A push focused on the international trafficking of the deadly drug fentanyl is taking shape in Capitol Hill.
The architect behind two pieces of proposed legislation is U.S. Representative Michael McCaul.
“We’ve lost 100,000 people just this past year to fentanyl,” he said.
McCaul represents a portion of the northwest Houston area in a district that stretches past Austin.
During a conversation with KPRC 2 Investigates on Monday, he made it clear that this is a drug he knows all too well.
“My own children, Mario, they’ve been to like five funerals,” said McCaul.
There are two new bills the representative is proposing.
The first is the Fend Off Fentanyl Act, which is focused on declaring the international tracking of fentanyl as a national emergency.
“I think it already should have been a federal emergency. So, the fact that we are now going in that direction makes me very happy,” said the President of Positive Recovery Centers in Houston Julie Denofa.
The other bill proposed by McCaul is the Project Precursor Act which is designed to have the United States work with Mexican officials to stop the importing of ingredients used to make fentanyl from reaching their Mexican destination.
Denofa’s reaction to the feds aiming at fighting fentanyl south of the border before reaching the U.S., “I want to stop it from getting into Houston, I want to stop it from getting into the hands of anybody that can be harmed by it.”
The Project Precursor Act is set to go before the committee on Tuesday and potentially may make it to the floor by the end of the month, according to McCaul.