Preventing the Financing of Illegal Synthetic Drugs Act

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1076, the Preventing the Financing of Illegal Synthetic Drugs Act sponsored by the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. De La Cruz), a bill that I am pleased to cosponsor and co-lead.

Thanks to collaboration on both sides of the aisle, this bill offers a well-written study focused on the financing and proceeds of the illicit synthetic drug trade that is victimizing communities across the country. By following the money behind the multibillion-dollar drug trade, we are able to understand the traffickers' operations and improve our ability to disrupt their activities.

The effects of this trafficking have been staggering. Deaths involving synthetic opioids, such as illicit fentanyl and methamphetamine, increased by 22 percent in 2021, resulting in the deaths of more than 100,000 of our family members and neighbors. In 2022, there were also nearly 200,000 nonfatal opioid overdoses in the U.S. In 2021, overdose death rates increased 44 percent for Black people and 39 percent for American Indian and Alaska Natives, showing troubling trends and widening disparities among population groups.

Combating the opioid epidemic is one of the reasons why I ran for Congress. Like too many Americans, my family has been impacted by the opioid crisis. My mom's addiction began with the overprescription of opioids, which led to heroin and ultimately fentanyl when it started to take over the drug supply chain in 2016. Unfortunately, my mom's story is not unique in Jefferson County, in Colorado, or in this country.

The opioid epidemic is now more lethal than ever as we continue to see drugs become more and more potent and easier to traffic. It is going to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to stop the flow of fentanyl and other illicit synthetic opioids in this country. Ensuring that we understand the financial networks of drug trafficking organizations is a critical tool that we need to protect American lives.

This bill will not solve all the issues related to the opioid crisis. We need to do more to increase access to substance use disorder treatment and recovery services, and we need to do more to help support the workforce shortages. We need to crack down on social media companies that are permitting the sale of illegal drugs to young Americans, and we need to ensure that the financial system has the tools to quickly identify bad actors and break up their drug trafficking rings.

As a member of the House Financial Services Committee, I advocate for leveraging every financial tool at our disposal to pursue the traffickers of illicit fentanyl and other drugs. In this role, I also advocate for every individual family and community that has suffered or will suffer from misguided antidrug policies' physical, social, and economic damage to have the support that they need.

Thus, I urge my fellow Members to vote for this needed trafficking study bill, but I also urge them to consider that we must take the time to learn the lessons of past epidemics and take further steps to eliminate harmful and counterproductive policies.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty).

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative De La Cruz for her collaboration on this bill. Together, we can better understand the financing of drug trafficking and how the traffickers move and hide their proceeds. Doing so will help Congress and other policymakers to better disrupt their operations, protecting innocent Americans from the deadly harm that they cause in communities across the country.

Mr. Speaker, I again urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1076) to require the Comptroller General of the United States to carry out a study on the trafficking into the United States of synthetic drugs, and related illicit finance, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1076, the Preventing the Financing of Illegal Synthetic Drugs Act.

As we are all painfully aware, fentanyl is a poison that is afflicting every community across America. This poison is a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Just 2 milligrams, equal to 10 to 15 grains of table salt, is enough to be lethal.

That is why I am grateful that Members like Congresswoman De La Cruz have hit the ground running on commonsense legislation like H.R. 1076 to sever the lifeblood that keeps the fentanyl business model going, which is its financing.

As we heard in the Financial Services Committee hearing titled, ``Follow the Money,'' ``Financing is essential to support and sustain the command and control, personnel, arms, communications, logistics, and operations of organized crime groups. For this reason, following the money trail and depriving criminals of illicit financial flows can disrupt and disable these networks.''

I recognize there are many challenges to attacking the fentanyl crisis, including our unsecured border, but from a Financial Services Committee perspective, we can only address what

is in our jurisdiction, and that is its financing.

Congresswoman De La Cruz's study will help inform Congress on the next best step to disrupt and dismantle synthetic drug trafficking and its financing.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. De La Cruz), the sponsor of this bill, a new and dynamic member of our committee.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I think the bill's sponsor, Ms. De La Cruz, and cosponsor Mrs. Beatty, have both articulated very well the need for this bill. It is a good idea.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues' support for the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time, and I thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for their bipartisan support.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in support of the Preventing the Financing of Illegal Synthetic Drugs Act, H.R. 1076.

Mr. Speaker, as the ranking member of the Financial Services Subcommittee of National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions, our jurisdiction tends to focus abroad, but make no mistake, the epidemic of synthetic drug overdoses impacts each and every congressional district and every community throughout our country. For example, Ohio ranks third in the overall number of drug overdose deaths, which we are not proud of.

According to the most recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 107,000 people in the United States have died from drug overdoses or drug poisoning in the past 12 months.

Mr. Speaker, 5,000 of those individuals were right there in my district.

Let me also share, as my colleague and our chair of the committee has stated to us, under the bill, the GAO would examine these illicit financial flows from and to foreign nations, including China, and will review the business of the trafficking of synthetic drugs and related illicit finance, such as participation in transnational criminal organizations and behaviors.

If we are going to stop the flow of illicit drugs like fentanyl and meth and the tragic loss of lives they bring with them, then we need to know more about the who, the where, and the how of the illegal trafficking trade.

Mr. Speaker, that is why I am honored to support what I call a commonsense, bipartisan piece of legislation. Again, I thank the chair, our ranking member, the bill's sponsors, and, certainly, our Financial Services Committee, and I urge my colleagues to join in support.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Missouri for yielding and for his broader leadership of the Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions.

Mr. Speaker, according to the CDC, over 107,000 Americans died from drug overdoses or drug poisonings in the 12-month period ending January 2022. Sixty-seven percent of those deaths involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.

Last year, Hidalgo County, which sits in my district, made news with massive fentanyl seizures at the U.S.-Mexico border. These include $1.5 million in January 2022 and $330,000 in June. These numbers are staggering. According to law enforcement, an illicit investment of $30,000 or less could yield $6 to $32 million.

To end this crisis, we must tackle the financing. As the adage goes, ``Follow the money.'' This money fuels the operations of the cartels that are poisoning our families.

My bill, the Preventing the Financing of Illegal Synthetic Drugs Act, will help law enforcement pinpoint the business model of the traffickers, how they move and hide their profits, and what the U.S. can do to stop fentanyl money laundering.

To end this carnage that is taking so many lives in south Texas and all across America, we must track down the funds that fuel it.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee be discharged from and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1076.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Madam President, that was the fentanyl bill led by Senators Cortez Masto and Rosen that I mentioned a few minutes ago.