Legislation takes aim at international traffickers of deadly opioids by systematically closing weaknesses in U.S. Postal Service system.
Bipartisan legislation that aims to put the brakes on traffickers using the international postal system to ship deadly synthetic opioids such as fentanyl to the United States passed the Senate on Monday.
The Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act, which overwhelmingly passed the House on June 14, was approved in the Senate by a vote of 99 to 1.
“By closing the loophole in our international mail system that drug traffickers have exploited to ship fentanyl into the U.S., we can help law enforcement keep this poison out of our communities,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who, along with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., championed the STOP Act legislation in the Senate.
The Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which Portman chairs, conducted an 18-month investigation into how drug traffickers use weaknesses in the international mail system to ship illicit synthetic drugs undetected from China into the United States though the U.S. Postal Service.
Specifically, the STOP Act will require USPS to transmit advance electronic data to Customs and Border Protection on at least 70 percent of international mail arriving in the United States by Dec. 31, and on 100 percent of such mail on Dec. 31, 2020, before these shipments reach the U.S. border, according to a legislative summary.
“This data will enable CBP to target high-risk shipments, including those containing synthetic opioids, for inspection and seizure,” the summary said.
The legislation requires USPS to refuse shipments for which the data is not provided and sets forth civil penalties if USPS accepts international mail shipments without the advance data starting in 2021.
Further, the STOP Act directs the State Department to strengthen international postal agreements and ensure any future agreements preserve the U.S. government’s ability to require advance data on all international mail shipments.
Private express couriers have been required to provide advance electronic data for their shipments to CBP since 2002.
However, before the STOP Act legislation can head to the White House for the president’s signature, the Senate and House must first reconcile their respective bills.
The Senate also passed the Fighting Opioid Abuse in Transportation Act on Monday.
That bill, together with the Opioid Addiction Recovery Fraud Prevention Act, make up H.R. 6, the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., sponsor of the Fighting Opioid Abuse in Transportation Act, said S. 2848:
• Closes a safety gap in railroad drug and alcohol testing regulations by expanding testing requirements to both rail mechanical employees and yardmasters;
• Addresses a major ongoing drug abuse issue by requiring that the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Transportation include fentanyl in the drug-testing panel, subject to findings on available testing;
• Advances a more expedient and less invasive testing method by setting a deadline for HHS to issue mandatory guidelines on oral fluid testing;
• Increases transparency by requiring DOT to create a publicly available database of drug and alcohol testing data and requiring the Government Accountability Office to review DOT’s collection, use and availability of drug and alcohol testing data;
• And provides increased oversight of legally required safety improvements — the hair-testing guidelines and DOT commercial driver’s license drug and alcohol clearinghouse.
“Transportation workers provide essential services for and in our communities: taking children to school, bringing goods to market, repairing locomotives. Because so many people place trust in transportation workers doing their jobs to keep us safe, it is especially important that we do all we can to ensure their responsibilities are not compromised by drug and alcohol abuse,” Thune said.
STOP Act gets Senate green light
