Senate Panel Advances Sanctions Bills for Fentanyl Trade, Georgian Democracy
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved by voice vote March 27 a bill aimed at curbing China’s export of fentanyl precursor chemicals to Mexican drug traffickers.
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The Break Up Suspicious Transactions of Fentanyl Act, or the Bust Fentanyl Act, which Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., introduced in early March, would authorize the president to sanction Chinese government-owned or controlled entities, including financial institutions, that finance foreign opioid trafficking (see 2503100016).
The committee defeated an amendment by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., that would have told the Trump administration it is required to spend funds Congress has appropriated to prevent fentanyl from entering the U.S. Republicans said the amendment would be seen as a political attack on President Donald Trump and would kill the bill.
The committee also approved by voice vote a bill to sanction officials who undermine democracy in the Republic of Georgia. Shaheen and Risch introduced the Mobilizing and Enhancing Georgia’s Options for Building Accountability, Resilience, and Independence (MEGOBARI) Act in early March. The committee rejected an amendment by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, that would have delayed the bill's effective date until the Trump administration weighed in on the legislation.
Both bills now head to the full Senate for their consideration. The MEGOBARI Act is a companion to a bill that was reintroduced in the House in January (see 2501070037).