Senator Markey Statement on the “HALT Fentanyl Act”

Boston (March 7, 2025) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement after the U.S. Senate took its first vote on theHalt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl (HALT) Act. One hundred ninety health, civil rights, and criminal justice groups have voiced opposition to the legislation.
“The United States Senate voted to invoke cloture on a bill that will do little to actually solve the fentanyl crisis but will make it harder to research addiction and overdose reversal medication, disrupt communities and families by incarcerating rather than treating addiction, and divert resources from methods that work to disrupt the flow of fentanyl in the United States to strategies from the outdated War-on-Drugs solutions that do not work,”said Senator Markey.
“If we pass this legislation as is, it will be a giveaway to Trump and Republicans with nothing in return to benefit the American people. Families are asking us to do something about the fentanyl crisis, and rather than do that, we are simply enabling a political stunt at the expense of real solutions. We should refuse to support Republican priorities unless and until we achieve aims that actually help address this scourge. I hope my colleagues will join me in using this moment to stop enabling Republican stunts and pass policies to seriously address the fentanyl crisis.”
In June 2023, Senators Markey and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), along with then-Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and leaders of the House of Representatives’ Bipartisan Mental Health and Substance Use Task Force,announceda bipartisan resolution to designate June 6th as Naloxone Awareness Day. In May 2023, Senator Markey filed theStop Fentanyl Overdoses Actto empower the nation’s public health response against the opioid epidemic. In March 2023, Senators Markey and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), along with Representatives Donald Norcross (NJ-01) and Don Bacon (NE-02),introducedtheir bipartisan and bicameralModernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act,which passed the Senate HELP Committee on a bipartisan basis. In December 2023, Markey secured theDepartment of Defense Overdose Data (DOD) Actas part of theNational Defense Authorization Act(NDAA). TheDOD Actwill address the impacts of the opioid epidemic among members of the U.S. military and their family.
In October 2022, Senator Markey wrote to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the United States Postal Service (USPS), calling on them to take additional steps to stop the mailing of synthetic opioids into the country. In January 2018, Senator Markey’s and Senator Sherrod Brown’sINTERDICT Actwas signed into law and authorized hundreds of new screening devices, laboratory equipment, facilities, and personnel to stop the flow of the illicit fentanyl across the U.S. border. Senators Markey and Brownsecured$75.5 million for non-intrusive inspection (NII) technology in the Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations Law, to ensure that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has the necessary resources to detect, interdict, and prevent the trafficking of fentanyl and other opioids into the United States.
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