{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-leads-colleagues-in-raising-concerns-over-permanent-classwide-scheduling-of-fentanyl-analogues", "Booker Leads Colleagues in Raising Concerns Over Permanent Classwide Scheduling of Fentanyl Analogues", "2022-06-28", "2022", "2022-06", "Democrat", "Senate", "NJ", "Cory A. Booker", "B001288", "www.booker.senate.gov", "booker", "https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press", "scraper", "Washington, DC -- Yesterday, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, led a bicameral group of lawmakers asking the Biden Administration for information related to the scientific evaluations that the Department of Health and Human Services has conducted of fentanyl analogues. The letter expresses concerns over the Biden Administration\u2019s proposal to make the current temporary classwide scheduling of fentanyl-related substances (FRS) permanent without proper scientific evaluation. As per recent testimony from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), classwide scheduling may improperly classify FRS that may be harmless, or have a medical use, as Schedule I drugs, a designation reserved for the most dangerous substances that have no therapeutic use.\n\nIn a letter to the Attorney General Merrick Garland, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Millgram, the lawmakers wrote that \u201cpermanent classwide scheduling would absolve the government of its statutory responsibility to determine a substance\u2019s potential for abuse or accepted medical use before placing it in a category of controlled substances.\u201d The proposal would also \u201ccreate a system in which some individuals may be prosecuted and sentenced to prison for substances that turn out to be harmless, which invariably will disproportionately impact people of color.\u201d\n\nAs yesterday\u2019s letter notes, after Senator Booker and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar on this issue in 2019, the department found that \u201cpermanent scheduling of a class of substances, rather than specific substances, would not be feasible for the FDA to develop\u201d and \u201ccould impede the development of treatments for opioid addiction and overdoses.\u201d Schedule I drugs are the most difficult for researchers to study due to time-consuming protocols.\n\nThe lawmakers also highlight that in December 2021, the FDA testified before Congress that of the few FRS it has studied, \u201cone does not make a person \u2018high\u2019 and could be a life-saving treatment.\u201d Yet, the administration \u201chas neither released any information about the substances it has studied nor explained which steps it is taking under current law to reclassify the substances it has concluded should not be in Schedule I.\u201d The permanent classwide scheduling of FRS \u201cwithout first conducting a scientific and medical evaluation\u2014an evaluation that could lead to the discovery of a life-saving treatment\u2014is contrary to evidence-based, public health solutions,\u201d continue the lawmakers.\n\nFurthermore, the lawmakers argue that temporary scheduling of FRS as Schedule I drugs \u201chas not proven to be an effective solution to the country\u2019s grim overdose crisis.\u201d The letter cites data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that show \u201coverdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone increased 23 percent, from 58,000 to 71,000\u201d between 2020 and 2021 alone.\n\nThe lawmakers concluded by requesting that the DEA release information related to FRS, including scientific and medical studies done on FRS by HHS or the FDA.\n\nThe letter was co-signed in the Senate by Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and in the House by Representatives by Representatives Tony C\u00e1rdenas (D-CA-29th), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-3rd), Yvette Clarke (D-NY-9th), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY-7th), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ-12th), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL-9th), Nanette Barrag\u00e1n (D-CA-44th), Cori Bush (D-MO-1st), and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE-At-large).", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T02:39:01Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-leads-colleagues-in-raising-concerns-over-permanent-classwide-scheduling-of-fentanyl-analogues"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5695779584348202, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}