Senator Chuck Schumer demanded on Sunday that the House of Representatives pass new legislation that the majority leader says would dramatically reduce the flow of fentanyl into the United States by the end of the year.
On July 27 the Senate passed the Bipartisan defense bill, National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included a plan to address the influx of deadly fentanyl into the country. The narcotic is often mixed with other drugs and can leave users highly susceptible to addiction and death when taken in large amounts. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2021 nearly 107,000 people died from drug overdose and 65% of those deaths were due to fentanyl.
“We are at a breakthrough moment in the fentanyl crisis where the traffickers who are killing Americans can finally be held to account in meaningful and proactive ways, but we need the House to act,” Schumer said. “For years, Chinese laboratories have been cooking-up formulas of death and freely trafficking lethal fentanyl across New York, and to many other places across America, where it is killing tens-of-thousands of people — and it has to stop.”
While the House passed its own version of the NDAA earlier this month, and Schumer’s defense bill cleared in the Senate, it is up to lawmakers to negotiate a compromised version that will pass in both chambers (allowing the NDAA to set a policy agenda and receive funding from the Department of Defense.)
According to the U.S Department of Drug Enforcement Administration, China ships out chemicals in mass that are then manufactured into fentanyl in Mexico by criminal organizations. Senator Schumer stated that the bill would allow President Biden to declare a State of Emergency through which he could place sanctions on both China and Mexico.
“We need the house to pass it in September. We can get the job done and stop fentanyl coming in droves by Christmas,” Schumer said.
China is reportedly responsible for over 90% of the illicit fentanyl found in the U.S. The drug is reported to be 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin. Recently in April 2023, a drug bust on Long Island confiscated 3 kilograms of fentanyl, an amount Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder declared was “enough drugs to wipe out the entire population of Nassau County.”
Schumer also charged that the substance is also so dangerous since it can be laced into other drugs without any detection, from marijuana to heroin.
“It affects everybody across the board,” Schumer said.
