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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is urging Congress to help him do more to combat the scourge of fentanyl before his term ends.
The new political pressure on the Democratic administration comes as former Republican President Donald Trump has stepped up his attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris, portraying her as Biden’s incompetent lieutenant in the fight to slow the flow of illegal drugs and unauthorized immigrants into the United States from Mexico.
The White House on Wednesday announced a series of Biden’s proposals aimed at curbing the current drug epidemic. They include pressuring Congress to pass laws to establish a registry of pill presses and tablet manufacturers, and increasing penalties for drug traffickers and fentanyl offenders.
Biden also wants to tighten rules for importers sending small packages to the U.S. and require shippers to provide more information to Customs and Border Protection. The move is aimed at improving detection of fentanyl precursors, which arrive in the U.S. in relatively low-value packages and are not subject to customs and trade barriers.
The president’s new push to combat fentanyl could also benefit Democratic nominee Harris as Trump and his representatives seek to portray her as the Biden administration’s point person on addressing issues along the U.S.-Mexico border throughout his term.
“Despite this, too many of our fellow Americans have lost loved ones to fentanyl,” Biden said in a statement. “It’s time to act. It’s time to stand together — for all we’ve lost and for all the lives we can still save.”
Biden said he will also sign a national security memorandum on Wednesday aimed at improving information sharing between law enforcement and federal agencies to better understand the production and trafficking of synthetic opioids that have devastated large swaths of the U.S. More than 442 million doses of fentanyl have been seized at the U.S. border in the past five months, according to the White House.
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