By Forum Staff
Two weeks after his push to sanction China and others for fentanyl trafficking that’s killing New Yorkers, and back from D.C. where the Senate passed the bipartisan defense bill with his fentanyl plan included, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer rallied on Sunday to call on the House and Speaker Kevin McCarthy to act when they return to D.C.
Schumer detailed how the just-passed, bipartisan defense bill (NDAA) included his effort to impose tough sanctions on China and Mexico and address the trafficking of fentanyl into the United States.
“I worked in a bipartisan way to pass the defense bill with this fentanyl effort included, because the issue is not political—it’s commonsense. Now, we need the House to finish the job here and help us upend the flow of fentanyl to New York City, Long Island and beyond,” Schumer added.
Schumer said the Senate passage of the NDAA bill just days ago included the plan to officially declare international fentanyl trafficking a national emergency and give the president special powers to impose tough sanctions on China, Mexico, or any other relevant fentanyl supply chain hub. Schumer said this effort was bipartisan— with Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown and Ranking Member Tim Scott partnering. Schumer declared that this should be part of the final bill in the House as he detailed the next steps to address the fentanyl and opioid crisis at the source.
The People’s Republic of China is the world’s largest producer of illicit fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and their immediate precursors. From the People’s Republic of 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.
Schumer explained to disrupt the flow of illicit opioids into the United States, and working alongside the Senate banking committee – the Chair and the Ranking member Senators Sherrod Brown and Tim Scott – he included the FEND Off Fentanyl Act in the just-passed defense bill. The bill does 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.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin. It is short acting and cannot be seen, tasted or smelled when mixed into other drugs. The presence of non-pharmaceutical fentanyl in New York City has dramatically increased the number of overdose deaths, and fentanyl is now the most common drug involved in overdose deaths. In 2022 alone, over 3,000 New York City residents died from a fentanyl-involved overdose, Schumer noted.
Courtesy of Sen. Schumer
