Washington, D.C. — Last week, Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper welcomed the inclusion of the bipartisan Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act in the U.S. Senate’s annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The FEND Off Fentanyl Act aims to combat the country’s fentanyl crisis and curtail the flow of deadly fentanyl into American communities by targeting the illicit fentanyl supply chain, from chemical suppliers in China to the cartels that transport the drugs in Mexico.
“Colorado is being overrun by fentanyl, and we need to hold countries like China and Mexico accountable for allowing these dangerous substances to flood into our communities. As drug overdoses among kids, teens, and Americans of all ages skyrocket, this legislation will give the federal government a critical tool to address the source of the synthetic opioid crisis and keep American families healthy and safe,” said Bennet.
“We see the deadly effects of fentanyl every day across Colorado,” said Hickenlooper. “This bipartisan bill will help target and cut off the fentanyl supply chain before it ever gets here.”
In 2021, nearly 107,000 Americans died from an overdose and 65 percent of those deaths were attributed to fentanyl. The FEND Off Fentanyl Act would give the federal government the tools to combat the country’s fentanyl crisis by targeting opioid traffickers who are devastating communities across the United States and in Colorado. The bill will enhance current law so that U.S. government agencies can more effectively disrupt illicit opioid supply chains and penalize those facilitating the trafficking of fentanyl. The bill also ensures that sanctions are imposed not only on the illicit drug trade but also on the money laundering that makes it profitable.
Specifically, the FEND Off Fentanyl Act would:
-
Declare that the international trafficking of fentanyl is a national emergency;
-
Require the President to sanction transnational criminal organizations and drug cartels’ key members engaged in international fentanyl trafficking;
-
Enable the President to use proceeds of forfeited, sanctioned property of fentanyl traffickers to further law enforcement efforts;
-
Enhance the ability to enforce sanctions violations, thereby making it more likely that people defying U.S. law will be caught and prosecuted;
-
Require the administration to report to Congress on actions the U.S. government is taking to reduce the international trafficking of fentanyl and related opioids;
-
Allow the Treasury Department to utilize special measures to combat fentanyl-related money laundering;
-
Require the Treasury Department to prioritize fentanyl-related suspicious transactions and include descriptions of drug cartels’ financing actions in Suspicious Activity Reports.
Bennet has repeatedly drawn attention to the fentanyl epidemic in Colorado and the United States. In March, Bennet questioned Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray on the threat of fentanyl coming across the southern border. In 2019, Bennet joined colleagues to introduce the Providing Officers with Electronic Resources (POWER) Act to provide state and local law enforcement with new tools to detect and identify dangerous drugs like fentanyl.