INTERDICT Act

Mr. President, I rise to speak again today about the epidemic of deadly, illicit fentanyl plaguing our Nation and how, through bipartisan legislation I have introduced today, we can help to stop this dangerous opioid from flowing into our country from abroad.

I want to start by providing some basic information about fentanyl. What

is fentanyl? Well, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine. Although pharmaceutical fentanyl can be misused, the current fentanyl epidemic in our country is being fueled by illicitly manufactured fentanyl and illicit versions of chemically similar compounds known as fentanyl analogs.

Fentanyl, in its powder form, is often mixed with other illegal drugs like heroin or it is disguised in pill form to resemble an opioid painkiller like OxyContin. Many drug users overdose on fentanyl because they have no idea it is cut into whatever substance they are injecting or whatever pills they are swallowing. They simply do not realize just how deadly fentanyl is.

In fact, just a few salt-size grains of fentanyl can kill an adult. Where does illicit fentanyl come from? According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Mexico is the primary source for illicit fentanyl trafficked into the United States. Distributors in China are the principal source of the precursor chemicals, the chemical building blocks used to manufacture fentanyl in Mexico and elsewhere.

China is also a source of finished product illicit fentanyl coming into the United States. Why is illicit fentanyl trafficking increasing? Well, we are in the midst of an opioid epidemic that has begun with the overprescription and resulting abuse of prescription opioids like OxyContin. When users found those pills too expensive to sustain their addiction, they turned to cheaper heroin.

Now they are turning to even cheaper and more powerful fentanyl, which has become an extremely lucrative product for drug dealers and drug cartels. According to the DEA, a kilogram of heroin can be purchased from Colombia for about $6,000 and then sold on the wholesale drug market for $80,000--purchased for 6,000, sold for $80,000. By comparison, a kilogram of pure fentanyl can be purchased from China for less than $5,000 and then sold on the market for $80,000 as well.

Because it is so potent that 1 kilogram of fentanyl can be cut with agents like talcum powder or caffeine, resulting in 24 kilograms of product to be sold, that means that one $5,000 kilogram of fentanyl actually reaps a whopping profit in the neighborhood of $1.6 million.

What has been the impact of the fentanyl epidemic on the United States? Well, the DEA is so concerned about fentanyl that in March of 2015, it issued a nationwide alert that highlighted the drug as a threat to health and public safety. Between 2014 and 2015, overdose deaths in the United States from synthetic opioids, principally illicit fentanyl, increased 72 percent.

In 2015, there were more than 9,500 such overdose deaths in the United States. Last year, it is estimated that my home State of Massachusetts suffered more than 2,000 opioid-related overdose deaths, largely fueled by the deadly rise of illicit fentanyl. In fact, Massachusetts ranked second notionally per capita in synthetic opioid deaths, which includes fentanyl, with the number of deaths between 2014 and 2015 increasing by 109 percent.

Massachusetts authorities are now finding fentanyl in 74 percent of the State's opioid overdose deaths. If those figures hold up, that means last year there will have been roughly 1,500 fentanyl-related deaths in Massachusetts in 2016. If the fentanyl epidemic were to hit the entire Nation as hard as it is hitting Massachusetts, the country would lose almost 75,000 people each year to fentanyl. Think about that. Those are more deaths than the United States suffered in the entire Vietnam war.

Fentanyl is the Godzilla of opioids. It will overrun communities and lay them to waste, unless we take action now to stop it. So how do we stop it? There is no easy solution to a crisis caused by a drug that is so small, so powerful, so profitable that those who traffic in it just want to make money, but we know we must act.

First, we need to raise awareness of the dire threat fentanyl poses to our Nation. We need to educate the public about it. We need to elevate the issues to the highest levels of our government and the governments of the countries from which it comes. To help with that effort, last week, the Senate adopted a bipartisan sense of the Senate resolution on fentanyl trafficking that I introduced with Senator Rubio from Florida. I thank him for his partnership on that resolution. I thank Senators Toomey, Shaheen, King, Johnson, and Nelson for adding their support.

