House lawmakers on Wednesday advanced a bill to permanently place fentanyl on the most restrictive list of drugs, though its path to becoming law remains dim because of a partisan rift over mandatory criminal penalties.
The Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Health voted, 17-10, in support of the HALT Fentanyl Act, which would permanently place fentanyl-related substances on the Schedule I list of drugs with a high risk of abuse.
The idea is to make it clear that all forms of the deadly synthetic opioid are restricted, subject to criminal penalties and should not be created in the first place.
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington Republican, said the GOP bill sponsored by Republican Reps. Morgan Griffith of Virginia and Bob Latta of Ohio would “make sure law enforcement can keep these weapons-grade poisons off our streets.”
The subcommittee vote moved the bill closer to a full committee markup and House passage under the new GOP majority.
However, Democrats fear the measure will lead to mandatory minimum sentences for fentanyl offenses, making it difficult for judges to appraise each case on its individual merits. Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota was the only Democrat on the subcommittee to support the bill Wednesday, and liberal objections could upend the bill’s path to Senate passage and President Biden’s desk.
“This is unfortunate because I think we could also get to a bipartisan bill if the Republicans would come to the table,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo, California Democrat. “We just need to make sure the policy on mandatory minimums is revised to avoid continuing the ineffective and harmful policies of the past.”
Fentanyl is used to treat severe pain in cancer patients and others, but it’s also produced illicitly in clandestine labs — often in Mexico with Chinese chemicals — and trafficked across the southern U.S. border. It is pressed into fake pills or cut with other drugs, so American drug users might take fentanyl without knowing it.
Roughly 70,000 of the 107,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. were linked at least in part to fentanyl in 2021, the most recent year for which complete data is available.
Experts say permanent scheduling would result in stiffer penalties under guidelines from the U.S. Sentencing Commission and send a signal to China and Mexico that the U.S. is serious about tackling the fentanyl problem, even as it pressures those nations to do more.
Mr. Biden told Congress to send him a bill that permanently puts illicit fentanyl-related substances on Schedule I before temporary scheduling expires in December 2024. During his State of the Union address, he alluded to the effort by calling for stiffer penalties for fentanyl traffickers alongside efforts to beef up drug screening at ports of entry.
However, Mr. Biden and Democratic allies want to exempt quantity-related fentanyl offenses from mandatory criminal penalties, saying judges need flexibility. The administration said mandatory minimum penalties should apply in cases where fentanyl offenses resulted in bodily harm or death.
GOP lawmakers say the Democrats’ proposed reforms would let traffickers duck serious consequences and embolden Mexican cartels that ship pills into America. They shot down Democratic amendments that sought to eliminate mandatory penalties in certain situations, saying Congress can try to come up with fairer sentencing rules on another day through separate legislation.
Liberal lawmakers also fear people who handle fentanyl-related substances for medical purposes will be swept up and punished, though Republicans said the bill is written in a way that allows researchers to study fentanyl.
While the bill is advancing through the House, Democrats’ concerns could hold up the effort in the Democrat-led Senate.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin, Illinois Democrat, earlier this month said he supported an effort decades ago to stiffen penalties for crack cocaine, only to regret it.
“The price of the drug on the street went down, the usage went up and we filled federal prisons primarily with African American prisoners,” Mr. Durbin told Attorney General Merrick Garland at a recent hearing. “It backfired on us. I don’t want to make that same mistake when it comes to fentanyl.”
Rep. Frank Pallone, New Jersey Democrat, said mandatory sentences have “created a lot of problems over the years “ and the House GOP bill as written “stands no chance of becoming law.”
But Mr. Latta, a chief sponsor of the bill, said Congress cannot kick the can down the road any longer.
“The argument [around] mandatory minimums is null and void when you’re killing Americans, no matter how large or small the quantity of drugs,” he said. “Let me be clear, if you’re intentionally lacing fentanyl into illicit narcotics, you are committing murder and should be held accountable.”
