Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BUCSHON. Mr. Chair, I support Mr. Miller's amendment, which would require the Attorney General to issue interim final rules to implement this act 6 months after the date of enactment.

Fentanyl-related substances will still be permanently placed in schedule I immediately. They should be placed there.

This amendment would accelerate the timeline for which the Attorney General would be required to issue the interim final rule and, therefore, speed up the implementation process.

I believe this amendment improves the bill and is necessary, especially at a time when fentanyl has become the leading cause of death for 18- to 45-year-olds.

I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment.

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Mr. BUCSHON. Mr. Chair, this amendment will provide clarity that research conducted by the Department of Defense is included in the research registration process outlined in the bill.

It also requires the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Justice to study and report on its findings.

The research provisions in the HALT Fentanyl Act align the research registration process for schedule I drugs with those of schedule II.

This is imperative for the research community to better understand how certain schedule I drugs affect people's health.

This amendment strengthens the bill, and I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment.

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Mr. BUCSHON. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

First of all, I thank the gentlewoman for sharing her story. These are stories from across America. I empathize with her story, and I am thankful that her mother is in recovery.

Mr. Chair, this amendment would prevent the underlying bill from taking effect until the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General each certify that this bill will lead to a reduction in overdose deaths.

In 2021, nearly 108,000 people died of drug overdoses, 71,000 of which were from synthetic opioids, including fentanyl or fentanyl- related substances. That equates to nearly 200 fentanyl-related deaths per day.

This amendment is a poison pill that would allow the Biden administration to indefinitely delay the permanent scheduling of fentanyl-related substances, which means after the temporary scheduling order expires at the end of 2024, if HHS or the AG has chosen not to act, these fentanyl-related substances could become street legal.

Mr. Chair, I don't want to take that chance. Permanently placing fentanyl-related substances into schedule I is the Drug Enforcement Administration's top legislative priority.

The numbers are heartbreaking. We need to act now to pass the HALT Fentanyl Act to keep fentanyl-related substances off our streets and out of our communities.

In terms of further steps to address overdose deaths, I am glad the Energy and Commerce Committee has led the way and will continue to do so.

Last Congress, the House passed legislation with broad bipartisan support to reauthorize many key use disorder and treatment programs. This summer Energy and Commerce plans to examine the impact of the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, passed with broad bipartisan support 5 years ago, to address the opioid crisis.

However, we don't need to wait. Let's pass the HALT Fentanyl Act now, which adds fentanyl-related substances to schedule I upon passage rather than ceding authority to the Biden administration on when this should be effective.

Mr. Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. BUCSHON. Mr. Chair, again, we need to implement the HALT Fentanyl Act now. Any further delay, including the Biden administration slow- walking its implementation, is unacceptable. I again urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. BUCSHON. Mr. Chair, I move that the Committee do now rise.

The motion was agreed to.

Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Mills) having assumed the chair, Mr. Mast, Acting Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 467) to amend the Controlled Substances Act with respect to the scheduling of fentanyl-related substances, and for other purposes, had come to no resolution thereon.

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