CAPTAGON Act

Mr. Speaker, I thank my two friends from New Jersey for managing the floor, and I thank my good friend, the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Brendan F. Boyle) for working with me on this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I do rise in support of H.R. 6265, the CAPTAGON Act. I really appreciate Chairman Meeks and Ranking Member McCaul shepherding this legislation through the committee and now to the House floor. As I said, Congressman Boyle and I worked collectively on this over the past year, and I appreciate his leadership on our Friends of Syria Caucus.

The decade of destruction and deteriorating human rights situation in Syria is well known. But just look at the poster next to me for a snippet of the headlines coming out of the region as it relates to this poison, this drug, Captagon.

In addition to regularly committing war crimes against his own people, the Assad regime in Syria has now become a narco state. Narcotic production and trafficking in Syria and its neighbors have become more expansive and more widespread.

The current epicenter of the drug trade is in territory controlled by the Assad regime. This has been well known now for at least 2 years. Yet despite that, just last week the State Department and White House failed to include Syria in their required determinations of major drug transit and major illicit drug producing countries.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter dated July 15, 2022, from Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, Representative Brendan Boyle, and myself to Secretary Blinken urging that Syria be added to this determination.

Washington, DC, July 15, 2022.

Hon. Antony Blinken,

Secretary of State,

Department of State.

Dear Mr. Secretary: We are writing to respectfully request

that your administration review and determine whether Syria

meets the criteria of a ``major illicit drug producing

country'' or ``major drug-transit country'' as defined in

sections 481(e)(2) and 481(e)(5) of the Foreign Assistance

Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. Sec. 2291(e)(2) and Sec. 2291(e)(5)).

Elements of the Assad regime and regime-affiliated networks

have reportedly engaged in state-sponsored amphetamine

production and trafficking. We have seen a troubling increase

in Captagon exports from Assad regime-affiliated networks

relying on a robust pharmaceutical sector and smuggling

routes between Syria and neighboring countries. This uptick

has also coincided with increased Assad-affiliated Captagon

seizures globally.

Not only is this trade a potential source of revenue for

elements of the Assad regime and its affiliates, but the

industrial-scale amphetamine production represents a security

threat to the region itself, particularly as Captagon

production can become methamphetamine with a few changes to

the production process. In response, the House of

Representatives designed an amendment to the National Defense

Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022 to encourage

your administration to develop a multi-agency strategy to

disrupt and dismantle these networks. The Joint Explanatory

Statement for the FY2022 NDAA noted that ``the Captagon trade

is a cause of instability in the Middle East that has

negative implications for the national security of the United

States and its allies and partners. We support development of

a strategy to guide appropriate action against narcotics

production and trafficking and affiliated networks linked to

the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.''

As you know, section 706 of the Foreign Relations

Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (P.L. 107-228) requires

that the President submit an annual report no later than

September 15 of each year that identifies each country

determined by the President to be a major drug transit

country or major illicit drug-producing country. In its most

recent report, the White House did not list Syria among the

22 countries identified as major drug transit or major

illicit drug producing countries. If a country is designated

as having ``failed demonstrably'' in its counternarcotics

commitments, the United States must cease providing certain

categories of foreign assistance (as defined in section

481(e)(4) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961; 22 U.S.C.

Sec. 2291(e)(4)) to such country unless the President

determines that the provision of such assistance is vital to

U.S. national interests or that the country, at any time

after the President's initial report to Congress, has made

``substantial efforts'' to comply with the counternarcotics

conditions in the legislation. This prohibition does not

affect narcotics-related assistance and humanitarian

assistance (i.e., disaster relief assistance, assistance

involving the provision of food or medicine, and assistance

for refugees).

We, therefore, request that you determine whether the

Government of Syria meets the criteria for designation as a

major drug transit country or major illicit drug-producing

country.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. We

look forward to receiving your expeditious response.

Sincerely,

Roger Marshall,

United States Senator.

Brendan Boyle,

Member of Congress.

French Hill,

Member of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, this recent omission tracks with the administration's diplomacy disconnect from our American values. First, earlier this year, State erred and did not include Nigeria, leaving them off as a country of particular concern for religious freedom. And now it is Syria left off as a major drug-producing country.

Mr. Speaker, this is why this bill is so critical and important at this time.

We need an all-of-Government approach to addressing the Assad regime's drug production and trafficking.

