“If we can’t come together to pass this battle-tested, bipartisan legislation, then we will have failed the American people.”
Last week, I led my colleagues in reporting a bill that’s entitled the HALT Fentanyl Act – this bill was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
This is a battle-tested, bipartisan bill that passed the House of Representatives with a supermajority of votes, including 98 Democrats voting in favor of the bill.
If you’ve been involved with this issue over the last three or four or five years, you’d know that bipartisan fentanyl legislation has been hard to come by.
But, I’m pleased to see that this bill has seven Democrat cosponsors here in the Senate, and had nearly half the Democrats in my committee vote in favor of it.
So we should thank – and I want to thank all my Democrat colleagues – for working with us on such a vital piece of legislation.
I think you all know the statistics – about 70,000 of the 100,000 people that die of drug overdose are dying because of fentanyl.
The HALT Fentanyl Act does three things.
First, it makes permanent the class scheduling of fentanyl-related substances. This is the same class-wide scheduling that occurred during the first Trump administration and has been continued nine times by Congresses on a short-term basis. So, this legislation would eliminate that from time-to-time scheduling of fentanyl analogues. That’s why permanent legislation is so important.
Second, the bill confirms the sentencing penalties the federal courts have long applied to fentanyl-related substances.
Third, the bill creates a streamlined registration process for studying Schedule I controlled substances.
Class-wide scheduling has been a successful policy. It’s been a success in stopping the creation of fentanyl related substances that would’ve otherwise killed countless Americans.
If you don’t believe me, I’d like to have you listen to Dr. Tim Westlake. Dr. Westlake is the inventor of the class-wide scheduling system that the DEA adopted.
He came before my committee and testified that, “These efforts have resulted in shutting down the creation and flow and the very existence of new fentanyl-related substances into the United States. It’s why Congress must act to finally make permanent this temporary policy.”
I began by saying that bipartisan [fentanyl] legislation has been very hard to come by.
I’m proud to lead the HALT Fentanyl Act with Senators Heinrich and Cassidy. That’s one Democrat and one Republican.
Our bill has the support of the leading law enforcement organizations. These 12 organizations have called on us to “advance this critical legislation without delay or modification.”
Our bill also has the support of an organization called Facing Fentanyl. That’s a coalition supported by over 200 family groups impacted by fentanyl. They “stand in full support of the HALT Fentanyl Act as it is currently written, without amendments.”
I’ve also received over 100 individual letters from parents who have lost their children to fentanyl poisoning. Our bill also has the support of the medical community.
The HALT Fentanyl Act is truly a bipartisan compromise, bringing together stakeholders and members from across the spectrum.
During the last four years, Senate Democrats couldn’t be bothered to bring this bill, or any other permanent legislation to schedule fentanyl, to the floor for a vote.
That was the situation even after HALT passed the House with 74 Democrats voting in favor and even with the Biden administration coming out in support of the bill, all taking place in the last Congress.
So, the time has surely come.
This is long overdue legislation, and I urge my colleagues to move to and support this bill.
If we can’t come together to pass this battle-tested, bipartisan legislation, then we will have failed the American people, and made the environment for even more people to die of drug overdose and fentanyl poisoning.
We owe it to the hundreds of thousands of families who have lost loved ones to this very poison.
We owe it to our constituents.
It’s time that we found the will to act, and now is that time to act.
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