Anti-fentanyl legislation in the United States

The bill is most prominently sponsored by Senators Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Roger Marshall of Kansas, and originally introduced by both senators as S.3959 with four more Republican cosponsors. In the 118th Congress, the bill was reintroduced by Tennessee Representative Scott DesJarlais and introduced as HR X.

In the 117th Congress, the bill was blocked by president pro tempore Patty Murray, on grounds related to the expiration of Title 42 expulsion procedures. The bill has been reintroduced in the 118th congress, albeit only in the house, by DeJarlais as House Resolution 1210; the legislation has presently been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The bill has received support from the Orange County Sheriff's Department in California, which stated through sheriff Don Barnes that the act "is needed legislation that will bolster the needed enforcement component [to prevent fentanyl from arriving in the United States]". Further support from California in favor of the bill was found in the Malibu Times, which ran an op-ed with the tag "From the Right" arguing not only that the bill greatly enhances the ability of law enforcement to block fentanyl from entering the country but also that the source of at least the raw materials for much of the fentanyl trade comes from enterprises based in the People's Republic of China, and that the Chinese government is potentially one of the forces behind the fentanyl influx.[2][3][4][5]

The bill's leading sponsor is Florida senator Marco Rubio and has attracted sixteen cosponsors, all Republican senators. The bill has also been introduced in the House as H.R. 916 by Texas representative Tony Gonzales.

The bill has received support from Louisiana locals, as WAFB ran stories of people whose family members lost their lives to fentanyl and have expressed a desire to see the bill passed. Rubio and Gonzales further argued that the Biden administration should do more to prevent illegal narcotics from entering the country, especially those which can tie their origins to mainland China. Many other Republicans in Congress issued statements supporting the passage of the legislation, such as Josh Hawley, Ted Budd, Joni Ernst, Tom Cotton, and Ted Cruz.[8][9][10][11]

The bill was introduced by Republican Senator Rick Scott from Florida and Republican representative Michael Guest from Mississippi in both the 117th and 118th congresses; Scott's bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent during the 117th Congress on December 14, 2022, but never reached the House of Representatives.[15]

In the 118th Congress, the bill was reintroduced by Scott and Guest in their respective houses of Congress; three other Republicans and four Democrats cosponsored Guest's bill, and Scott's bill was cosponsored by Republican Mike Braun and Democrats Jacky Rosen, Dianne Feinstein, and Maggie Hassan.[16][12][13]

The bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent on June 22, 2023.[17]

Introduced as S.380 on February 9, 2023, the legislation highly resembles the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, and to enable such suits, the bill would rollback judicial immunities in the American legal system against nations who engage in or enable the illegal smuggling of fentanyl into US territory.[18]

The bill has received opposition from some organizations for criminalizing chemically similar substances that potentially can be used for legitimate medical purposes or therapies; such backers of this argument include the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch.

The latter in particular highlighted that history might repeat itself similar to the crack cocaine epidemic, in how legislation on preventing crack cocaine harmed black populations with more severe penalties compared to white populations, as more severe offenses would be held out to crack, historically affiliated with black populations, than cocaine, conversely affiliated with white populations.[21][20]