Captagon has already reached Europe, and it is only a matter of time before it reaches our shores. If we do not work with our like-minded partners to first hinder the narcotics trade and replace it with a working system of institutions that serve the Syrian people, then Assad will, in fact, add the title drug kingpin to his recognized global status as a leading mass murderer.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this important bill.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6265) to require a strategy by the United States Government to disrupt and dismantle the Captagon trade and narcotics networks of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 6265.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 6265, the CAPTAGON Act.

I would like to first thank Representatives French Hill and Brendan Boyle, as well as Members from both sides of the aisle for reintroducing this bipartisan legislation and addressing an important issue which continues to fuel the Assad regime's coffers and campaign of brutality.

Despite condemnation from the United States and the international community, Bashar al-Assad's military has continued its relentless assault on the Syrian people committing reprehensible crimes against humanity upon them.

Even as American and European sanctions restrict this regime's ability to transact and deal internationally, its campaign of brutality continues to seek sources of revenue around the world.

One of these illicit sources of revenue is the smuggling of the narcotic stimulant drug, Captagon, which is trafficked to, in, and around Syria, and has become a cash source for the Assad regime to enrich itself and prolong its atrocities against Syrians.

Though initial steps have been taken by the State Department, our intelligence community, and the Drug Enforcement Agency to work with allies and partners to counter this traffic, more can and must be done.

So the CAPTAGON Act would require the Federal Government to develop an interagency strategy to disrupt and dismantle narcotics trafficking and networks linked to the Assad regime in Syria. It also requires reporting on such efforts and on coordination with our partners.

This is an important step in ensuring we can use every tool we have to stop the spread of Captagon in the region and to choke off illicit revenue for this brutal regime.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the bipartisan group of Members, including you, Mr. Speaker, for presenting this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support it, and I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives,

Committee on the Judiciary,

Washington, DC, September 19, 2022.

Hon. Gregory Meeks,

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs,

House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Meeks: This letter is to advise you that the

Committee on the Judiciary has now had an opportunity to

review the provisions in H.R. 6265, the ``Countering Assad's

Proliferation Trafficking And Garnering Of Narcotics Act'' or

the ``CAPTAGON Act,'' that fall within our Rule X

jurisdiction. I appreciate your consulting with us on those

provisions. The Judiciary Committee has no objection to your

including them in the bill for consideration on the House

floor, and to expedite that consideration is willing to forgo

action on H.R. 6265, with the understanding that we do not

thereby waive any future jurisdictional claim over those

provisions or their subject matters.

In the event a House-Senate conference on this or similar

legislation is convened, the Judiciary Committee reserves the

right to request an appropriate number of conferees to

address any concerns with these or similar provisions that

may arise in conference.

Please place this letter into the Congressional Record

during consideration of the measure on the House floor. Thank

you for the cooperative spirit in which you have worked

regarding this matter and others between our committees.

Sincerely,

Jerrold Nadler,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

Mr. Speaker, I thank, once again, my colleagues, Representatives French Hill and Brendan Boyle, for introducing this critical legislation. I hope all of our colleagues will join us in supporting it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill), who is the ranking member on the Financial Services Committee. He is author of this important legislation, and in the past, Mr. Speaker, he served under George Herbert Walker Bush as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury. He also was the special assistant for economic policy under 41, George Herbert Walker Bush, so he brings a wealth of knowledge and information that we are blessed to have here in this House.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, French Hill, for authoring this very, very important piece of legislation. It mandates an interagency strategy on how the U.S. is responding to the destabilizing Captagon drug trade in the Middle East.

Captagon, as I think my colleagues know, is a highly addictive amphetamine that is fast becoming the most widely abused drug in the Middle East. Given the growing threat Captagon poses to the stability in the region and to individual human lives, the lack of resources devoted to address its proliferation is alarming.

In addition to this drug trade creating a crisis along Jordan's border, there is growing evidence that the murderous Assad regime is deeply involved in Captagon trafficking. This narco trafficking fuels Assad's war on the Syrian people and further threatens regional stability. The administration clearly is not doing enough, as was pointed out by my good friend and colleague, French Hill, to focus on this threat, which is why we need this bill to admonish the administration and to force the administration, the executive branch, to acknowledge this problem and to respond to it.

The CAPTAGON Act will help ensure that we are countering this destabilizing drug trade which is helping to bankroll one of the most brutal tyrants of our time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to section 2 of House Resolution 1361, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bills: H.R. 1433, H.R. 4009, H.R. 4358, H.R. 6265, H.R. 6846, H.R. 7240, H.R. 7338, H.R. 8453, H.R. 8503, and H.R. 8520; and agree to H. Res. 558.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.