The resolution calls on our government to use its broad diplomatic and law enforcement resources in partnership with Mexico and China to disrupt the trafficking of fentanyl. We are seeing the signs of some progress. In October of 2015, China added 116 synthetic chemicals, including 6 fentanyl products, to its list of controlled chemical substances. In February of 2017, China agreed to make carfentanil, a powerful fentanyl analogue, and three other fentanyl analogues illegal.

Earlier this month, I led a group of 10 Senators in urging Secretary of State Tillerson to secure the votes of the 53 member nations of the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs in favor of the scheduling of the fentanyl precursors. Last week, the Commission voted unanimously in favor of controlling these substances. This international cooperation is expected to yield meaningful dividends in the fight against illicit fentanyl.

Fentanyl will require us to build bridges to our international partners, not walls. Indeed, I recently visited Mexico, where I met with law enforcement officials at the border, on the front lines of the smuggling and trafficking of narcotics into the United States. That is why today, Senators Rubio, Brown, Capito, and I introduced legislation to help this front line of drug detection at the border. It is called the INTERDICT Act. It provides badly needed high-tech equipment and other resources to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to help it detect and interdict illicit fentanyl being trafficked into the United States.

Here is how it works. There are two principal ways drugs like fentanyl are trafficked into the United States. First, coming from Mexico, they are smuggled across the southwest border of the United States. They are hidden in vehicles, beneath false floors, behind hidden compartments, and elsewhere. The drugs are also carried into the United States by people, sometimes hidden in the hollowed-out heels of their shoes.

Second, illegal fentanyl is also purchased online from overseas vendors in China and elsewhere--often on the dark web--and then shipped to Mexico or directly to the United States through the mail or express consignment carriers.

Fentanyl shipped this way is often concealed inside legitimate goods, with fentanyl suppliers using various methods to mislabel shipments. For example, some conceal the powder in those small silica packages that say ``do not eat'' placed alongside everyday items. Others gift wrap shipments or label them as household products like laundry detergent to avoid detection.

Customs and Border Protection has many different methods it uses to find contraband being smuggled into the United States at the border or through the mail. These include drug-sniffing dogs, various kinds of scanners, fiber-optic scopes, and physical searches. When Customs and Border Protection finds a suspicious substance using those and other methods, it has had success identifying it as an illicit drug like fentanyl with the help of high-tech, handheld chemical screening devices.

So anytime Customs and Border Protection finds a suspicious powder, pill, or liquid, it can use a handheld device--really something that looks and feels like a Nintendo Game Boy--to conduct a test, in the field, with real-time results. That means narcotics like illicit fentanyl can be detected, identified, and seized quickly and on the spot. Those rapid results provide vital information for law enforcement officers to continue their investigation and, if appropriate, proceed with seizure and arrest. Not only does the use of this technology disrupt the flow of the drugs into the country, it protects the health and safety of law enforcement officials from exposure to dangerous substances like illicit fentanyl.

Often, Border Patrol agents don't know what the powdery substance they have uncovered is and whether it poses a threat to them. That is especially alarming with illicit fentanyl, given its strength.

Exposure to a small amount by contact with the skin or through inhalation can be fatal. Increased use of these high-tech devices will provide important protections for our law enforcement officers on the front lines. The INTERDICT Act also provides for additional equipment back in Customs and Border Protection laboratories, including more scientists who analyze and interpret test results.

The INTERDICT Act ensures that Customs and Border Patrol will have hundreds of additional portable chemical screening devices available at international ports of entry and mail and express consignment facilities and additional equipment and personnel available in their laboratories so that they can provide support during all operational hours.

Again, I thank Senator Rubio, Senator Brown, and Senator Capito for working together on a bipartisan basis so we can give these additional tools to fight this fentanyl epidemic. I urge all my colleagues to support this bill to fight the scourge of illicit drugs. It knows no political, geographic, or socioeconomic boundaries. It is the epidemic of our time.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise to speak again today about the epidemic of deadly, illicit fentanyl plaguing our Nation and how, through bipartisan legislation I have introduced today, we can help to stop this dangerous opioid from flowing into our country from abroad.

