House Foreign Affairs Committee Passes Salazar’s Legislation to Fight Fentanyl Crisis

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and Rep. Joaquin Castro’s (D-TX) DISPOSE Act (H.R. 9172) in a bipartisan, unanimous vote.

“The fentanyl crisis has become a scourge of the Western Hemisphere,” said Rep. Salazar. “By passing the DISPOSE Act, the Foreign Affairs Committee is committing to working with our partners to destroy fentanyl precursor chemicals well before they reach Miami and the rest of the country.”

In 2023 alone, Customs and Border Protection seized over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl at the Southern Border, providing a critical source of income for Latin American cartels. Most of this fentanyl is created using Chinese chemicals that are shipped to the Americas, turned into drugs in clandestine labs, and trafficked into the U.S. by Mexican cartels through drug mules. The DISPOSE ACT keeps Americans safe by cutting off their supply and targeting the precursor chemicals foreign criminal cartels use to produce fentanyl, ensuring they can be destroyed and disposed of well before they reach the United States. This will also cut off crucial income for the cartels.

The DISPOSE Act establishes the Precursor Chemical Destruction Initiative to fight drug trafficking with our partners in the Western Hemisphere. Working directly with partner countries, the Initiative will:

• Increase rates of seizure and destruction of listed chemicals in beneficiary countries;
• Alleviate the backlog of seized chemicals and dispose them in an environmentally safe and effective manner;
• Ensure that the seized chemicals are not reintroduced into the illicit drug production network within beneficiary countries;
• Free up storage space for future chemical seizures within beneficiary countries; and
• Reduce the chemicals’ negative environmental impact.

“In San Antonio and communities across the world, families have endured unimaginable tragedy as a result of the fentanyl trade,” said Rep. Castro. “The DISPOSE Act is an important step forward to support our neighbors in the Western Hemisphere as they work to curb the trafficking of fentanyl within their own nations. This bill will save lives at home and abroad, and I am honored to work with Chairwoman Salazar and a bipartisan coalition in the House and the Senate as we move this much-needed progress closer to the president’s desk.”

Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ), an original cosponsor of the bill, was instrumental in advancing this bill through the Committee. Rep. Salazar is working to get this bill passed by the full House of Representatives. The Senate version is led by Senators Grassley (R-IA), Shaheen (D-NH), and Risch (R-ID).

To read the full text of the legislation, click here.

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