Calling on House of Representatives to Act and Keep Dangerous Drugs off the Streets

WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein’s (D-California) bipartisan bill to keep dangerous drugs off the streets recently passed the Senate.

The Temporary Reauthorization and Study of the Emergency Scheduling of Fentanyl Analogues Act must now be passed by the House of Representatives. The current temporary scheduling order, which keeps fentanyl-related substances illegal, is set to expire on February 6, 2020.

• Rep. Doug Collins (R-Georgia), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee: “Democrats' impeachment fixation comes at a dangerous cost. A ban on fentanyl [analogues] —which could save countless lives—expires next month. The Senate passed an extension on the ban, but the House has yet to play its part. We must act now.”

• Rep. Greg Walden (R-Oregon), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee:
• “Most urgently, we need to reauthorize the fentanyl [analogues] ban, which is set to expire in a matter of weeks. Reauthorizing the prohibitions on various forms of fentanyl has broad bipartisan support, and we should be able to do this expeditiously.” CQ News
• “Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee’s partisan obsession with impeachment is preventing us from taking common-sense action to extend a critical tool for law enforcement to combat the trafficking of fentanyl-related substances.” Daily Caller

• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky): “We also passed another important bill that will keep analogues of the dangerous drug fentanyl designated as Schedule I narcotics. It will keep them appropriately listed among the most dangerous illegal drugs and keep this important tool in the hands of law enforcement…Thanks to Chairman Graham of the Judiciary Committee, we were at least able to get an agreement to prevent these measures from expiring for now.”