U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, stated that the bipartisan Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act aims to address the "fentanyl crisis" by targeting drug traffickers in China and Mexico. Brown shared his statement in an Aug. 18 post on X.
"Nearly everyone in Ohio has been hurt by the fentanyl crisis or knows someone who has," said Brown. "That's why we wrote & passed our bipartisan FEND Off Fentanyl Act to go after fentanyl traffickers in China & Mexico and help keep this drug out of our country."
According to a press release from the Senate Banking Committee, the FEND Off Fentanyl Act uses sanctions and anti-money laundering measures to target "opioid traffickers devastating America’s communities." The bill would declare international trafficking of fentanyl as a "national emergency" and would enhance and add sanctions against organizations and individuals involved in trafficking. The bill also gives the Treasury Department more power to utilize "special measures" to combat fentanyl-involved money laundering.
Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) from the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs introduced the bill in April 2023, according to Congress.gov. Most recently, the bill was the subject of a hearing on April 9, 2024. The legislation has not advanced from the U.S. Senate.
According to PBS, China is responsible for shipping fentanyl precursors to Mexico. Vanda Felbab-Brown from the Brookings Institution said, "China is the principal source of precursor chemicals from which Mexican cartels synthesize fentanyl. So various Chinese brokers individuals, sometimes larger family-based networks and companies produce and sell these precursors to Mexico often very knowingly enabling the cartels in synthesizing fentanyl. They even provide recipes to the cartels how to make fentanyl out of them."
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, drug overdoses involving synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, continued to rise in 2022, with 73,838 overdose deaths reported that year.
Brown has served as a U.S. Senator for Ohio since 2007, according to his website. In addition to leading the Banking Committee, he is a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee and the Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee.