I want to start by providing some basic information about fentanyl. What

is fentanyl? Well, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine. Although pharmaceutical fentanyl can be misused, the current fentanyl epidemic in our country is being fueled by illicitly manufactured fentanyl and illicit versions of chemically similar compounds known as fentanyl analogs.

Fentanyl, in its powder form, is often mixed with other illegal drugs like heroin or it is disguised in pill form to resemble an opioid painkiller like OxyContin. Many drug users overdose on fentanyl because they have no idea it is cut into whatever substance they are injecting or whatever pills they are swallowing. They simply do not realize just how deadly fentanyl is.

In fact, just a few salt-size grains of fentanyl can kill an adult. Where does illicit fentanyl come from? According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Mexico is the primary source for illicit fentanyl trafficked into the United States. Distributors in China are the principal source of the precursor chemicals, the chemical building blocks used to manufacture fentanyl in Mexico and elsewhere.

China is also a source of finished product illicit fentanyl coming into the United States. Why is illicit fentanyl trafficking increasing? Well, we are in the midst of an opioid epidemic that has begun with the overprescription and resulting abuse of prescription opioids like OxyContin. When users found those pills too expensive to sustain their addiction, they turned to cheaper heroin.

Now they are turning to even cheaper and more powerful fentanyl, which has become an extremely lucrative product for drug dealers and drug cartels. According to the DEA, a kilogram of heroin can be purchased from Colombia for about $6,000 and then sold on the wholesale drug market for $80,000--purchased for 6,000, sold for $80,000. By comparison, a kilogram of pure fentanyl can be purchased from China for less than $5,000 and then sold on the market for $80,000 as well.

Because it is so potent that 1 kilogram of fentanyl can be cut with agents like talcum powder or caffeine, resulting in 24 kilograms of product to be sold, that means that one $5,000 kilogram of fentanyl actually reaps a whopping profit in the neighborhood of $1.6 million.

What has been the impact of the fentanyl epidemic on the United States? Well, the DEA is so concerned about fentanyl that in March of 2015, it issued a nationwide alert that highlighted the drug as a threat to health and public safety. Between 2014 and 2015, overdose deaths in the United States from synthetic opioids, principally illicit fentanyl, increased 72 percent.

In 2015, there were more than 9,500 such overdose deaths in the United States. Last year, it is estimated that my home State of Massachusetts suffered more than 2,000 opioid-related overdose deaths, largely fueled by the deadly rise of illicit fentanyl. In fact, Massachusetts ranked second notionally per capita in synthetic opioid deaths, which includes fentanyl, with the number of deaths between 2014 and 2015 increasing by 109 percent.

Massachusetts authorities are now finding fentanyl in 74 percent of the State's opioid overdose deaths. If those figures hold up, that means last year there will have been roughly 1,500 fentanyl-related deaths in Massachusetts in 2016. If the fentanyl epidemic were to hit the entire Nation as hard as it is hitting Massachusetts, the country would lose almost 75,000 people each year to fentanyl. Think about that. Those are more deaths than the United States suffered in the entire Vietnam war.

Fentanyl is the Godzilla of opioids. It will overrun communities and lay them to waste, unless we take action now to stop it. So how do we stop it? There is no easy solution to a crisis caused by a drug that is so small, so powerful, so profitable that those who traffic in it just want to make money, but we know we must act.

First, we need to raise awareness of the dire threat fentanyl poses to our Nation. We need to educate the public about it. We need to elevate the issues to the highest levels of our government and the governments of the countries from which it comes. To help with that effort, last week, the Senate adopted a bipartisan sense of the Senate resolution on fentanyl trafficking that I introduced with Senator Rubio from Florida. I thank him for his partnership on that resolution. I thank Senators Toomey, Shaheen, King, Johnson, and Nelson for adding their support.

The resolution calls on our government to use its broad diplomatic and law enforcement resources in partnership with Mexico and China to disrupt the trafficking of fentanyl. We are seeing the signs of some progress. In October of 2015, China added 116 synthetic chemicals, including 6 fentanyl products, to its list of controlled chemical substances. In February of 2017, China agreed to make carfentanil, a powerful fentanyl analogue, and three other fentanyl analogues illegal.

