Video: Cassidy BILL to Combat Illegal Fentanyl Heads to President Trump’s DESK

WASHINGTON– U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) today celebrated as the U.S. House of Representatives passed hisHalt All Lethal Trafficking (HALT) Fentanyl Act, which permanently schedules fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The fentanyl-related substances have been temporarily scheduled since 2018. The U.S. SenatepassedCassidy’s bill in March. It will now head to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
“Everybody watching this knows someone who has been harmed by fentanyl,”said Dr. Cassidy.“My HALT Fentanyl Act is about giving law enforcement one more tool to stop fentanyl dealers.”
Clickhereto watch andhereto download Cassidy’s video statement.
The bill has 30 U.S. Senate cosponsors, including U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the U.S. Committee on the Judiciary, and Democratic lead Martin Heinrich (D-NM).
The bill has been endorsed by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and is supported by 40 advocacy groups, including 25 State Attorneys General, 11 major law enforcement organizations, nine major medical associations and Facing Fentanyl, a coalition of over 200 impacted family groups.
The HALT Fentanyl Act built on the momentum of theStopping Overdoses of Fentanyl Analogues (SOFA) Actintroduced by U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI).
Background
In February, Cassidyspokeon the U.S. Senate floor amid Senate Democrat’s attempt to undermine his HALT Fentanyl Act.
Drug overdoses, largely driven by fentanyl, are the leading cause of death among young adults 18 to 45 years old. Synthetic opioids like fentanyl account for68 percentof the total U.S. overdose deaths. In the last two fiscal years, U.S. Customs and Border Protect (CBP) seized record amounts of fentanyl—nearly 50,000 pounds—enough to produce more than 2 billion lethal doses. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2023 there were an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths—74,702 of which were attributed to fentanyl. This was primarily fueled by synthetic opioids, including illegal fentanyl, which are largely manufactured in Mexico from raw materials supplied by China. In 2022, there were over 50.6 million fentanyl-laced fake prescription pillsseizedby the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), more than doubling the amount seized in 2021.
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