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WILKES-BARRE — U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey says “illicit fentanyl” has inflicted severe suffering on Pennsylvania families and communities.
To address the problem, Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, on Thursday introduced new legislation to stop the influx of the deadly drug.
In light of the large number of overdose deaths from illicit fentanyl, Toomey and Schumer introduced the Fentanyl Sanctions Act — the first-ever fentanyl sanctions bill — that would apply pressure on the Chinese government to honor their commitment to control all types of fentanyl and provide the U.S. with more tools and resources to go after illicit traffickers in China, Mexico, and other countries.
“I am committed to holding responsible those who export this poison to our country,” Toomey said in an emailed new release. “Congressional attention coupled with pressure from the Trump administration recently led to China finally subjecting all fentanyl-like chemicals to its drug laws.”
Toomey said the bipartisan measure provides Congress with another tool to fight the heroin and fentanyl epidemic.
Schumer said combating the flow of illicit fentanyl into the country is imperative in the fight to save American lives from the opioid crisis.
“We must hold China accountable for their role in the fentanyl trade” Schumer said in the release. “China’s new law to make all fentanyl categories illegal is an important step and the administration deserves praise for their efforts to secure this change.”
However, Schumer said the U.S. has to demonstrate that it will demand China enforce these laws and take strong action against opioid traffickers.
”Our legislation would apply pressure on China to actually follow through and would equip the administration with tools to systematically go after the major manufacturers and traffickers of fentanyl before the killer drug gets to the U.S.,” Schumer said.
Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) joined Toomey and Schumer in introducing the legislation.
Specifically, the legislation would:
• Imposes direct sanctions on drug manufacturers in China that knowingly provide synthetic opioids to traffickers and transnational criminal organizations like those in Mexico known to be mixing fentanyl with other drugs and sending them into the U.S. The bill also applies sanctions on financial institutions that assist such entities.
• Urges the president to commence diplomatic efforts with U.S. partners to establish multilateral sanctions against foreign opioid traffickers.
• Establishes a Commission on Synthetic Opioid Trafficking to monitor U.S. efforts and report on how to more effectively combat the flow of synthetic opioids from China, Mexico, and elsewhere.
In the news release, Toomey and Schumer said following a commitment to the U.S. at the G-20 in December 2018, Chinese regulators announced on April 1, 2019, that a wider range of fentanyl derivatives would be declared controlled substances in China beginning May 1, 2019.
The two senators said questions remain surrounding China’s ability and willingness to enforce drug laws, as evidenced by denials that its illicit fentanyl producers are contributing to the U.S. opioid crisis.
To ensure accountability, the Toomey-Schumer sanctions legislation would pressure the Chinese government to move forward with an aggressive plan to enforce its announced new regulations and provide the U.S. executive branch with flexible new sanction tools to go after actors, from manufacturers to traffickers, in China and other countries.
Toomey said he has been leading bipartisan efforts to punish foreign countries that turn a blind eye to drug kingpins who export deadly fentanyl to the United States. Earlier this year, he introduced the bipartisan Blocking Deadly Fentanyl Imports Act, which would make American foreign aid and development loans contingent upon a recipient country cooperating with U.S. drug enforcement efforts relating to fentanyl.