Earlier this month, I led a group of 10 Senators in urging Secretary of State Tillerson to secure the votes of the 53 member nations of the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs in favor of the scheduling of the fentanyl precursors. Last week, the Commission voted unanimously in favor of controlling these substances. This international cooperation is expected to yield meaningful dividends in the fight against illicit fentanyl.

Fentanyl will require us to build bridges to our international partners, not walls. Indeed, I recently visited Mexico, where I met with law enforcement officials at the border, on the front lines of the smuggling and trafficking of narcotics into the United States. That is why today, Senators Rubio, Brown, Capito, and I introduced legislation to help this front line of drug detection at the border. It is called the INTERDICT Act. It provides badly needed high-tech equipment and other resources to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to help it detect and interdict illicit fentanyl being trafficked into the United States.

Here is how it works. There are two principal ways drugs like fentanyl are trafficked into the United States. First, coming from Mexico, they are smuggled across the southwest border of the United States. They are hidden in vehicles, beneath false floors, behind hidden compartments, and elsewhere. The drugs are also carried into the United States by people, sometimes hidden in the hollowed-out heels of their shoes.

Second, illegal fentanyl is also purchased online from overseas vendors in China and elsewhere--often on the dark web--and then shipped to Mexico or directly to the United States through the mail or express consignment carriers.

Fentanyl shipped this way is often concealed inside legitimate goods, with fentanyl suppliers using various methods to mislabel shipments. For example, some conceal the powder in those small silica packages that say ``do not eat'' placed alongside everyday items. Others gift wrap shipments or label them as household products like laundry detergent to avoid detection.

Customs and Border Protection has many different methods it uses to find contraband being smuggled into the United States at the border or through the mail. These include drug-sniffing dogs, various kinds of scanners, fiber-optic scopes, and physical searches. When Customs and Border Protection finds a suspicious substance using those and other methods, it has had success identifying it as an illicit drug like fentanyl with the help of high-tech, handheld chemical screening devices.

So anytime Customs and Border Protection finds a suspicious powder, pill, or liquid, it can use a handheld device--really something that looks and feels like a Nintendo Game Boy--to conduct a test, in the field, with real-time results. That means narcotics like illicit fentanyl can be detected, identified, and seized quickly and on the spot. Those rapid results provide vital information for law enforcement officers to continue their investigation and, if appropriate, proceed with seizure and arrest. Not only does the use of this technology disrupt the flow of the drugs into the country, it protects the health and safety of law enforcement officials from exposure to dangerous substances like illicit fentanyl.

Often, Border Patrol agents don't know what the powdery substance they have uncovered is and whether it poses a threat to them. That is especially alarming with illicit fentanyl, given its strength.

Exposure to a small amount by contact with the skin or through inhalation can be fatal. Increased use of these high-tech devices will provide important protections for our law enforcement officers on the front lines. The INTERDICT Act also provides for additional equipment back in Customs and Border Protection laboratories, including more scientists who analyze and interpret test results.

The INTERDICT Act ensures that Customs and Border Patrol will have hundreds of additional portable chemical screening devices available at international ports of entry and mail and express consignment facilities and additional equipment and personnel available in their laboratories so that they can provide support during all operational hours.

Again, I thank Senator Rubio, Senator Brown, and Senator Capito for working together on a bipartisan basis so we can give these additional tools to fight this fentanyl epidemic. I urge all my colleagues to support this bill to fight the scourge of illicit drugs. It knows no political, geographic, or socioeconomic boundaries. It is the epidemic of our time.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Will the Senator yield?

I thank the Senator for yielding, and I thank the Senator from Ohio for talking about this very important issue.

Fentanyl is a killer that is descending upon every single community in the United States. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine. Fentanyl is the Godzilla of opioids.

Senator Brown represents Ohio; I represent Massachusetts. The fentanyl epidemic has a bull's-eye on Ohio and a bull's-eye on Massachusetts. The deaths from fentanyl are skyrocketing. In 2016, upwards of 70 to 75 percent of all of the opioid deaths in Massachusetts were because of fentanyl. Fentanyl was found in the blood system of those people who died. Last year, 2,000 people in Massachusetts died of overdoses. Three-quarters of them had fentanyl. If the epidemic had been hitting the rest of the country at the same rate that it has been hitting Massachusetts, last year 75,000 people would have died with fentanyl in their blood systems.

