Several senators on Thursday lambasted federal agencies for their lack of “urgency” in preventing shipments of the powerful drug fentanyl from entering the U.S.
“I don’t think we’ve had the urgency,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee investigations subcommittee during a hearing. “If we have an attitude that this doesn’t matter, then we are going to continue to get this poison coming through our mail system.”
Portman’s comments comes a day after the subcommittee released a report that found it was shockingly easy to buy fentanyl over the Internet. Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin, and overdose deaths from the painkiller have spiked dramatically in recent years.
The report found that the U.S. Postal Service is the preferred method of shipment for online sellers since it is highly unlikely a shipment would be seized.
A major issue is the lack of electronic data from other countries on what is included in international shipments. The committee’s report found that the Postal Service only received advance electronic data on 36 percent of nearly 500 million international packages that came in to the country last year.
Portman noted that the 36 percent was the same amount as the previous year.
“We are not coordinating well. We are not doing what we should be doing,” he said.
Other senators pointed to a need to work better with China, where the majority of fentanyl originates.
“This administration should commit at a higher level to tackle this urgent public health crisis,” said Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the subcommittee’s top Democrat.
He added that he reached out to Chinese ambassador Terry Brandstad to check on the level of engagement with China on the issue.
“The Chinese have to feel like they have a dog in this fight,” he said.
