July 19, 2023

Wyden Announces Inclusion of Anti-Fentanyl Legislation in Major Annual Defense Bill

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden today with colleagues announced the inclusion of major anti-fentanyl legislation in the Senate’s annual defense bill that would impose new sanctions and cut off illicit fentanyl at the source.

“Despite diligent law enforcement work, overdoses and deaths from fentanyl and fentanyl-laced drugs in Oregon have continued unabated, and now it’s time to stop the trafficking of fentanyl at a major source: China,” said Wyden, who has been pressing U.S. Customs and Border Protection to crack down harder on fentanyl flowing into Oregon along I-5 and I-84. “In a time where we are considering funding for our national defense, Congress must take timely, decisive action to defend Americans by stopping fentanyl and its precursors at the U.S. border before it can enter our communities.”

The Senate is debating the annual defense bill this week. The version of the bill under consideration will include the FEND Off Fentanyl Act.

Fentanyl is trafficked into the United States primarily from China and Mexico, and is responsible for the ongoing fentanyl epidemic. The Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco Cartel in Mexico, using chemicals largely sourced from China, are primarily responsible for the vast majority of the fentanyl that is being trafficked in communities across the United States, the DEA has said publicly. China is the world’s largest producer of illicit fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and their immediate precursors. From China, those substances are shipped primarily through express consignment carriers or international mail directly to the United States, or, alternatively, shipped directly to transnational criminal organizations in Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean. Some officials estimate that China is responsible for over 90 percent of the illicit fentanyl found in the U.S.

In 2021, nearly 107,000 Americans died from an overdose, and 65% of overdose deaths were caused by fentanyl. Last year alone, the Drug Enforcement Administration seized more than 379 million deadly doses of fentanyl - enough to supply a lethal dose to every American.

The bill would disrupt the flow of illicit opioids into the United States by doing the following:

  • Declare that the international trafficking of fentanyl is a national emergency.
  • Require the President to sanction transnational criminal organizations and drug cartels’ key members engaged in international fentanyl trafficking.
  • Enable the President to use proceeds of forfeited, sanctioned property of fentanyl traffickers to further law enforcement efforts.
  • Enhance the ability to enforce sanctions violations thereby making it more likely that people who defy U.S. law will be caught and prosecuted.
  • Require the administration to report to Congress on actions the U.S. government is taking to reduce the international trafficking of fentanyl and related opioids.
  • Allow the Treasury Department to utilize special measures to combat fentanyl-related money laundering.
  • Require the Treasury Department to prioritize fentanyl-related suspicious transactions and include descriptions of drug cartels’ financing actions in Suspicious Activity Reports.