Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB1046 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 1046
5	5	To require the Director of the Bureau of Prisons to develop and implement
6	6	a strategy to interdict fentanyl and other synthetic drugs in the mail
7	7	at Federal correctional facilities.
8	8	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
9	9	FEBRUARY6, 2025
10	10	Mr. B
11	11	ACON(for himself, Mr. HORSFORD, Mr. MOOREof Alabama, Mr.
12	12	M
13	13	OSKOWITZ, Mrs. MILLERof West Virginia, Mr. PAPPAS, Mr. WEBER
14	14	of Texas, and Mr. C
15	15	UELLAR) introduced the following bill; which was re-
16	16	ferred to the Committee on the Judiciary
17	17	A BILL
18	18	To require the Director of the Bureau of Prisons to develop
19	19	and implement a strategy to interdict fentanyl and other
20	20	synthetic drugs in the mail at Federal correctional facili-
21	21	ties.
22	22	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
23	23	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
24	24	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
25	25	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Marc Fischer Memorial 4
26	26	Interdiction of Fentanyl in Postal Mail at Federal Prisons 5
27	27	Act’’ or the ‘‘Marc Fischer Memorial Act’’. 6
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30	30	•HR 1046 IH
31	31	SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
32	32	Congress finds the following: 2
33	33	(1) The Bureau of Prisons has 122 institutions 3
34	34	located throughout the United States, employs near-4
35	35	ly 38,000 employees, and is responsible for more 5
36	36	than 150,000 Federal inmates. 6
37	37	(2) Inmate mail is a primary entry point for 7
38	38	smuggling drugs into correctional facilities, with 8
39	39	tainted mail incidents also on the rise. 9
40	40	(3) Elimination of dangerous contraband, in-10
41	41	cluding synthetic drugs, in mail is essential to pro-11
42	42	tecting the health and safety of employees of the Bu-12
43	43	reau of Prisons and Federal inmates. 13
44	44	(4) Prisons in the United States are increas-14
45	45	ingly deadly facilities, with a 600 percent rise in 15
46	46	drug overdoses in recent years. 16
47	47	(5) The introduction of synthetic drugs, par-17
48	48	ticularly fentanyl and fentanyl analogues, into cor-18
49	49	rectional facilities by mail threatens employees, in-19
50	50	mates, and the security of correctional institutions, 20
51	51	and the practice of deliberately lacing opioids to en-21
52	52	sure targeted lethality represents a dramatic emerg-22
53	53	ing concern. 23
54	54	(6) The foregoing factors add tremendous pres-24
55	55	sures and workload that further burden existing em-25
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58	58	•HR 1046 IH
59	59	ployees, commonly reassigning officers from other 1
60	60	functions to assist in processing mail. 2
61	61	(7) Employees at correctional facilities at Fed-3
62	62	eral, State, and local levels continue to request drug 4
63	63	interdiction technologies to protect themselves and 5
64	64	inmates. 6
65	65	(8) A congressionally authorized digital mail 7
66	66	scanning pilot program at the Federal Correctional 8
67	67	Institution, Beckley, West Virginia, and the United 9
68	68	States Penitentiary, Canaan, Pennsylvania, from 10
69	69	March 2020 through June 2021, demonstrated ef-11
70	70	fective interdiction technology and practices aimed 12
71	71	at eliminating dangerous contraband arriving 13
72	72	through the mail and served as an effective deter-14
73	73	rent to smuggling attempts. 15
74	74	(9) Apart from digital mail scanning, there is 16
75	75	no widely deployed interdiction technology that has 17
76	76	demonstrated a 100 percent efficacy to detecting 18
77	77	fentanyl, and other synthetic drugs, arriving through 19
78	78	the mail at Bureau of Prisons facilities. 20
79	79	(10) Removing mail processing from Federal 21
80	80	prisons and relieving Bureau of Prisons employees 22
81	81	from mail sorting duties will result in an extensive 23
82	82	budgetary relief to the Bureau and decrease the 24
83	83	staffing shortages facing prisons. 25
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86	86	•HR 1046 IH
87	87	SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 1
88	88	In this Act: 2
89	89	(1) The term ‘‘opioid’’ has the meaning given 3
90	90	such term in section 102 of the Controlled Sub-4
91	91	stances Act (21 U.S.C. 802). 5
92	92	(2) The term ‘‘synthetic drug’’ means a con-6
93	93	trolled substance analogue (as such term is defined 7
94	94	in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 8
95	95	U.S.C. 802), and includes any analogue of fentanyl. 9
