Tester Calls On Congress To Crack Down On Fentanyl Traffic

As part of his persistent efforts to secure America’s borders and stop the deadly flow of fentanyl into Montana and the United States, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester pressed officials last week during a Senate Banking Committee Hearing about tightening our financial systems to hold bad actors like China accountable and crack down on illicit fentanyl trafficking. “We need to categorize fentanyl as the national emergency that it is. We do need to hold China accountable for its role in this crisis. And we need to give law enforcement and border agents the tools that they need to be successful,” said Tester during the hearing.

Tester specifically called on Congress to pass his bipartisan FEND Off Fentanyl Act, legislation that would impose economic sanctions on those engaged in the international trafficking of illicit fentanyl and declare international trafficking of fentanyl as a national emergency: “It is long past time that [my FEND Off Fentanyl Act] gets passed. I think that ranking member [Tim] Scott said it right: the shenanigans in the House need to stop and we need to get some stuff done. I had a bill on China buying farmland, they stopped that. It was the wrong thing to do, but for probably political reasons they did it. Why they would stop this makes no sense to me.”

At the conclusion of his remarks, Tester thanked country music star Jason “Jelly Roll” DeFord for his “incredibly powerful” testimony in support of Tester’s bipartisan legislation to tackle the fentanyl crisis and invited the artist to visit Montana.

Tester’s bipartisan Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act would impose economic sanctions on those engaged in the international trafficking of illicit fentanyl, precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl.