The White House offered rare praise for a Republican bill that would elevate fentanyl to the most serious classification of illegal drugs on Monday.
On Monday, the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a statement applauding the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl, or HALT, Fentanyl Act ahead of its anticipated vote on the House floor Thursday.
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Reps. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) and Bob Latta (R-OH) introduced the bill earlier this year. The HALT Fentanyl Act would permanently schedule fentanyl and all related substances as Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act and expedite government research on the drug.
"The Administration calls on Congress to pass all of these critical measures to improve public safety and save lives," the OMB wrote in a statement.
Fentanyl and its variants have only temporarily been deemed Schedule I drugs through 2024. Schedule I is the highest classification of the Controlled Substance Act's five levels. Ecstasy and marijuana are also Schedule 1 substances because they meet the criteria of not being used for medical purposes and have a high potential for abuse, though some states have legalized recreational marijuana and others have approved the use of medical marijuana.
The Biden administration had called in September 2021 for fentanyl to be classified at this elevated level on a lasting basis.
The HALT Fentanyl Act was passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in March. Other Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced identical bills, but they have not progressed as quickly as this one.
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Todd Young (R-IN), and Roger Marshall (R-KS) have also introduced a bill titled the Halt Lethal Trafficking, or HALT, Fentanyl Act to classify fentanyl and fentanyl analogs as Schedule I narcotics permanently.
Fentanyl is a man-made drug that is so strong that several grains of the powder can induce a coma or death. U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 45 were more likely to die from consuming fentanyl than they were to die as the result of a car crash, the coronavirus, a heart attack, suicide, or a terrorist attack in 2021, the U.S. government declared. Fentanyl overdoses were the driving force behind the record-high 100,000 overdose deaths last year.
“As drug overdose deaths reach historic levels in our country, the HALT Fentanyl Act offers a way to make progress amid the tragedy of addiction," Griffith said in a statement in March.
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Seizures at the border have ballooned from 2 pounds in 2013 to more than 17,000 pounds in the first seven months of the government's 2023 year.
The massive increase in fentanyl seizures over the past decade indicates that federal police are growing more successful at detecting the deadly drug from vehicles and on pedestrians coming through ports of entry. It also speaks to the growing rate at which Mexican cartels are pushing fentanyl across the border.