Review - HR 7552 Introduced – Fentanyl and CBWC

Back in February, Rep Moore (R,AL) introduced HR 7552, the CBW Fentanyl Act. The bill would make various revisions to the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination (CBWCE) Act of 1991 to make the international distribution of fentanyl or its precursors by a country an act of chemical or biological warfare which would require the imposition of Presidential sanctions. No new funding is authorized by this bill. 

This bill is very similar to HR 8197, the Countering Beijing’s Weaponization of Fentanyl Act, that was introduced by Rep Banks (R,IN) in June of 2024. No action was taken on that bill in the 118th Congress. The major difference between the two bills is that the new version substitutes the phrase “an individual who is an official, employee, or agent of a foreign governmental entity” for the word ‘individual’ wherever the language talks about an individual committing a covered act. There are a few other word order and phrase order changes made in this new version of the bill. 

Moving Forward 

While Moore is not a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to which this bill was assigned for primary consideration, one of his two cosponsors {Rep Smith (R,NJ)} is a member. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered by that Committee. While there are certainly a substantial number of Republicans that would back this bill purely as an anti-fentanyl measure, there will be a number that would object to formally conflating a dangerous street drug with chemical weapons. I do, however, suspect that there would be sufficient bipartisan support for this bill to pass in Committee were it to be considered. There would not be sufficient support to see the bill considered under the suspension of the rules process. 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-7552-introduced-fentanyl-and-cbwc - subscription required. 

 

Review - HR 8197 Introduced – CBWC Sanctions

Last month, Rep Banks (R,IN) introduced HR 8197, the Countering Beijing’s Weaponization of Fentanyl Act. The bill would make various revisions to the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination (CBWCE) Act of 1991 to make the international distribution of fentanyl or its precursors by a country an act of chemical or biological warfare which would require the imposition of Presidential sanctions. No new funding is authorized by this bill.

Moving Forward

Banks is not a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to which this bill was assigned primary consideration. This means that there is little chance that there is sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I suspect that there would be limited, partisan support, for opening this can of worms in that Committee. Broader support would be likely if the bill were to make it to the floor of the House.

Commentary

This bill would, if passed into law, water down the importance of the CBWCE by effectively making it a drug trafficking bill. Having said that, the sanctions that the bill would require and allow the President to impose would certainly seem to be appropriate, though I am not sure how effective they would be against China. I think this bill would be more effective if it were rewritten as a stand-alone measure with no reference to the CWBCE. It should also be expanded to include such drugs as heroin and cocaine.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-8197-introduced - subscription required.