Buckeye Reporter

WASHINGTON, D.C. – To mark National Fentanyl Awareness Day, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), the committee’s ranking member, highlight the rapidly growing support for the Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act. Chairman Jack Reed (D-RI) and Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-MS) of the Senate Committee on Armed Services were original cosponsors of the bill.

The bipartisan leaders of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Ranking Member James E. Risch (R-ID), cosponsored the bill along with fourteen members of the Senate Banking Committee – Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID), Jon Tester (D-MT), John Kennedy (R-LA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Chris Van Hollen, (D-MD), Cynthia Lummis, (R-WY), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Steve Daines (R-MT), Tina Smith (D-MN), JD Vance (R-OH), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Katie Britt (R-AL), and John Fetterman (D-PA) – and Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) Jerry Moran (R-KS), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Mike Braun (R-IN), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), and Susan Collins (R-ME).

Additionally, several national organizations have come out in support of the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, bipartisan legislation targeting the fentanyl crisis by wielding our country’s economic tools against transnational criminal organizations.

The American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence: “The American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD), which represents more than 1,300 Opioid Treatment Programs in the United States, expresses its strong support for Senator Tim Scott and Sherrod Brown’s FEND Off Fentanyl Act. AATOD’s treatment provider members across the country are seeing greater challenges to effective treatment because of the prevalence of fentanyl. By giving law enforcement and regulators greater authority to sanction transnational criminal organizations involved in production of fentanyl precursors and trafficking fentanyl into the U.S., the FEND OFF Fentanyl Act would help treatment providers and individuals with Fentanyl Use Disorder by reducing overdose deaths so that evidence-based opioid treatment programs can help people stop drug use and return to work, family and their communities on their path to recovery.”

Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police: “Administrator Anne Milgram at the DEA has described fentanyl as ‘the single deadliest drug threat’ our country has ever faced, and she is right. We need to do more as a nation to interdict the flow of this drug and its precursors into our country and severely sanction individuals and organizations involved in making and distributing this poison. Senators Tim Scott and Sherrod Brown have developed a comprehensive approach that codifies an existing Executive Order giving the President broad authority to attack fentanyl trafficking by using all the resources of the United States. We strongly support this effort and look forward to working with them and with Senators Wicker and Reed to pass this important legislation.”

Sheriff Jim Skinner, Collin County, TX (National Sheriffs’ Association): “Sheriffs across the country see the devastation that fentanyl is having on our communities. We praise Senator’s Scott, Brown, Reed and Wicker for their leadership and this legislation that would help stop the flow of this deadly drug. We hope that Congress will take swift action and give our communities and law enforcement added relief.”

FDD Action: “The threat from fentanyl production and trafficking has significantly increased since Congress passed the Fentanyl Sanctions Act in 2019. The bipartisan effort to update and expand sanctions against transnational criminal organizations associated with the fentanyl trade is critical to effectively targeting, and ultimately degrading the networks, particularly those in China, that are responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.”

BACKGROUND:

Chairman Sherrod Brown and Ranking Member Scott introduced the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, joined by Senate Committee on Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed (D-RI) and Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-MS). The FEND Off Fentanyl Act is a sanctions and anti-money laundering bill that targets opioid traffickers devastating America’s communities. The bill will enhance current law so U.S. government agencies can more effectively disrupt illicit opioid supply chains and penalize those facilitating the trafficking of fentanyl. The bill also ensures that sanctions are imposed not only on the illicit drug trade, but also on the money laundering that makes it profitable.

Last month, Brown and FOP President Patrick Yoes hosted a news conference call to discuss how the FEND Off Fentanyl Act would combat the country’s fentanyl crisis and save lives in Ohio and across the country.

Read the bill’s one-pager HERE, and the full bill text HERE.

Original source can be found here.