In letters to Congressional leadership last week, groups including the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), National Association of Police Officers (NAPO), and Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA) called for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)’s FEND Off Fentanyl Act (S. 1271) to be included in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The annual defense bill is normally one of the rare certainties in Congress, but has faced unusually steep partisan minefields over issues ranging from Ukraine to Israel to the southern border. While negotiations are ongoing regarding the final form of the NDAA, law enforcement organizations urged that this particular inclusion not be left on the cutting room floor.
FEND – which stands for Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence – is a sanctions and anti-money laundering bill that seeks to use both to target illicit fentanyl’s supply chains. Chemical supplies in China, cartels in Mexico, regardless of their role in the process, anyone affiliated with the trafficking and production could be targeted. It could best be summed up as a bill to fight fentanyl everywhere.
“By going after the illicit fentanyl supply chain, from China through Mexico, our bill will help stop fentanyl at its source — before it ever reaches Ohio,” Brown said. “We took a major step forward when we passed this bipartisan bill in the Senate. Now we need to include it in the final defense bill to finally hold China and the Mexican drug cartels accountable for bringing deadly drugs into our country.”
The FOP summed it up by stating in its letter that fentanyl is killing Americans. In fact, the National Institute on Drug Abuse noted reported that more than 100,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2021, with 65 percent of those deaths attributed to fentanyl and its analogs. In 2022, that death roll reached nearly 110,000.
“It is time that we recognize the nature of the threat our country is facing and develop a comprehensive, national strategy to reduce overdoses, disrupt trafficking operations, attack the traffickers with sanctions, and prioritize anti-money laundering efforts related to the illicit opioid trade,” FOP wrote. “The FEND Off Fentanyl Act correctly identifies that the international trafficking of fentanyl is a national emergency that poses a direct threat to American lives.”
The other groups echoed these sentiments, labeling the bill as a necessity, and one that would help their own members counter fentanyl’s spread nationwide.