John J. Faso: “I thank Mr. Bishop for yielding and for his leadership on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5788…”

“I thank Mr. Bishop for yielding and for his leadership on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5788, the amended Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention Act of 2018. Once signed into law, this legislation will help combat our Nation's growing opioid crisis by preventing the easy importation of synthetic opioids through the United States Postal Service. Under current law, private shipping companies are required to provide Customs and Border Protection with advance electronic data for packages inbound to the United States. The inclusion of this data makes illegally shipped items easier to track and locate. This standard is not imposed on our own Postal Service, however, even though the U.S. Postal Service brought more than four times the number of packages into the U.S. than all private carriers like FedEx and UPS did in 2016, combined. This bill will bring the U.S. Postal Service up to industry standards by requiring advance electronic data for 100 percent of packages by 2020 and a strong goal of 70 percent by the end of this year. Also required is a 2019 study by the GAO assessing the progress made by the Postal Service. By requiring this data of foreign shippers, we can help to keep dangerous synthetic opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil off our streets. The abundance of fentanyl within our borders is leading to an increase in overdoses and overdose-related deaths.…”