Grassley Opens Judiciary Committee Executive Business Meeting on Combating Illicit Xylazine Act

The third bill and the remaining nominations will be held over for future consideration.

Today, we're considering Colin McDonald's nomination to lead the Justice Department's National Fraud Enforcement Division.

I think Republicans and Democrats can agree that rooting out fraud to protect American taxpayers is a critical goal.

Mr. McDonald is a career public servant, and an expert in fraud prosecutions.

He's highly regarded because he's prosecuted hard cases and done it well.

Mr. McDonald is the right person for this job, and I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting his nomination.

The thrust of today's meeting will be to continue our committee's longstanding and bipartisan work to protect Americans from the scourge of illegal drugs.

The Combating Illicit Xylazine Act, which I lead with Senator Cortez Masto, responds to a startling increase we've seen of overdoses and deaths involving xylazine.

Our bill will classify this highly toxic drug as Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act, while protecting its legitimate use by veterinarians, farmers and ranchers.

This bill has been a top priority of both Democratic and Republican administrations.

The Biden-Harris administration asked Congress to "make xylazine a Schedule III drug" in its Counter-Fentanyl Legislative Proposal.

And on her first day in office, Attorney General Bondi doubled down on this same request.

These two administrations didn't agree on most things, but they agreed on the importance of what we're doing today.

That's why this bill is cosponsored by 14 Democrats and 15 Republicans.

I want to thank Senator Cortez Masto for her partnership on this critical issue.

For those who don't know, xylazine is an animal tranquilizer legally used on large animals and livestock on a regular basis. It's not approved for any human use.

In humans, xylazine causes vital functions like breathing to plummet to potentially fatal levels.

Over the past decade, it's increasingly appeared on the street mixed with fentanyl and other narcotics. You may know it by its street name, "tranq."

Xylazine's the cause of an increasing number of fatal drug poisonings involving fentanyl, because it compounds sedative effects when mixed with opioids.

The overdose reversal medicine Narcan doesn't work on xylazine.

This drug is dangerous because it's a cheap way to cut other deadly drugs like fentanyl and heroin. Dealers use it to maximize drug profits at the expense of human lives.

The data tells a harrowing story. The maps I'm about to show you are from the Center for Disease Control and illustrate how this drug has ravaged our country.

In 2020, most states didn't collect data related to xylazine. But even with limited data, if you look at the 2020 map you see 571 deaths in Pennsylvania and 431in Maryland - all connected to xylazine.

Now if you look at the 2024 map, you see a startling increase in deaths where xylazine was detected.

Thirteen states with 150 or more deaths - 230 people from Illinois, 235 from Missouri, 269 from Tennessee, 874 in Pennsylvania, 343 in Maryland, 218 in New Jersey, 345 in Connecticut and 727 in New York.

This data tells a story, and it's why we're here today.

Former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Milgram during the Biden administration explained, "DEA has seized xylazine-fentanyl mixtures in 48 of 50 states…We know where this xylazine comes from - it comes as powder from China and as liquid diverted from veterinary supply chains… Despite all of this, xylazine is not yet a controlled substance. This is why it is so important for it to be scheduled."

The DEA has tried to administratively schedule this drug since the Biden-Harris administration, but they ran into a problem that requires Congress to act.

Under current law, DEA can't create a special carveout for lawful users of xylazine, like vets and farmers.

Quite simply, the DEA can't schedule this on their own without harming the agriculture community.

We're here today to do what they can't.

Few people know the pain this drug can cause more than the families who have lost a loved one to poisons like xylazine and fentanyl.

Some are here today, and many others are watching across the nation.

Some of you brought photographs of your loved ones. I want to thank every one of you for coming. Some of you traveled nearly 10 hours by car to be here.

Instead of plunging into despair and grief, you stood up to fight and save other families from the horror you experienced.

Mrs. Shannon Miller from Ohio lost her daughter two years ago. Her grandson found his mother cold. Tomorrow would be Shannon's daughter's 37th birthday. But because of xylazine, she's forever 35.

Mrs. Deborah Dinnocenzo is here today from Garfield, New Jersey. She lost her son Ricky to a xylazine overdose too. She wrote to the committee, "My son, Ricky, should still be here today. Instead, our family lives with the reality that a hidden substance in the drug supply took his life before he ever had the chance to know it was there. I respectfully urge the committee to act quickly on S. 545 so that fewer families have to endure the same heartbreak."

Mrs. Denise Prince traveled here today to honor her son, Joey. When she lost Joey three years ago, his toxicology report listed fentanyl and xylazine as the cause of death. She told us, "Even if I had found my son sooner, I most likely would not have been able to save him due to the effects of the xylazine which cannot be reversed with Narcan."

Mrs. Debbie Malott also came here today from New Jersey. She lost her son, Jesse, when he took a pill he didn't know had fentanyl or xylazine in it.

Mrs. Kimberly Shiver lost her son, Jordan, after he fought addiction his entire life. She recalls in her letter that even if she'd had Narcan, it couldn't have saved Jordan from xylazine.

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