I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1542 
To require a report that identifies each person in the People’s Republic 
of China and Chinese Government official involved in the production 
of fentanyl and its trafficking into the United States, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 5, 2019 
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. SUOZZI, Mr. FLEISCHMANN, Mr. 
GREEN of Tennessee, Mr. CHABOT, Mr. LIPINSKI, Miss GONZA´LEZ- 
COLO´N of Puerto Rico, and Mr. RATCLIFFE) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition 
to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To require a report that identifies each person in the Peo-
ple’s Republic of China and Chinese Government official 
involved in the production of fentanyl and its trafficking 
into the United States, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Combating Illicit 
Fentanyl Act of 2019’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) America’s overdose epidemic is spreading 
geographically, is increasing across all demographic 
groups and the sharp increase in drug overdose 
deaths in the United States between 2015 to 2016 
was fueled by a surge in illicit fentanyl, a highly po-
tent drug about 80 to 100 times as strong as mor-
phine by weight and is 30 to 40 times stronger than 
heroin by weight, as well as fentanyl-related com-
pound analogue overdoses. 
(2) Fentanyl began to appear on United States 
streets in the early 2000s, in recent years it has be-
come a major international drug control issue as 
overdose deaths from its abuse continue to rise, with 
a spike beginning in 2013. Foreign-sourced fentanyl 
killed more Americans in 2016 than all other illicit 
drugs, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and 
tramadol accounted for more than 29,000 United 
States drug overdose deaths in 2017, according to 
provisional data from the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention. Illicit fentanyl is not a diverged 
pharmaceutical product, is illicitly manufactured, 
and is clandestinely distributed and integrated into 
the illicit drug supply, usually sold as ‘‘heroin’’ in 
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powder 
form, 
or 
as 
counterfeit 
opioid 
or 
benzodiazepine pills. 
(3) In Ocean County, New Jersey, based on 
data from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, in 
2014, 10 percent of all overdose deaths had fentanyl 
in their systems, and by 2018 that number had risen 
to 80 percent. 
(4) The Drug Enforcement Administration re-
ports that of the illicit fentanyl class substances and 
hundreds of other designer drugs it has identified, 
‘‘the vast majority . . . are manufactured in 
China’’. In 2018, a year-long congressional probe 
found that illicit fentanyl could easily be bought on-
line from Chinese ‘‘labs’’ and mailed to the United 
States due to gaps in oversight in the United States 
Postal Service, and despite increased cooperation be-
tween United States and Chinese counter-narcotics 
agencies, illicit fentanyl is still shipped to the United 
States. 
(5) According to written testimony submitted to 
Congress by the RAND Corporation, regulatory ca-
pacity in China is inadequate to effectively police its 
expansive pharmaceutical and chemical industries, 
and according to the United States-China Economic 
and Security Review Commission, corrupt practices 
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among local officials limit the effectiveness of regula-
tions and allows criminal actors to facilitate the 
fentanyl trade. 
(6) In June 2018, $1,700,000 worth of Chinese 
fentanyl was detected by counternarcotics agents in 
a Philadelphia port during a routine inspection, 
China has publicly gone to great lengths to shirk re-
sponsibility for illicit fentanyl emanating out of the 
country, and in June 2018, Chinese official Liu 
Yuejin blamed the crisis on the American people, 
saying ‘‘When fewer and fewer Americans use 
fentanyl, there would be no market for it’’, ignoring 
the Chinese supply of the illicit substance, and 
China fails to effectively regulate precursor chemi-
cals, including fentanyl precursors. 
(7) According to Dr. Daniel Ciccarone’s street- 
based research, fentanyl lacks a lingo or slang, indi-
cating that this is more of a supply than a demand 
issue and its intentional use is far outweighed by 
non-intentional use. On September 6, 2018, at a 
hearing before the House Committee on Foreign Af-
fairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global 
Human Rights, and International Organizations, ex-
pert private witnesses from diverse professional and 
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