Old Dominion News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA)—members of the Senate Armed Services Committee—wrote an op-ed in CNN.com to push for their Disrupt Fentanyl Trafficking Act of 2023, bipartisan legislation that would help address the fentanyl crisis by directing more federal attention to counter fentanyl trafficking. The bill would declare fentanyl trafficking a national security threat and direct the Pentagon to work with other federal agencies and Mexican officials on a strategy to counter drug trafficking from transnational criminal organizations. The senators also joined Fox News’ Common Ground segment with Bret Baier to discuss the legislation.

The senators wrote, “To truly end the fentanyl epidemic, the response must be proportionate to the problem. That is going to take a coordinated, whole-of-government approach that begins with prioritizing the issue, followed by strong interagency coordination. That’s why we introduced the Disrupt Fentanyl Trafficking Act of 2023 this week to direct more federal attention and coordination to deter the criminal networks responsible for trafficking.”

They continued, “To solve this problem, our bipartisan legislation would classify fentanyl trafficking as a national security threat to the US, encouraging the DoD to use resources like training and up-to-date information sharing to support counter-fentanyl efforts more actively, improve coordination efforts between Defense, State, Treasury and federal law enforcement agencies to address this crisis, and direct the Pentagon to develop a fentanyl-specific counterdrug strategy that includes enhanced cooperation with Mexican defense officials.”

They concluded, “It’s time to put the Pentagon’s tools to use and save lives.”

The full piece is available here.

Original source can be found here.