President Donald Trump will soon have a second bill to sign into law as Democrats hand him the votes for a bipartisan victory on the opioid epidemic.
The Senate will take up legislation Thursday that classifies fentanyl copycats as Schedule I drugs, with final passage expected early next week. Fentanyl-like substances already have a Schedule I classification, allowing law enforcement to impose stiff penalties on their production and sale, but the classification is temporary.
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The HALT Fentanyl Act would update federal law to list fentanyl knockoffs in the same category as heroin or LSD permanently. Legal fentanyl used in medical settings would keep its Schedule II rating and continue to be allowed for research purposes.
Six Senate Democrats and one independent have co-sponsored the legislation, meaning it has the 60 votes needed to clear the filibuster if all Republicans vote in favor, but the final vote could be far more comfortable.
Four additional Democrats supported the bill in a committee hearing last week, and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told the Washington Examiner he would support it on the floor.
The bill passed the House in February, attracting 98 Democratic votes, but small differences in the Senate version mean the House will have to vote again for it to be sent to Trump’s desk.
The White House said last month that the administration “strongly supports” the HALT Fentanyl Act.
The bill would hand Trump his second legislative victory since returning to the White House in January. His first, the Laken Riley Act, requires federal authorities to detain illegal immigrants accused of theft-related crimes.
Republicans have used the bills to reinforce Trump’s crackdown on the southern border in the early weeks of his second term. He imposed 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico this week in response to what the White House called “unchecked drug trafficking.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s broader agenda could take months to usher through Congress as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) negotiates a tax reform bill that sweeps in hundreds of billions for defense and the border.
Democrats attempted to expand the HALT Fentanyl Act to provide funding for fentanyl test strips and substance abuse programs, but Republicans rejected all changes to the bill at a Judiciary Committee hearing last Thursday, citing law enforcement groups that asked Congress to pass the legislation “without delay or modification.”
Congress has until March 31 before the Schedule I classification for fentanyl knockoffs lapses.
The bill marks the latest step taken by Congress to address the tens of thousands of deaths attributable to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl each year. Lawmakers have renewed the temporary classification multiple times since Trump implemented it in his first term.
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“If there was ever something that should be Schedule 1, it’s fentanyl, and it’s just something that impacts every state in the union at this point,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), the lead Democratic co-sponsor of the HALT Fentanyl Act. “We’re gonna get it done.”
He is joined by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who chairs the Senate’s health panel, in sponsoring the bill.