Last night, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released shocking new numbers on drug overdose deaths in the United States. These numbers show the spike in deaths caused by fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

Here are the new numbers nationwide. More than 42,000 Americans died from an opioid overdose last year. That is a 27-percent increase over the number of Americans who died from an opioid overdose in 2015. It went up 27 percent from 2015 to 2016. Of the 42,000 lives lost to opioids last year, nearly half of them nationwide--just over

19,000--can be directly attributed to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. The number is a much higher percentage in Massachusetts.

Fentanyl is overrunning our communities, laying waste to them. There is no easy solution, but we know that we must staunch the flow of this drug before we lose an entire generation to this terrible killer. That is why I introduced legislation with Senator Brown and Senator Rubio to help those on the frontlines stop this deadly drug from ever getting into our communities. The bill is called the INTERDICT Act. It provides badly needed high-tech equipment and other scientific resources to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to catch illicit fentanyl being trafficked into the United States, mainly from China and Mexico.

When U.S. Customs and Border Protection detects a suspicious package or substance, it has had very good success identifying an illicit drug like fentanyl with the help of high-tech, hand-held chemical screening devices. Using these devices, Customs and Border Protection agents can detect, identify, and seize illicit drugs like fentanyl on the spot. Those rapid results provide vital information for border agents to continue their investigation and, if appropriate, proceed with seizure and arrest.

What is more, these devices and their ability to immediately identify fentanyl and other hazardous illicit substances also serve to safeguard the health and well-being of Customs and Border Protection agents so they are not accidentally exposed to fentanyl. That is what these devices help to make possible.

So we introduced the INTERDICT Act with Sherrod Brown of Ohio; Senator Capito, the Presiding Officer in the Senate today; Senator Rubio; and we have added another 16 Senators from both sides of the aisle.

Madam President, I would be glad to yield.

Madam President, I thank the Senator for yielding.

Can I just list the names of the organizations that support this bill so the police can interdict, stop the fentanyl from coming into our country?

It is the National Fraternal Order of Police, it is the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, it is the National Border Control Council, it is the Police Assisted Recovery Initiative, it is the National Sheriffs' Association, the National Tactical Officers Association, the National Association of Police Organizations, the National Narcotics Officers' Associations' Coalition, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, the American Legion, the International Union of Police Associations, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the Major County Sheriffs of America, and the Massachusetts Coalition of Police. So it is pretty much every single law enforcement agency at all levels in the country saying: Please give us this tool now so we can detect this incredible killer in our country.

Three former Commissioners of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, appointed by both Democratic and Republican Presidents, support the INTERDICT Act. President Trump's nominee to head the agency, Kevin McAleenan, testified that he supports getting more of these high-tech scanners into the hands of Customs and Border Patrol.

Despite working for months with Senate leadership to try and secure authorization for funding, we just can't seem to get this over the finish line so that in the new year they have these devices. The way it works is, you just put the device up next to a package, and it will tell you if it has got fentanyl or not. Right now, many law enforcement agencies will not even allow one of their police dogs to sniff for fentanyl because it will kill the police dog. That is how dangerous fentanyl is, and that is why these electronic devices are so important. It ensures that we have minimized the exposure of our officers to these substances and, at the same time, dramatically increase the likelihood that we are going to identify the fentanyl in a package and, as a result, deter these people from China or from Mexico who bring it into our country and are killing us by the thousands.

At 42,000 deaths last year, it is now approximating the total number of deaths in the war in Vietnam throughout its entire history. That is just 1 year, 42,000 people--1 year. That is a terrorist attack of a magnitude on our own streets that is unimaginable.

With these devices, we don't completely solve the problem, but we put more weapons in the hands of our law enforcement officials, detection devices that can minimize the likelihood that these terrible people from China, from Mexico, principally, can bring this stuff into our country.

So this is a huge issue. It goes right to the heart of the seriousness of dealing with this issue. My only hope is, we have an ability to be able to move this thing forward in a way that lets the American people say: We understand the issues you want us to work on, and the opioid crisis is at the top of the list. It is indiscriminate. It affects potentially every family. No one is immune to addiction. No family is immune from addiction. It could hit any family at any time, and fentanyl is the ultimate killer.

