Republicans in the House and Senate hope to use the Biden administration’s desire to crack down on the fentanyl epidemic to gain Democrats’ support for passing tougher penalties that make selling the drug to someone who then dies from it a federal crime.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) debuted the Felony Murder for Deadly Fentanyl Distribution Act in mid-February to increase the punishment for any person involved in the sale of fentanyl that leads to a user’s death.
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The bill is meant to crack down on drug dealers and suppliers who sell counterfeit versions of Percocet, Xanax, and Oxycodone that have been manufactured by Mexican cartels and filled with fentanyl. Oftentimes, consumers are not aware that the pill is counterfeit or that it contains a different substance, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“The fentanyl crisis is one of those things that when someone is killed by fentanyl, it doesn’t matter if they’re a Democrat or Republican, the color of their skin, if they’re from rural America or urban America — the crisis has hit everyone,” Gonzales said in an interview with the Washington Examiner this week. “This is an area that can unite us and ultimately come in a bipartisan manner.”
Fifteen senators and six House members have signed on to the bill since it was introduced in early February after not progressing following its debut late last year. No Democrats have cosponsored either lawmaker’s proposal as of Friday.
“Look back to the State of the Union. Even Biden mentioned the fentanyl crisis. He didn’t mention it very long, but the fact that he mentioned it — that was telling,” said Gonzales. “You’re seeing more and more people across the other side of the aisle realize, ‘Hey, this is a problem.’”
In his annual speech earlier this month, Biden called for a greater federal response to fentanyl smuggling at the border but was met with fury from Republicans. Biden shared a story of a 20-year-old woman who died from fentanyl, and he called for a “major surge” to stop the production, sale, and trafficking of the drug into and around the country.
Republicans erupted again with calls to “secure the border.”
“You got it,” Biden said as he looked to the right side of the chamber where Republicans were seated.
The White House has not taken a position on the bill, according to an official authorized to speak with the media.
In a proposal that the White House released in September 2021, it outlined counter-fentanyl measures that Congress should enact, specifically permanently scheduling fentanyl, precursor ingredients, and related substances instead of renewing its temporary classification.
Scheduling fentanyl-related substances would automatically enhance sentencing terms, the same goal that Rubio and Gonzales hope to achieve. Biden’s proposal would dissolve mandatory minimum sentences for certain offenses, but not in cases where the user died or was injured as a result of consuming or injecting the drug.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) promised last November to make ending the border crisis his top priority come January. The House GOP introduced a package of border-related bills at the start of the year but has not made progress moving them.
Gonzales, whose 800 miles of border district runs from south-central Texas to El Paso on the state’s border with New Mexico, believes that the Republican Party will coalesce around that series of bills that he hopes will include the Rubio-Gonzales proposal. The bill would also make such an offense a federal charge that would be prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s offices nationwide.
“We need to stop the flow of fentanyl and punish those responsible for poisoning our communities. If the illicit sale of this drug results in death, then the seller should be charged with felony murder. That is a simple, common-sense step we can take right now to help turn the tide and protect our communities,” Rubio said in a statement.
A senior Senate Democrat frustrated with the Mexican government’s lax response to the fentanyl epidemic called for the Biden administration on Wednesday to take serious actions against its southern neighbor and force cooperation in the war on drug cartels.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) urged the Biden administration to twist Mexico’s arm to quell the cartels manufacturing fentanyl and pressure the Chinese government to take out the labs supplying Mexican cartels with the ingredients used to make fentanyl.
“We work with our Mexican friends with kid gloves on this issue, and I just — it’s just fundamentally wrong,” Menendez said. “I don’t know how many more lives have to be lost for Mexico to get engaged. If this was in the reverse, they’d be all over us. President Lopez Obrador would be all over us in this regard.”
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The White House has also advocated greater funding to U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations, whose officers inspect pedestrians and vehicles at land ports of entry — where 85% of all fentanyl seized in fiscal 2022 was found. Earlier this month, Biden asked lawmakers to approve funding for 123 large-scale scanners at ports of entry.
Prominent congressional Democrats Sen. Robert Menendez (NJ), Sen. Dick Durbin (IL), Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (TX), Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX), and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY) did not provide comment.
