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H.R. 1046House119th Congress (2025-2027)In Committee

Marc Fischer Memorial Act

Sponsored by Don BaconRep. Don Bacon (R-NE)
Introduced February 6, 2025

AI-Generated Summary

Updated November 24, 2025 at 9:38 PM UTC

The Marc Fischer Memorial Act directs the Bureau of Prisons to create and carry out a strategy that stops fentanyl and other synthetic drugs from entering federal prisons through inmate mail. It requires an early evaluation of current detection tools, a detailed plan for digital scanning of all mail, and timelines for delivering digital and physical copies to inmates. The law also sets budgeting, staffing, and reporting requirements to ensure the plan is fully funded and its results are monitored.

Key Provisions

  • Within 180 days the BOP Director must assess current drug‑interdiction equipment, mail‑scanning services, and other agencies’ technologies.
  • Within 90 days after that assessment, the Director must submit a detailed plan to Congress that gives every federal prison the ability to detect synthetic drugs in mail.
  • The plan must require that a digital copy of any inmate’s mail be sent to the inmate within 24 hours of receipt, and that the physical mail be delivered no later than 30 days after the digital copy if it contains no drugs.
  • The plan must ensure 100 % of incoming mail at all federal prisons can be scanned, include procedures for handling legal mail while preserving attorney‑client privilege, and identify needed technology, staffing, training, and a budget for FY 2025‑2027.
  • The Director must fully implement the plan within three years, subject to appropriations, and provide annual progress reports to the Judiciary Committees on the strategy’s efficiency and the amount of drugs intercepted.

Legislative Activity

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HouseIntro Referral Latest Action

Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Judiciary Committee

February 6, 2025

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HouseIntro Referral

Introduced in House

February 6, 2025

HouseIntro Referral

Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Judiciary Committee

February 6, 2025

Bill Text

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Introduced in HouseIssued February 6, 2025

I

119th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 1046

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 6, 2025

Mr. Bacon (for himself, Mr. Horsford, Mr. Moore of Alabama, Mr. Moskowitz, Mrs. Miller of West Virginia, Mr. Pappas, Mr. Weber of Texas, and Mr. Cuellar) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To require the Director of the Bureau of Prisons to develop and implement a strategy to interdict fentanyl and other synthetic drugs in the mail at Federal correctional facilities.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Marc Fischer Memorial Interdiction of Fentanyl in Postal Mail at Federal Prisons Act or the Marc Fischer Memorial Act.

2.

Findings

Congress finds the following:

(1)

The Bureau of Prisons has 122 institutions located throughout the United States, employs nearly 38,000 employees, and is responsible for more than 150,000 Federal inmates.

(2)

Inmate mail is a primary entry point for smuggling drugs into correctional facilities, with tainted mail incidents also on the rise.

(3)

Elimination of dangerous contraband, including synthetic drugs, in mail is essential to protecting the health and safety of employees of the Bureau of Prisons and Federal inmates.

(4)

Prisons in the United States are increasingly deadly facilities, with a 600 percent rise in drug overdoses in recent years.

(5)

The introduction of synthetic drugs, particularly fentanyl and fentanyl analogues, into correctional facilities by mail threatens employees, inmates, and the security of correctional institutions, and the practice of deliberately lacing opioids to ensure targeted lethality represents a dramatic emerging concern.

(6)

The foregoing factors add tremendous pressures and workload that further burden existing employees, commonly reassigning officers from other functions to assist in processing mail.

(7)

Employees at correctional facilities at Federal, State, and local levels continue to request drug interdiction technologies to protect themselves and inmates.

(8)

A congressionally authorized digital mail scanning pilot program at the Federal Correctional Institution, Beckley, West Virginia, and the United States Penitentiary, Canaan, Pennsylvania, from March 2020 through June 2021, demonstrated effective interdiction technology and practices aimed at eliminating dangerous contraband arriving through the mail and served as an effective deterrent to smuggling attempts.

(9)

Apart from digital mail scanning, there is no widely deployed interdiction technology that has demonstrated a 100 percent efficacy to detecting fentanyl, and other synthetic drugs, arriving through the mail at Bureau of Prisons facilities.

(10)

Removing mail processing from Federal prisons and relieving Bureau of Prisons employees from mail sorting duties will result in an extensive budgetary relief to the Bureau and decrease the staffing shortages facing prisons.

3.

Definitions

In this Act:

(1)

The term opioid has the meaning given such term in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802).

(2)

The term synthetic drug means a controlled substance analogue (as such term is defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802), and includes any analogue of fentanyl.

4.

Strategy to interdict synthetic drugs in postal mail

(a)

Evaluation

Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons (referred to in this Act as the Director) shall evaluate—

(1)

Federal correctional facilities’ acquisition and deployment of synthetic drug interdiction equipment and technology;

(2)

Federal correctional facilities’ use of technology services to scan mail; and

(3)

whether any technologies used by other Federal agencies or State and local corrections facilities to intercept and interdict contraband in the mail may be used by the Bureau of Prisons.

(b)

Strategy

Not later than 90 days after completing the evaluation under subsection (a), the Director shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives a strategy to provide all Federal correctional facilities with capabilities necessary to—

(1)

protect staff and inmates from exposure to synthetic drugs and opioids introduced to facilities through the mail;

(2)

ensure that—

(A)

not later than 24 hours after a piece of mail is received at a Federal corrections facility or an appropriately contracted offsite location, each inmate receives a digital copy of any mail that is addressed to the inmate;

(B)

not later than 30 days after receiving a digital copy of a piece of mail under subparagraph (A), the inmate receives the original physical copy of any mail that—

(i)

does not contain synthetic drugs or opioids; and

(ii)

is addressed to the inmate; and

(C)

delivery to the inmate under subparagraphs (A) and (B) is documented;

(3)

ensure that a process is in place for the processing of legal mail that includes—

(A)

the verification of the sender; and

(B)

maintains attorney client privilege as required by existing law; and

(4)

achieve 100 percent scanning capacity of mail arriving at all Federal correction facilities.

(c)

Contents

The strategy required under subsection (b) shall—

(1)

identify critical information technology, digital mail scanning equipment, and mail scanning services necessary to achieve the scanning capacity described in subsection (b)(4);

(2)

include an assessment of operational and logistical considerations, including—

(A)

prioritization of high security and large inmate population facilities for digital mail scanning infrastructure and security technology deployment;

(B)

any need for additional personnel and technology training necessary to implement the strategy; and

(C)

scanning equipment maintenance requirements and periodic digital technology upgrades; and

(3)

include an equipment and technology budgetary proposal, for fiscal years 2025 though 2027, in order to fully implement the strategy described under subsection (b).

(d)

Implementation deadline

Not later than 3 years after the date on which the plan is submitted under subsection (a)(2), and subject to appropriations, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons shall complete implementation of the submitted plan.

(e)

Annual progress reports

Beginning 1 year after the date on which the strategy is submitted under subsection (b), and each year thereafter, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives a report on the efficiency of the strategy and the total quantity of detected synthetic drugs and opioids.