WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate unanimously passed bipartisan legislation, the END FENTANYL Act, that Senator Maggie Hassan and colleagues introduced to target fentanyl trafficking at the border. This legislation would require the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to update its policies at least once every three years to ensure drug interdiction guidance is up to date. This legislation builds off the 2019 GAO report, “Land Ports of Entry: CBP Should Update Policies and Enhance Analysis of Inspections,” that found drug interdiction guidance has not been updated in 20 years.
“Fentanyl is killing Granite Staters and devastating families and communities — which is why we need to ensure that Customs and Border Protection is directly targeting fentanyl trafficking as much as it can,” said Senator Hassan. “This commonsense legislation requires the agency to make long-overdue updates to its policies so that law enforcement can stop more fentanyl from entering the United States and making its way to New Hampshire. I urge the House to pass this important bill quickly so it can get signed into law.”
This legislation is part of Senator Hassan’s ongoing efforts to strengthen border security and target fentanyl trafficking. The Senator has visited the U.S.-Mexico border three times as a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and earlier this year, she visited Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras as part of a bipartisan Congressional Delegation trip where she spoke with foreign officials about economic and public safety priorities – in particular the need to crack down on fentanyl and other drug trafficking. To address the needs that she has heard on these trips and in other briefings and hearings, she has worked to increase funding for border security. Senator Hassan also worked with her colleagues to pass into law the bipartisan INTERDICT Act, which has provided Customs and Border Protection with additional tools to help detect and intercept fentanyl and other illegal synthetic opioids. Additionally, the Senator successfully worked to secure her bipartisan measure in the 2021 year-end funding bill to hold countries such as China accountable for facilitating America’s fentanyl-fueled substance misuse crisis. And earlier this year, Senator Hassan joined her colleagues on both sides of the aisle in introducing legislation to direct Customs and Border Protection to update its policies in order to help border personnel stop drug smuggling.
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