COLUMBUS, OH – Today, Sherrod’s bipartisan legislation to protect Ohioans from dangerous fentanyl by cracking down on the chemical suppliers in China and the drug traffickers in Mexico was signed into law. Sherrod worked with Republicans to write the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which is endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police and law enforcement officers across Ohio, and fought for months to pass the legislation to protect Ohioans from dangerous fentanyl. While Sherrod is fighting to keep Ohioans and law enforcement safe from dangerous fentanyl, Moreno said he “would have opposed” the FEND Off Fentanyl Act.
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WKBN: Ohio Senator’s fentanyl crackdown bill heads to the President’s desk
Gerry Ricciutti – April 23, 2024
- Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown’s plan to attack the nation’s worsening fentanyl crisis is now headed to the president’s desk after the Senate passed the legislation Tuesday.
- The bill was passed in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote and will finally take action to expand sanctions on fentanyl creators and traffickers.
- The FEND Off Fentanyl Act will go after companies in China and elsewhere that make the pre-cursor chemicals needed to manufacture the drug as well as the Mexican cartels that send it into this country over our southern border.
- “Freeze their bank accounts. You get the federal agents attacking their sources of income. You do the same in Mexico and then you also need to guard the border where the stuff is going in — the ports of entry.”
- “Four hundred Ohioans every month died from fentanyl poisoning. And it’s not the number, it’s what that does to a family in Warren, Girard or Youngstown or Struthers. What it does to the community when young people, especially, die from the fentanyl poisoning,” Brown said.
- The Fraternal Order of Police, National Association of Police Officers, the National Sheriff’s Association, and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association called for the passage of the legislation.
Mahoning Matters: ‘Keep it from reaching Ohio in the first place:’ U.S. Senate passes FEND Off Fentanyl
Kelcey Norris – April 23, 2024
- The U.S. Senate passed a national security package Tuesday night sending aid to foreign nations including Ukraine by a 79-18 vote. The package also includes a bipartisan bill called FEND Off Fentanyl which Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown introduced.
- It stands for Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence and is an effort to combat the rise in fentanyl-overdose deaths.
- “Fentanyl has taken too many lives and caused too much devastation in Ohio. FEND Off Fentanyl will save lives by going directly after the drug cartels’ billions in illicit profits, targeting the entire fentanyl supply chain and sanctioning illicit opioid traffickers and money launderers in China and Mexico,” Brown said. “This is good news for law enforcement and for families on the front lines who have demanded action for years now. The President needs to sign our bipartisan legislation into law immediately to help stop fentanyl at its source, before it ever reaches our communities. I want to thank law enforcement in Ohio and around the country for working side-by-side with us to get this legislation to the finish line.”
- “Administrator Anne Milgram at the DEA has described fentanyl as ‘the single deadliest drug threat’ our country has ever faced, and she is right. We need to do more as a nation to interdict the flow of this drug and its precursors into our country and severely sanction individuals and organizations involved in making and distributing this poison. Senators Tim Scott and Sherrod Brown have developed a comprehensive approach that codifies an existing Executive Order giving the President broad authority to attack fentanyl trafficking by using all the resources of the United States,” National President of the Fraternal Order of Police Patrick Yoes said.
Ohio Capital Journal: Ohioans react to U.S. House passage of Ukraine aid
Nick Evans – April 23, 2024
- The 21st Century Peace Through Strength Act incorporates Brown’s Fend Off Fentanyl Act, which he emphasized is “endorsed by law enforcement and sanctions the chemical suppliers in China and the Mexican drug cartels bringing fentanyl into communities across Ohio.”
- “This bipartisan national security legislation is critical to combating some of the biggest threats this country faces — including fentanyl traffickers, the Chinese Communist Party, Vladimir Putin, and Iran and its terrorist proxies,” Brown said in a statement.
WTRF: Sen. Brown urges passage of fentanyl legislation
Michelle Chavez – April 23, 2024
- The Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act already passed in the House this past weekend as part of the national security package… Senator Brown says the U.S. would be able to use sanctions and anti-money laundering penalties to target the illegal fentanyl supply chain.
- “It gives the United States the ability…to go after the drug cartels in Mexico, the communist party in China that’s making the precursor chemicals from this…to hit them in their pocketbooks where it hurts,” Senator Brown said.
- Brown says the goal of this bill is to stop fentanyl from being made in the first place, and that he hopes that will, in turn, help save lives in Ohio.
Cleveland.com: Senate approves $95 billion foreign aid package that split Ohio’s legislators
Sabrina Eaton – April 24, 2024
- U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat who backed the bill, said he’s pleased it incorporated legislation he wrote called the “Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act,” which would impose new sanctions and anti-money laundering penalties targeting the illicit fentanyl supply chain, from the chemical suppliers in China to the cartels that transport the drugs in from Mexico.
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