Fentanyl is unfortunately an evil our nation continues to struggle with. In Missouri and across the country, lives continue to be taken by this deadly poison that has devastated communities and families alike. Just two milligrams – the size of 10-15 grains of table salt – is enough to take an adult life. And this deadly substance continues to flow into our country across our border.

Recently, I was appointed by Speaker McCarthy to serve on the Task Force to Combat Mexican Drug Cartels. This task force was developed to dive deeper into the constant flow of drugs into our country and identify the best paths to combat it. The Biden Administration has made it clear that securing our border to ensure the safety of this nation is not a priority, so House Republicans are taking upon ourselves to find solutions. Recently we heard from a former senior White House advisor on the Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) which was both illuminating and alarming. The cartels operate with a sophisticated business model and along with drug trafficking are in the business of human trafficking, weapon smuggling, and money laundering, all of which generate about $13 billion a year in revenue. Strengthening our southern border is the most obvious way to fight these crimes, but with an administration that is dead set on leaving the boarder wide open, we are exploring every option to protect Americans. 

One avenue I’m focused on is cutting off the cartels’ access to the substances – often called precursors – they need to make fentanyl. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that those precursors are made in China under the protection of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The first hearing I held this Congress as Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance and International Financial Institutions was on the CCP’s Fueling of Fentanyl Crisis. We hear so much on the news about the drugs that are flowing across our southern border from the cartels, but we rarely hear about the fact that China is the cartels’ primary source for illicit drugs to make synthetic opioids like fentanyl. In fact, the CCP even offers exporters of fentanyl precursors government benefits and tax incentives. At the hearing we discussed the Stop Chinese Fentanyl Act which imposes strict sanctions on Chinese opioid producers with the goal of crippling their ability to fund their activities. As a cosponsor of the bill, I am proud to say the bill passed the House this week.

A related issue is the CCP’s role in laundering drug profits to get the money out of the U.S. The cartels’ main goal in their criminal activity is making money, but they can only get that money back to Mexico with the help of sophisticated money launderers. Chinese financial experts launder drug proceeds for the cartels and get paid handsomely to do so. The majority of that money ends up with the CCP. This type of corruption is unfortunately common in China, so I’ve introduced a bill to combat it. The Stop Fentanyl Money Laundering Act would give the Treasury Department the ability to utilize special measure authorities to target and stop the money laundering that facilitates fentanyl trafficking in foreign jurisdiction. This bill provides the tools to end the financial incentive for the fentanyl deaths our nation continues to endure, and I’m proud it was passed out of the House Financial Services Committee in our markup this week. The next step will be a vote on the House floor.

Clearly the fentanyl crisis is a multifaceted issue that will take multifaceted solutions. But sanctioning Chinese opioid producers, thwarting fentanyl money laundering, and continuing to explore new ways to attack this problem on the task force are all going to help us find the larger solution to this problem. And we’ll continue working until our country is safe from this deadly substance.