96	96	SEC. 4. STRATEGY TO INTERDICT SYNTHETIC DRUGS IN 10
97	97	POSTAL MAIL. 11
98	98	(a) E
99	99	VALUATION.—Not later than 180 days after the 12
100	100	date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Bureau 13
101	101	of Prisons (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Director’’) shall 14
102	102	evaluate— 15
103	103	(1) Federal correctional facilities’ acquisition 16
104	104	and deployment of synthetic drug interdiction equip-17
105	105	ment and technology; 18
106	106	(2) Federal correctional facilities’ use of tech-19
107	107	nology services to scan mail; and 20
108	108	(3) whether any technologies used by other 21
109	109	Federal agencies or State and local corrections facili-22
110	110	ties to intercept and interdict contraband in the mail 23
111	111	may be used by the Bureau of Prisons. 24
112	112	(b) S
113	113	TRATEGY.—Not later than 90 days after com-25
114	114	pleting the evaluation under subsection (a), the Director 26
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117	117	•HR 1046 IH
118	118	shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Sen-1
119	119	ate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 2
120	120	Representatives a strategy to provide all Federal correc-3
121	121	tional facilities with capabilities necessary to— 4
122	122	(1) protect staff and inmates from exposure to 5
123	123	synthetic drugs and opioids introduced to facilities 6
124	124	through the mail; 7
125	125	(2) ensure that— 8
126	126	(A) not later than 24 hours after a piece 9
127	127	of mail is received at a Federal corrections fa-10
128	128	cility or an appropriately contracted offsite loca-11
129	129	tion, each inmate receives a digital copy of any 12
130	130	mail that is addressed to the inmate; 13
131	131	(B) not later than 30 days after receiving 14
132	132	a digital copy of a piece of mail under subpara-15
133	133	graph (A), the inmate receives the original 16
134	134	physical copy of any mail that— 17
135	135	(i) does not contain synthetic drugs or 18
136	136	opioids; and 19
137	137	(ii) is addressed to the inmate; and 20
138	138	(C) delivery to the inmate under subpara-21
139	139	graphs (A) and (B) is documented; 22
140	140	(3) ensure that a process is in place for the 23
141	141	processing of legal mail that includes— 24
142	142	(A) the verification of the sender; and 25
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145	145	•HR 1046 IH
146	146	(B) maintains attorney client privilege as 1
147	147	required by existing law; and 2
148	148	(4) achieve 100 percent scanning capacity of 3
149	149	mail arriving at all Federal correction facilities. 4
150	150	(c) C
151	151	ONTENTS.—The strategy required under sub-5
152	152	section (b) shall— 6
153	153	(1) identify critical information technology, dig-7
154	154	ital mail scanning equipment, and mail scanning 8
155	155	services necessary to achieve the scanning capacity 9
156	156	described in subsection (b)(4); 10
157	157	(2) include an assessment of operational and 11
158	158	logistical considerations, including— 12
159	159	(A) prioritization of high security and 13
160	160	large inmate population facilities for digital 14
161	161	mail scanning infrastructure and security tech-15
162	162	nology deployment; 16
163	163	(B) any need for additional personnel and 17
164	164	technology training necessary to implement the 18
165	165	strategy; and 19
166	166	(C) scanning equipment maintenance re-20
167	167	quirements and periodic digital technology up-21
168	168	grades; and 22
169	169	(3) include an equipment and technology budg-23
170	170	etary proposal, for fiscal years 2025 though 2027, in 24
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173	173	•HR 1046 IH
174	174	order to fully implement the strategy described 1
175	175	under subsection (b). 2
176	176	(d) I
177	177	MPLEMENTATION DEADLINE.—Not later than 3 3
178	178	years after the date on which the plan is submitted under 4
179	179	subsection (a)(2), and subject to appropriations, the Di-5
180	180	rector of the Bureau of Prisons shall complete implemen-6
181	181	tation of the submitted plan. 7
182	182	(e) A
183	183	NNUALPROGRESSREPORTS.—Beginning 1 year 8
184	184	after the date on which the strategy is submitted under 9
185	185	subsection (b), and each year thereafter, the Director of 10
186	186	the Bureau of Prisons shall submit to the Committee on 11
187	187	the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Ju-12
188	188	diciary of the House of Representatives a report on the 13
189	189	efficiency of the strategy and the total quantity of detected 14
190	190	synthetic drugs and opioids. 15
191	191	Æ
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