Prepared Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Business Meeting to Consider S. 331, the HALT Fentanyl Act
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Welcome everybody.
On our agenda we’ve got one legislative matter and two nominations listed.
The Minority has exercised their right under the committee rules to hold over the nominations of Todd Blanche and Abigail Slater. So, we’ll hold those nominations over.
Today we’ll consider S. 331, the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act – also known as the HALT Fentanyl Act.
This bill does three things.
First, it makes permanent the class scheduling of fentanyl-related substances.
Second, it confirms the sentencing penalties the federal courts have long applied to fentanyl-related substances. This isn’t a change in the law. It’s the way the courts are applying the law today.
Finally, the HALT Fentanyl Act relaxes the registration requirements for scientists studying Schedule I substances.
I’ve seen some disappointing misinformation spread about the HALT Fentanyl Act, so I want to be equally clear about what this bill does not do.
The HALT Fentanyl Act does not reschedule or have any impact on legal fentanyl dispensed by a medical doctor. Under the HALT Fentanyl Act, patients will have the same access they’ve always had to fentanyl for medical treatment.
The HALT Fentanyl Act also does not increase mandatory minimums or throw up barriers to research. To the contrary, the HALT Fentanyl Act maintains existing penalties and makes it easier for researchers to study Schedule I substances, including fentanyl-related substances.
This bill targets illegal fentanyl knock-offs created by the cartels to circumvent U.S. law.
It closes those loopholes so that the cartels have no incentive to keep creating these deadly substances.
As the inventor of class scheduling, Dr. Westlake told us, “No one can die from ingesting something never created or be incarcerated for trafficking something that does not exist.”
My office has received countless letters from families who have lost loved ones to fentanyl.
Many of them urge us to pass the HALT Fentanyl Act without modification or delay.
One mother wrote me about watching her son die. She said, “He called me into his room screaming, “Mom, Mom I can’t breathe.” I entered his room. He was blue. Before I had time, he fell forward onto the floor face down. He was too heavy for me to turn over to give him CPR.”
Another mother spoke of the moment the police told her that her son had died from fentanyl. She begged them to revive him, only to learn he was already gone.
She wrote, “The scream that came out of my mouth they say you will never forget, but still replays over and over.”
Another parent described the loss of her son as a “lifetime sentence of pain and grief.”
After her first son died because of a fake pill made of fentanyl, her second son took his own life because of the unbearable pain of losing his brother. She writes, “I may not have my children, but I will definitely be their voices.”
I wish I could read aloud every one of the over 80 letters I have received from parents. That number is substantial, yet it represents just a small fraction of the families left broken because of this crisis.
I want to thank these brave families for writing me. I also want to welcome and thank all the parents who are with us today. You all have given us a call to action, and it’s past time we found the will to act.
The HALT Fentanyl Act is a bipartisan solution to the fentanyl epidemic. It’s cosponsored by seven Democrat senators, and 98 Democrat members voted for it in the House. Every Republican member on this Committee is a co-sponsor of the HALT Fentanyl Act.
Before I turn it over to Ranking Member Durbin for opening remarks, I want to close with a video from several parents who’ve reached out to my office.
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