Brown, Law Enforcement Call On Administration To Immediately Implement Brown’s Bill Targeting Fentanyl Traffickers

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) hosted a news conference call with law enforcement leaders to call for immediate implementation of his legislation to crack down on fentanyl traffickers in China and Mexico, which was signed into law last week.

The FEND Off Fentanyl Actpassed the House and the Senate as part of the bipartisan national security package. Brown was joined on the call by Jonathan Thompson, Executive Director and CEO of the National Sheriffs' Association, and Larry Cosme, former president and current executive board member of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.

Brown's legislation is a sanctions and anti-money laundering bill aimed at combating the country's fentanyl crisis and saving lives in Ohio by targeting the illicit fentanyl supply chain, from the chemical suppliers in China to the cartels that transport the drugs in from Mexico. Senator Brown worked with law enforcement to craft the legislation, and national and Ohio law enforcementpraised the bill's passage last week.

"Last week, after a year of work with law enforcement, we passed my FEND Off Fentanyl Act and the president signed it into law. The Administration now needs to immediately implement this law and start using these new tools right away to target fentanyl traffickers and fight the flow of this deadly drug into our communities," said Brown.

"Senator Brown is a great advocate for law enforcement, and we are delighted that his important legislation, the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, was just signed into law by President Biden. Fentanyl is ravishing our communities and killing our citizens at an alarming rate, and we must stop the flow at the source immediately. Senator Brown recently saw first-hand the crisis at the border accompanied by Wood County, Ohio Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn and we commend his thoughtful and expedient response," said Jonathan Thompson, Executive Director and CEO, National Sheriffs' Association.

"I want to thank you, Senator, for being a strong leader on the efforts to address the scourge of fentanyl and to protect the American public and our American law enforcement officers from this deadly substance," said Larry Cosme, former president and current executive board member, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. "We really appreciate your strong commitment to ensuring that this bill became law, and now we're looking forward to continue to work with you like we have to stop these foreign transnational criminal organizations and drug cartels from profiting from poisoning our communities across the nation and crossing into the U.S. borders and affecting our communities. We really appreciate everything you've done on behalf of the men and women in federal law enforcement and the local law enforcement communities."

"The FOP is pleased to have played a key role in ensuring that the FEND Off Fentanyl Act was signed into law recently. We were fortunate to have a good friend and partner, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Chairman of the Banking Committee, helping to lead this effort. Together with the bill's sponsor, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, we were able to get this bill over the finish line. With the passage of this bill, our country has taken a huge step in fighting back against the scourge of fentanyl," said Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police

Background:

The prevalence of dangerous forms of fentanyl, often mixed with other substances, is a serious public health threat to Ohio communities. In 2022, fentanyl was involved in 80% of unintentional drug overdose deaths in Ohio.

The FEND Off Fentanyl Act is a sanctions and anti-money laundering bill to help combat the country's fentanyl crisis by targeting opioid traffickers devastating Ohio communities. The bill will enhance current law so U.S. government agencies can more effectively disrupt illicit opioid supply chains and penalize those facilitating the trafficking of fentanyl. The bill also ensures that sanctions are imposed not only on the illicit drug trade, but also on the money laundering that makes it profitable.

Specifically, the legislation will:

• Declare that the international trafficking of fentanyl is a national emergency.

• Require the President to sanction transnational criminal organizations and drug cartels' key members engaged in international fentanyl trafficking.

• Enable the President to use proceeds of forfeited, sanctioned property of fentanyl traffickers to further law enforcement efforts.

• Enhance the ability to enforce sanctions violations thereby making it more likely that people who defy U.S. law will be caught and prosecuted.

• Require the administration to report to Congress on actions the U.S. government is taking to reduce the international trafficking of fentanyl and related opioids.

• Allow the Treasury Department to utilize special measures to combat fentanyl-related money laundering.

• Require the Treasury Department to prioritize fentanyl-related suspicious transactions and include descriptions of drug cartels' financing actions in Suspicious Activity Reports.

More information about the bill can be found here, bill text can be found here.

Senator Brown's Work to Combat Fentanyl:

Brown has a long history of leadership in fighting to stop the flow of fentanyl into Ohio's communities. In addition to his bipartisan FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which imposes new sanctions and anti-money laundering penalties targeting the illicit fentanyl supply chain, Brown also is pushing to pass his bipartisan Providing Officers with Electronic Resources (POWER) Act. The POWER Act would establish a new grant program through the U.S. Department of Justice to help state and local law enforcement organizations secure high-tech, portable drug screening devices. This legislation builds off Brown's INTERDICT Act, which President Trump signed into law and which provides U.S. Customs and Border Protection with high-tech screening equipment and lab resources to detect fentanyl before it enters the U.S.

Brown introduced the bipartisan Protecting First Responders from Secondary Exposure Act which would allow state and local governments to purchase containment devices to safely store dangerous drugs and preserve them for evidentiary use, and provide first responders training to reduce their risk of secondary exposure to lethal substances. This work builds on his bipartisan PREVENT Act, which provides drug evidentiary containment devices for Border Patrol Officers and became law in 2022. He has also introduced the Stop Fentanyl at the Border Act, which would increase staffing and technology to detect illicit drugs and other contraband being smuggled through ports of entry or at illegal crossings along the border.

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