Some tough talk of sanctions also could be heard at the hearing. But in this case, only China was mentioned as a target.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) said if the U.S. was serious about fighting fentanyl trafficking, it needed to hold foreign governments accountable. “In November, China and the U.S. announced resumption of cooperation on counter narcotics, but what has China done to crack down on fentanyl and fentanyl precursors going to Mexico?”
Urben said that there has been “limited action” in this regard on the China front.
Menendez asked about Mexico’s support.
“With the cartels ability to corrupt governments, Mexico’s work has been very limited,” Urben said, to which Menendez said he would reintroduce is Strengthening Fentanyl Sanctions Act to sanction the fentanyl traders. “We have to put pressure on them.”
The bill does not go after the nation state, however, and would only go after tough-to-target cartel members and private Chinese companies producing KSM for export to Mexico. As much of this exists in the black market, it will be hard for such a policy to work.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) said the U.S. needs to categorize the fentanyl crisis as a national security emergency “because it is one,” he said, addressing the three witnesses. He only singled out China in this case and not Mexico.
“I wonder if there is a state sponsor of terrorism argument we can make here,” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) asked Urben. “This is a weapon of chemical warfare entering our country. I know that assumes a lot, but how much does China know that this is doing tremendous damage to our workforce, and can we pressure them to stop it?”
Urben said sanctions were “a real opportunity” and that once applied, the U.S. can then “dramatically increase the scale of sanctions against China companies selling precursor chemicals.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) noted that his state has the infamous title of being No. 2 in the nation in terms of death by fentanyl overdose. Nashville is being destroyed by fentanyl addiction and drug dealing. “We seized around 26 thousand pounds of fentanyl last year at the border, which is where we have sophisticated equipment to screen. More is flooding in here, and not just through our formal ports of entry,” he said, without mentioning mail or solutions to the years-old crisis.
Sanctioning bills were the main solution tossed around at the hearing.
The Committee introduced Sen. Tim Scott’s bipartisan FEND Off Fentanyl Act to the Senate. The bill, like Menendez’s bill, goes after Chinese chemical suppliers and Mexican cartels. An early version of the bill provided exemptions if the sanctions interfere with the USMCA free trade agreement, but was stripped from the legislation on June 22.
“This critical bill must become law,” DeFord said in his testimony to the Committee.
Urban said the FEND Act could be best used to sanction money laundering operations in the U.S., which he says are primarily run by Chinese nationals in the country working in cahoots with drug gangs here and with the large cartels of Mexico.
Fentanyl Hearing Starring Country Music Star Jelly Roll Talks Sanctions; Mainly Threatens China
This week’s Senate Banking Committee hearing on fentanyl was high on celebrity, short on solutions.
The Jan. 11 hearing, titled “Stopping the Flow of Fentanyl: Public Awareness and Legislative Solutions” did bring up legislation in the works to counter fentanyl but was more focused on public awareness and less on solutions. The star of the hearing was Jason “Jelly Roll” DeFord, a country music star from Tennessee and a former drug dealer who has become an advocate for fighting fentanyl addiction and distribution.
>> READ the full testimony here <<
“Clearly the Chinese and Mexican governments are not doing enough to combat the trafficking of fentanyl,” Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said in his opening statement. “We will monitor the Biden administration’s efforts to stop fentanyl at its source. A crisis this massive demands our focus.”
In November, Xi Jinping met with President Biden and promised, yet again, to go after the companies that sell key starting materials (KSM) to Mexican cartels used in making fentanyl. For its part, China has at least rhetorically speaking offered to tackle the issue at home, whereas Mexico has offered nothing of the sort.
Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-SC) mentioned the need to take the fight to the Mexican drug cartels, but more Committee members focused on China, which seemed to be an easier target.
“We need to stop the cartels. We need to go after the Chinese money launderers that are in this fentanyl business with the Mexicans,” he said, adding that some 1,500 died in his home state in 2022 due to fentanyl overdose. Scott tracked with other Republicans who blamed the wide open southern border, but no solutions to that issue was put on the table at the hearing.
“We have a southern border that is so wide open that 78 thousand pounds of fentanyl can come in right through it,” Sen. Scott said. “Customs and Border Protection says fentanyl seizures at the border alone are up 860% since 2019. That is a record amount at our ports of entry. But for every amount seized even more is getting in,” he said.
There were many missed opportunities in the hearing, however.
Last year saw an increase of fentanyl that was found in small packages mailed into the U.S. from Mexico and China, according to Customs. The only mention of drugs by mail was when Christopher Urben, former Assistant Special Agent at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, [Testimony] said that seizures of fentanyl by mail “are way down from where they were in 2019.”
These packages come in the mail duty free thanks to the de minimis provision, a rule that Sen. Brown has gone after with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in legislation.
In the House of Representatives, Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon also has a bill attacking this provision. Blumenauer held a meeting on narcotics by mail late last year, which CPA CEO Michael Stumo attended.
At yesterday’s hearing, Stumo said the Committee missed an opportunity to provide solutions to the crisis.
Some tough talk of sanctions also could be heard at the hearing. But in this case, only China was mentioned as a target.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) said if the U.S. was serious about fighting fentanyl trafficking, it needed to hold foreign governments accountable. “In November, China and the U.S. announced resumption of cooperation on counter narcotics, but what has China done to crack down on fentanyl and fentanyl precursors going to Mexico?”
Urben said that there has been “limited action” in this regard on the China front.
Menendez asked about Mexico’s support.
“With the cartels ability to corrupt governments, Mexico’s work has been very limited,” Urben said, to which Menendez said he would reintroduce is Strengthening Fentanyl Sanctions Act to sanction the fentanyl traders. “We have to put pressure on them.”
The bill does not go after the nation state, however, and would only go after tough-to-target cartel members and private Chinese companies producing KSM for export to Mexico. As much of this exists in the black market, it will be hard for such a policy to work.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) said the U.S. needs to categorize the fentanyl crisis as a national security emergency “because it is one,” he said, addressing the three witnesses. He only singled out China in this case and not Mexico.
“I wonder if there is a state sponsor of terrorism argument we can make here,” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) asked Urben. “This is a weapon of chemical warfare entering our country. I know that assumes a lot, but how much does China know that this is doing tremendous damage to our workforce, and can we pressure them to stop it?”
Urben said sanctions were “a real opportunity” and that once applied, the U.S. can then “dramatically increase the scale of sanctions against China companies selling precursor chemicals.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) noted that his state has the infamous title of being No. 2 in the nation in terms of death by fentanyl overdose. Nashville is being destroyed by fentanyl addiction and drug dealing. “We seized around 26 thousand pounds of fentanyl last year at the border, which is where we have sophisticated equipment to screen. More is flooding in here, and not just through our formal ports of entry,” he said, without mentioning mail or solutions to the years-old crisis.
Sanctioning bills were the main solution tossed around at the hearing.
The Committee introduced Sen. Tim Scott’s bipartisan FEND Off Fentanyl Act to the Senate. The bill, like Menendez’s bill, goes after Chinese chemical suppliers and Mexican cartels. An early version of the bill provided exemptions if the sanctions interfere with the USMCA free trade agreement, but was stripped from the legislation on June 22.
“This critical bill must become law,” DeFord said in his testimony to the Committee.
Urban said the FEND Act could be best used to sanction money laundering operations in the U.S., which he says are primarily run by Chinese nationals in the country working in cahoots with drug gangs here and with the large cartels of Mexico.
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