II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 477
To amend the Controlled Substances Act and the Controlled Substances
Import and Export Act to modify the offenses relating to fentanyl,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY6 (legislative day, FEBRUARY5), 2025
Mr. K
ENNEDY(for himself, Mr. CRUZ, Mr. GRAHAM, Mrs. BRITT, and Mr.
J
USTICE) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend the Controlled Substances Act and the Controlled
Substances Import and Export Act to modify the of-
fenses relating to fentanyl, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fairness in Fentanyl 4
Sentencing Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES ACT AMENDMENTS. 6
Section 401(b)(1) of the Controlled Substances Act 7
(21 U.S.C. 841(b)(1)) is amended— 8
(1) in subparagraph (A)(vi)— 9
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Mar 07, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S477.IS S477
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•S 477 IS
(A) by striking ‘‘400’’ and inserting ‘‘20’’; 1
(B) by striking ‘‘100’’ and inserting ‘‘5’’; 2
and 3
(C) by inserting ‘‘scheduled or unsched-4
uled’’ before ‘‘analogue of’’; and 5
(2) in subparagraph (B)(vi)— 6
(A) by striking ‘‘40’’ and inserting ‘‘2’’; 7
(B) by striking ‘‘10’’ and inserting ‘‘0.5’’; 8
and 9
(C) by inserting ‘‘scheduled or unsched-10
uled’’ before ‘‘analogue of’’. 11
SEC. 3. CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES IMPORT AND EXPORT 12
ACT AMENDMENTS. 13
Section 1010(b) of the Controlled Substances Import 14
and Export Act (21 U.S.C. 960(b)) is amended— 15
(1) in paragraph (1)(F)— 16
(A) by striking ‘‘400’’ and inserting ‘‘20’’; 17
(B) by striking ‘‘100’’ and inserting ‘‘5’’; 18
and 19
(C) by inserting ‘‘scheduled or unsched-20
uled’’ before ‘‘analogue of’’; and 21
(2) in paragraph (2)(F)— 22
(A) by striking ‘‘40’’ and inserting ‘‘2’’; 23
(B) by striking ‘‘10’’ and inserting ‘‘0.5’’; 24
and 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Mar 07, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S477.IS S477
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
•S 477 IS
(C) by inserting ‘‘scheduled or unsched-1
uled’’ before ‘‘analogue of’’. 2
SEC. 4. DIRECTIVE TO THE SENTENCING COMMISSION. 3
(a) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘Commis-4
sion’’ means the United States Sentencing Commission. 5
(b) D
IRECTIVE TO THE UNITEDSTATESSEN-6
TENCINGCOMMISSION.—Pursuant to the authority of the 7
Commission under section 994(p) of title 28, United 8
States Code, and in accordance with this section, the Com-9
mission shall review and amend, if appropriate, the guide-10
lines and policy statements of the Commission applicable 11
to a person convicted of an offense under section 401 of 12
the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 841) or section 13
1010 of the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act 14
(21 U.S.C. 960) to ensure that the guidelines and policy 15
statements are consistent with the amendments made by 16
sections 2 and 3 of this Act. 17
(c) E
MERGENCY AUTHORITY.—The Commission 18
shall— 19
(1) promulgate the guidelines, policy state-20
ments, or amendments provided for in this Act as 21
soon as practicable, and in any event not later than 22
120 days after the date of enactment of this Act, in 23
accordance with the procedure set forth in section 24
21(a) of the Sentencing Act of 1987 (28 U.S.C. 994 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Mar 07, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S477.IS S477
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
•S 477 IS
note), as though the authority under that Act had 1
not expired; and 2
(2) pursuant to the emergency authority pro-3
vided under paragraph (1), make such conforming 4
amendments to the Federal sentencing guidelines as 5
the Commission determines necessary to achieve 6
consistency with other guideline provisions and ap-7
plicable law. 8
SEC. 5. INTERDICTION OF FENTANYL, OTHER SYNTHETIC 9
OPIOIDS, AND OTHER NARCOTICS AND 10
PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES. 11
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 12
(1) the term ‘‘chemical screening device’’ means 13
an immunoassay, narcotics field test kit, infrared 14
spectrophotometer, mass spectrometer, nuclear mag-15
netic resonance spectrometer, Raman spectrophoto-16
meter, or other scientific instrumentation able to col-17
lect data that can be interpreted to determine the 18
presence of fentanyl, other synthetic opioids, and 19
other narcotics and psychoactive substances; 20
(2) the term ‘‘express consignment operator or 21
carrier’’ has the meaning given the term in section 22
128.1 of title 19, Code of Federal Regulations, or 23
any successor thereto; and 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Mar 07, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S477.IS S477
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5
•S 477 IS
(3) the term ‘‘Postmaster General’’ means the 1
Postmaster General of the United States Postal 2
Service. 3
(b) I
NTERDICTION OF FENTANYL, OTHERSYN-4
THETICOPIOIDS, ANDOTHERNARCOTICS AND 5
P
SYCHOACTIVESUBSTANCES.— 6
(1) C
HEMICAL SCREENING DEVICES .—The 7
Postmaster General shall— 8
(A) increase the number of chemical 9
screening devices that are available to the 10
United States Postal Service; and 11
(B) make additional chemical screening de-12
vices available to the United States Postal Serv-13
ice as the Postmaster General determines are 14
necessary to interdict fentanyl, other synthetic 15
opioids, and other narcotics and psychoactive 16
substances that are illegally imported into the 17
United States, including such substances that 18
are imported through the mail or by an express 19
consignment operator or carrier. 20
(2) P
ERSONNEL TO INTERPRET DATA .—The 21
Postmaster General shall dedicate the appropriate 22
number of personnel of the United States Postal 23
Service, including scientists, so that those personnel 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Mar 07, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S477.IS S477
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6
•S 477 IS
are available during all operational hours to inter-1
pret data collected by chemical screening devices. 2
(c) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 3
authorized to be appropriated to the Postmaster General 4
$9,000,000 to ensure that the United States Postal Serv-5
ice has resources, including chemical screening devices, 6
personnel, and scientists, available during all operational 7
hours to prevent, detect, and interdict the unlawful impor-8
tation of fentanyl, other synthetic opioids, and other nar-9
cotics and psychoactive substances. 10
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Mar 07, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S477.IS S477
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS