), The Advocates for Human Rights (MN), The AIDS Institute (TAI), The Daniel Initiative.

The Festival Center, The Freedom BLOC (OH), The Gathering for Justice, The Georgia Survivor Defense Project (GA), The Gubbio Project (CA), The Hepatitis C Mentor and Support Group (HCMSG) (NY), The Matrix Consulting, LLC, The Porchlight Collective SAP (IL), The Sentencing Project, The Steady Collective (NC), Transform Network, Treatment Action Group (TAG) (NY), Treatment on Demand Coalition-SF (CA), Truth Pharm Inc. (NY).

United Vision for Idaho (ID), Vera Institute of Justice, Vilomah Foundation (PA), Vital Strategies, Vivent Health, VOCAL-KY (KY), VOCAL-NY (NY), VOCAL-WA (WA), VT Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errant(s) (VT), Washington Office on Latin America, Why Not Prosper (PA), Wilkes Recovery Revolution, Inc. (NC), Women on the Rise (GA), Worth Rises, Young People in Recovery.

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights on behalf of this large and diverse coalition of 240 national organizations. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, February 4, 2025. Hon. Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, Washington, DC. Hon. Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Leader, Washington, DC.

Dear Speaker Johnson and Minority Leader Jeffries: On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 national organizations to promote and protect civil and human rights in the United States, we write to express our strong opposition to H.R. 27, the Halt All Lethal Trafficking (HALT) of Fentanyl Act, and to urge the House to reject this bill. The Leadership Conference will score the House's vote in our Voting Record for the 119th Congress.

This bill permanently schedules fentanyl-related substances (FRS) on schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) based on a flawed class definition. Additionally, it imposes mandatory minimums and fails to provide an offramp for removing inert or harmless substances from the drug schedule. The classwide scheduling that this bill would impose would exacerbate pretrial detention, mass incarceration, and racial disparities in the prison system, doubling down on a fear- based, enforcement-first response to a public health challenge.

Under the classwide control, any offense involving a ``fentanyl-related substance'' is subject to federal criminal prosecution, even if the substance in question is helpful or has no potential for abuse. The case of Todd Coleman is instructive. Mr. Coleman was sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 10 years for selling 30 grams of cocaine--about two tablespoons--because a local lab said that they were laced with three illegal fentanyl analogues. But none of the substances were illegal fentanyl analogues, and one was a substance called ``Benzyl Fentanyl'' that the Drug Enforcement Administration has long known is not dangerous or illegal.

Moreover, the HALT Fentanyl Act enshrines mandatory minimums for distribution of FRS under the Controlled Substances Act, which could criminalize inert or harmless substances. This bill expands mandatory minimums for both foreign importation crimes and domestic drug distribution offenses, including nonviolent drug distribution involving small quantities of drugs. As mandatory minimums eliminate judicial discretion, judges are prevented from tailoring punishment to a particular defendant by taking into account an individual's background and the circumstances of their offenses when determining the sentence. Mandatory minimums instead place more power in the hands of prosecutors and their charging decisions, which is particularly concerning given that prosecutors are more likely to charge Black people with a crime that carries a mandatory minimum than a White person. The HALT Fentanyl Act threats to replicate this pattern and deepen these disparities.

This Congress should not repeat its past mistakes when it comes to policy responses to fentanyl and its analogues. Beginning in the 1980s, draconian drug laws with harsh mandatory minimums and their resulting enforcement under the banner of the ``war on drugs'' fueled skyrocketing prison populations. In the ensuing decades, Black people have been disproportionately incarcerated and sentenced to mandatory minimum sentences for small amounts of crack cocaine, despite the fact that White people are more likely than Black people to use crack cocaine in their lifetimes. Similar trends for FRS are emerging: Between 2015 and 2019, prosecutions for fentanyl-analogue offenses increased by more than 5,000 percent, with no corresponding decrease in the use of FRS or in overdose deaths. In 2019, 58.9 percent of those sentenced in fentanyl-analogue cases were Black. Any further extension of the classwide scheduling policy threatens to repeat past missteps with crack cocaine that policymakers are still working to rectify.

Harsh federal drug laws and mandatory minimums have caused the federal prison population to explode. The Urban Institute has found that increases in expected time served for drug offenses was the largest contributor to growth in the federal prison population between 1998 and 2010. Currently, people convicted of drug offenses make up 43.9 percent of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) population. There is no indication that overly punitive sentences or mass incarceration deter crime, protect public safety, or decrease drug use or trafficking.

We share your concerns about fentanyl-related deaths and support effective health-based approaches to mitigating this public health crisis, but classwide scheduling and mandatory minimums merely repeat the mistakes of the past by exacerbating our incarceration problem. We welcome continued dialogue with you about how to move forward on this important topic. However, we must reiterate our firm opposition to classwide emergency scheduling and to mandatory minimum sentencing.

We strongly urge Congress to take bold steps on these issues and transform our criminal-legal system into one that delivers true justice and equality. For this reason, we ask you to vote NO on the HALT Fentanyl Act. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Chloe White, senior policy counsel, justice. Sincerely, Jesselyn McCurdy, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs.

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, they are going to score this for voting records. The majority has to do something and stand up for their Article I constitutional duty and say: We are going to protect Medicaid; We are not going to listen to billionaires; We are going to bring the SUPPORT Act; and We are not going to pull the rug out from under the counselors and providers back home who are doing it.

Mr. Speaker, I just read online that community health centers are being forced to close in Virginia. All over this country, this is what is going on, and you can't paper over it with some fake legislation like this.

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