Credit where it’s due: Schumer pushes for a crackdown on fentanyl trafficking
Hudson Crozier
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In a surprising but warranted move, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced plans to address fentanyl being trafficked into the United States.
Schumer will help Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) advance an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that will expand sanctions for traffickers. The president’s administration would have greater power to enforce them and would be required to report to Congress about its fentanyl response. The bill will also allow the president and Treasury Department to target traffickers’ profits, hitting them where it hurts the most and disincentivizing their illicit business in the U.S.
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Schumer acknowledged the severity of the problem and who is largely responsible, doing what several Democrats and one of America’s most powerful enemies have refused to do.
“For years, Chinese laboratories have been cooking up formulas of death and freely trafficking lethal fentanyl across New York, and to many other places across America, where it is killing tens of thousands of people — and it has to stop,” he said.
He also charged that “the Chinese government does nothing about it.”
Indeed, China was the primary source of fentanyl coming over our border from 2014 to 2019, according to law enforcement. Whether or not Mexico ends up taking that status in the long term hardly matters in terms of China’s culpability. Chinese traffickers have enabled the increase in production in Mexico as the opioid floods across our southern border. Chinese officials and state media have the audacity to blame America and condemn restrictions meant to address the problem.
Senate Democrats have rejected GOP proposals to increase deportations, punishment, and regulation related to the substance too many times to count. But something that kills tens of thousands of people in America, including more and more young people, is not a right-wing issue, even if some aspects of our border crisis are unfortunately labeled as such.
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As Schumer seems to understand by now, it’s difficult to appear as if you even care about the people you represent without treating this problem with urgency. When the facts are so apparent, Democrats have no convincing alternative to simply cracking down with the brute force of government.
The proposals Schumer is backing are a strong start, and his support is crucial for getting them through the narrowly divided Senate. The bipartisan concern is long overdue but refreshing to see.
Hudson Crozier is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.