Hours before the Senate approved a stopgap bill Friday to avoid a government shutdown, the upper chamber passed a bipartisan bill that permanently classifies fentanyl-related substances as Schedule 1 narcotics before their temporary status expired March 31.
The Halt Lethal Trafficking (HALT) Fentanyl Act passed by an 84-16 margin, with all 16 no votes coming from Democrats. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., is similar to legislation that was overwhelmingly passed by the House in 2023 but languished in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
The HALT Act now moves to the GOP-controlled House, and the White House Office of Management and Budget indicated in a statement of administration policy that President Donald Trump will sign the legislation should it reach his desk.
“Seventy-four thousand people died in 2023 from fentanyl overdoses,” Cassidy said in a statement. “Law enforcement needs every tool. This gives them another tool and makes that tool permanent. We must continue to work until 74,000 becomes zero. I am proud to have led the effort to get this bill to the president’s desk.”
The bill would permanently place all alternative versions of fentanyl that are often sold by traffickers on the Drug Enforcement Administration's list of most dangerous drugs, known as Schedule 1. Such drugs were placed on the list in 2018, but that designation was set to expire. The move would mean an increase in criminal convictions for distributing fentanyl-related substances.
The legislation lowers the threshold for a person caught trafficking a fentanyl analogue under the Controlled Substances Act. The bill amends the act where anyone charged with possessing at least 10 grams of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of a fentanyl-related substance would face a minimum of five years in prison. A person charged with possessing at least 100 grams would face a minimum of 10 years in prison.
The legislation makes exceptions for drugs already listed elsewhere, including fentanyl, a Schedule 2 narcotic that is used in federally approved medicines, as well as for research institutions focusing on fentanyl-related substances for potential beneficial use.
“The HALT Fentanyl Act creates a blanket classification of all fentanyl-related substances — even those that do not yet exist — as Schedule I drugs without pharmacologically assessing their potential harms or benefits,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who voted against the act, said in a statement. “Some fentanyl analogues may hold promise as antidotes to opioid overdoses or other medical treatments. By permanently scheduling these substances without more robust exceptions for research, this legislation could stifle innovation in developing life-saving therapies, sacrificing scientific progress for political expediency.”
Dr. Tim Westlake, an emergency room physician from Wisconsin who was the primary architect of opioid reform in the state, lobbied Congress in 2023 to make Schedule 1 classification for fentanyl-related substances permanent.
“FRS class scheduling is the ultimate form of harm reduction and overdose prevention: You can’t die from ingesting something never created, nor can you be incarcerated for selling something that doesn’t exist,” Westlake said at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing in February 2023.
He added that concerns about it affecting research are “purely theoretical” given that the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug administration supported such measures.