Speech #CREC-2017-03-23-pt1-PgS1975-3_t1

For example, some conceal the powder in those small silica packages that say ``do not eat'' placed alongside everyday items. Others gift wrap shipments or label them as household products like laundry detergent to avoid detection. Customs and Border Protection has many different methods it uses to find contraband being smuggled into the United States at the border or through the mail. These include drug-sniffing dogs, various kinds of scanners, fiber-optic scopes, and physical searches. When Customs and Border Protection finds a suspicious substance using those and other methods, it has had success identifying it as an illicit drug like fentanyl with the help of high-tech, handheld chemical screening devices. So anytime Customs and Border Protection finds a suspicious powder, pill, or liquid, it can use a handheld device--really something that looks and feels like a Nintendo Game Boy--to conduct a test, in the field, with real-time results. That means narcotics like illicit fentanyl can be detected, identified, and seized quickly and on the spot. Those rapid results provide vital information for law enforcement officers to continue their investigation and, if appropriate, proceed with seizure and arrest. Not only does the use of this technology disrupt the flow of the drugs into the country, it protects the health and safety of law enforcement officials from exposure to dangerous substances like illicit fentanyl. Often, Border Patrol agents don't know what the powdery substance they have uncovered is and whether it poses a threat to them. That is especially alarming with illicit fentanyl, given its strength. Exposure to a small amount by contact with the skin or through inhalation can be fatal. Increased use of these high-tech devices will provide important protections for our law enforcement officers on the front lines. The INTERDICT Act also provides for additional equipment back in Customs and Border Protection laboratories, including more scientists who analyze and interpret test results. The INTERDICT Act ensures that Customs and Border Patrol will have hundreds of additional portable chemical screening devices available at international ports of entry and mail and express consignment facilities and additional equipment and personnel available in their laboratories so that they can provide support during all operational hours. Again, I thank Senator Rubio, Senator Brown, and Senator Capito for working together on a bipartisan basis so we can give these additional tools to fight this fentanyl epidemic. I urge all my colleagues to support this bill to fight the scourge of illicit drugs.