{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.budd.senate.gov/2025/07/31/sens-budd-heinrich-introduce-amendment-to-crack-down-on-illicit-anti-obesity-drugs-entering-the-u-s-from-china/", "Sens. Budd, Heinrich Introduce Amendment to Crack Down on Illicit Anti-Obesity Drugs Entering the U.S. from China", "2025-07-31", "2025", "2025-07", "Republican", "Senate", "NC", "Ted Budd", "B001305", "www.budd.senate.gov", "budd", "https://www.budd.senate.gov/category/news/press-releases/page/", "scraper", "Bipartisan amendment would help ensure FDA can utilize existing statutory authority to protect Americans from counterfeit, unapproved drugs from unregistered facilities in China\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senators Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) recently introduced an amendment to the 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act to ensure the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can activate regulatory and enforcement authorities to prevent the importation of illicit weight loss drugs and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) from the Republic of China and other foreign countries.\n\nThese illicit products, which include unregulated versions of ingredients used in name-brand GLP-1 medicines, are often produced in facilities in China that are not always registered with the FDA and pose serious risks to American consumers, with sometimes fatal consequences.\n\n\u201cThe Chinese Communist Party has proven time and again that it is willing to exploit our supply chain and endanger American lives to advance its own interests,\u201d said Senator Budd. \u201cThat includes flooding our country with counterfeit, unapproved weight-loss drugs made in unregulated facilities. It is critically important that the United States maintains the gold standard for safe, effective medicines and we must act decisively to protect American patients. I am glad to partner with Senator Heinrich on this important issue, and I look forward to working with Commissioner Makary and Secretary Kennedy to help ensure the FDA can shut the door on these dangerous products at our borders and hold bad actors accountable.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe have a responsibility to protect Americans from dangerous, counterfeit drugs entering our country,\u201d said Senator Heinrich. \u201cToo many of these unapproved weight-loss drugs are being produced in unregistered facilities in China with no oversight and no regard for safety. That\u2019s why I\u2019m introducing bipartisan legislation with Senator Budd to ensure the FDA can crack down on these illicit imports and keep American consumers safe.\u201d\n\nBACKGROUND\n\nA recent Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) public service announcement warned that counterfeit weight loss products have been found to contain both \u201cdrugs with high levels of impurities\u201d and \u201cunsafe or unapproved drugs\u201d with misbranded or adulterated packaging. To protect America\u2019s supply chain from these potential threats, actions from the FDA may include refusing the entry of illicit drugs and API, issuing warning letters to foreign suppliers, and initiating civil enforcement actions.\n\nThis amendment follows a bipartisan letter Representative Richard Hudson (R-N.C.-09) led in sending to FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, which urged immediate action against the rising threat of illegal, counterfeit anti-obesity medications entering the United States.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:48:13Z"]], "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.budd.senate.gov/2025/07/31/sens-budd-heinrich-introduce-amendment-to-crack-down-on-illicit-anti-obesity-drugs-entering-the-u-s-from-china/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6729590240865946, "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"}