I thank the Senator.

Madam President, as we await Senator Markey's and Senator Johnson's remarks, I wish to set the stage. The CDC released a new report last night showing a massive increase in the number of Americans dying from drug overdoses.

My State is second to the Presiding Officer's State. It has the second highest rate of deaths per capita in the country. In my State of Ohio, unfortunately, far too many people die from opioid overdoses than any other State in country. Families are torn apart. Children lose parents. Parents lose sons and daughters.

The CDC pins much of the blame of this epidemic on this relatively new deadly synthetic fentanyl. Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin. Senator Capito knows that, as do Senators Johnson and Markey. All of us in the Senate are aware of that.

This drug is being illegally trafficked into this country from Mexico and China. We have a bill to stop this today. The INTERDICT Act. I want to thank Senator Markey for his leadership on this bill and also my colleague Senator Portman for his support. Senator Portman and I have been working on a number of issues across party lines for months and months. It would provide more funds for Customs and Border Protection to screen packages effectively and safely, to stop fentanyl whenever possible before it reaches Akron, Toledo, Dayton, or the smaller cities of Chillicothe, Mansfield, and Zanesville.

This passed the House with only two or three negative votes. It has the support of major law enforcement organizations, including sheriffs and police officers. Our law enforcement officials, better than anybody, see the devastation that fentanyl causes our communities. They know the risk our officers face dealing with this deadly substance. That is why this bill needs to pass into law.

Just this week, the National FOP, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative--a recent phenomenon, unfortunately--all publicly asked us to pass the bill.

Americans are dying in record numbers. Life expectancy in our country--I believe, for the first time in the lifetimes of any of us-- actually dropped last year. Think about that.

We have made progress, as I mentioned, in this body. I wear a pin on my lapel of a canary in a bird cage. The mine workers in West Virginia, Ohio, and elsewhere would take this canary down to the mines. If the canary died, the mine worker was on his own. He didn't have a union strong enough or a government that cared enough to help him. In those days, people lived 45 years on average--for a person born in the United States in 1900.

Today we live 30 years longer for a whole host of public health reasons--from Medicare to Medicaid, to safe drinking laws, to clean air, to minimum wage--all the things that we do. For the first time, I believe, in our lifetime, life expectancy actually has dropped because of drug overdoses for the second year in a row, and it is in large part because of these overdose deaths.

Why shouldn't we take steps today to stop this? We can do this by putting the INTERDICT Act on the President's desk, immediately giving law enforcement the tools they need to keep fentanyl out of the country and off our streets.

Of course.

Madam President, will the Senator yield?

Madam President, I thank Senator Markey for his leadership on this issue. This has gotten this far because of his efforts in so many ways.

I want to enter into the Record three letters that are dated yesterday and today. Actually, one is from the National Fraternal Order of Police, signed by Chuck Canterbury, their national president, in support of this bill, with a very persuasive, passionate laying out of reasons it matters. The second is a letter from the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, signed by Dominick Stokes. Mr. Stokes is a longtime friend of mine. The third letter is from the Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative group, signed by Frederick Ryan, all making endorsements for this bill.

I ask unanimous consent those three letters be printed in the Record.

I think it is pretty clear how important this is. This bill got, I believe, 2 or maybe 3 negative votes out of 400-some in the House of Representatives. There is no organization I know of that opposes it. I hear from people in my State consistently about how important this is, from police organizations to parents, to individual police officers and county sheriffs and all, and deputy sheriffs.

There is just no reason we shouldn't be able to do this before we go home for Christmas. There are a lot of things we should do before we go home for Christmas, including the Children's Health Insurance Program, but this is one we know we can do. There seems to be no substantive disagreement from any large number of groups or individuals that I can see, so I am hopeful we can move forward with this in the next few minutes.

Yes.

Madam President, I thank Senator Markey and hope we can work things out with Senator Johnson on this issue.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, for the information of Senators, we will have the cloture vote on this treaty on Monday night at 5:30 p.m.