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Newhouse Amendment to Combat Fentanyl Crisis Blocked by Democrats

June 28, 2022

Amendment would increase funding to help capture drug traffickers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) introduced an amendment to the FY 2023 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill to provide a $5 million funding increase for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)’s Investigative Technology and Cyber Support Account, which the DEA uses to capture and exploit drug trafficker communications. The amendment was blocked by Democrats during a House Appropriations Committee Markup earlier today.

“We must secure our southern border and alleviate the undue burden on our Customs and Border Patrol agents and law enforcement across the country, and we must also provide more resources to the Drug Enforcement Administration,” said Rep. Newhouse. “My amendment enables the DEA to carry out their important work—targeting drug traffickers that are killing our children and wreaking havoc on our communities so they can intervene before these fatal substances reach communities like mine in Central Washington.”

Click here to listen to Rep. Newhouse’s remarks.

Click here to read the full text of the amendment.

Background:

Rep. Newhouse has been a leader in confronting the opioid crisis during his time in Congress, taking the following actions to combat trafficking of deadly substances, expand treatment opportunities, and secure our southern border:

  • On March 7, 2022, Rep. Newhouse introduced the Save Americans from the Fentanyl Emergency Act of 2022, or SAFE Act of 2022. This legislation will permanently schedule all current and future fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs, to ensure law enforcement can continue to prosecute the sale and use of these substances.
  • On March 2, 2022, Rep. Newhouse cosponsored the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act or the HALT Fentanyl Act. This bill places fentanyl-related substances as a class into schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
  • On February 10, 2022, Rep. Newhouse sent a letter to President Biden urging his Administration take immediate action on the influx of fentanyl streaming into our country by securing our borders and making fentanyl-related substances’ Schedule 1 classification permanent to ensure law enforcement can continue to prosecute the sale and use of these substances.
  • On February 8, 2022, Rep. Newhouse introduced the Dignity Act, which  restarts all currently paused border infrastructure contracts and increases funding for physical border infrastructure.
  • On February 3, 2022, Rep. Newhouse introduced the Law Enforcement Officers Preventing (Drug) Abuse Related Deaths or LEOPARD Act. This bill authorizes rural community response pilot grant programs to allow state and local law enforcement agencies to purchase naloxone, an effective tool to prevent and reduce opioid overdose deaths and directs at least 50% of the programs’ grant funding to rural communities.
  • In 2016, Rep. Newhouse voted in favor of the bipartisan 21st Century CURES Act, which increased state grants for treatment from $500 million to $1.5 billion. Half of those grants were made available in 2017, and the next half in 2018.
  • In 2016, Rep. Newhouse supported the House passage of H.R. 5046, the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016 and 17 bills to address the national opioid abuse crisis. H.R. 5046 combats the opioid epidemic by establishing a streamlined, comprehensive opioid abuse grant program that encompasses a variety of new and existing programs, such as vital training and resources for first responders and law enforcement, criminal investigations for the unlawful distribution of opioids, drug courts, and residential substance abuse treatment. The bill authorizes $103 million annually for the grant program and is fully offset for cut-go purposes.

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