“Amid an alarming new development in the ongoing fentanyl crisis, Rep. Chris Smith is pushing new legislation - the Homeland Security Fentanyl Enforcement Act (HR 9093) - to expand the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) authority to help combat the deadly synthetic opioid largely sourced from China from pouring across the United States border,” the statement said on Friday.
The bill, which was developed jointly with frontline DHS law enforcement officers, would grant certain agents the independent authority to enforce US drug laws, the statement said. The legislation would amend the Controlled Substances Act to grant DHS officials power enabled by the Tariff Act of 1930, according to the bill text.
The bill also requires the US Comptroller General to conduct a review of deconfliction policies and practices between Drug Enforcement Administration and DHS investigations and submit a report to Congress no later than 18 months after passage.
“Now more than ever, we must renew and strengthen our fight against the scourge of opioids that has claimed far too many lives and devastated so many families,” Smith said in the statement.
More than 107,000 Americans have died due to drug poisoning or overdose in the United States last year, with 66% of the deaths related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl, the statement said. Since May, US authorities have seized approximately 36 million lethal doses of fentanyl, the statement added.
Smith during the previous Congress chaired a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing where a senior State Department counternarcotics official testified to the link between China and the fentanyl being brought into the US, according to the statement.