dz the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the parliamentarian will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c., june 17, 2022. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable elizabeth warren, a senator from the commonwealth of massachusetts, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore.

the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate stands adjourned until 3:00 p.m. on tuesday, position is unique and interesting way to schedule substances. this brings a lot of complex factors and that is the reason the administration proposed scheduling fentanyl as a class but also balancing that with the rights and research part.

we would love to continue to work with you at your office and with your staff to figure out the path forward. it is imperative we continue to find a permanent path forward. sen. grassley: why don't you give me a rough idea of what some of those things are? simple things that congress has been doing four or five times on a piecemeal basis for two or three years of the schedule. dr. gupta: what we don't know is what the future may hold. they may be other compounds, others that might not be active compounds. you want to be careful that those are included but also their consciously included in class. secondly, the notion of the outlands does not apply to bodily injury or death investigations. it allows more judges to be able

to judge. having said that, we would love to continue to work with your office to find a path forward. sen. grassley: some critics of classwide scheduling think it could undermine research with potential benefits of fentanyl drugs. the inner agency bill that you shared with congress has scheduling and research prevention. can you explain how this research into the drug possible while still controlling them? dr. gupta: senator, are you asking about the proposal or research separately? sen. grassley: they are together, so since the fentanyl legislation, it seems to me that we can permanently schedule them and also provide them for necessary research. it seems simple to me. dr. gupta: we believe that

research could be provided. good innovation and research would help in the future to create the maximum outcome of the next treatments. i do think research can be done on that. that is why the proposal included having research as a component of the permanent scheduling. sen. grassley: national drug control strategy is mandated by federal law. gao did a review and noted that the ondcp was delayed in publishing the strategy this year and that you have yet to release these documents that are part of the 2022 strategy, particularly the missing documents are five-year protections of the natural -- national drug control program and budget priorities along with an outline of specific resources. and even to implement the southwest florida strategy. why did you feel -- fail to meet

the statutory deadline for releasing the strategies and when will ondcp release the documents to address the drug crisis at the southwest border? dr. gupta: thank you. when i came into office with that as a physician to work on the ground with people, my first goal was to save lives. it is important for the american public that we save lives and get this right. that is exactly what i did. i went back and looked at the draft that was available, went through due process, had 2000 complications with stakeholders as well as the interagency partners. to me, it is more important to get it right because lives are at stake. just today, we are seeing smaller numbers increase but also fewer hundred deaths than the last time the support -- this report was released.

the question of the other documents, we are constantly working closely with gao and where committed to working to release those documents as early as possible. you have my commitment to work with your staff and congress to get those out. sen. grassley: you must have a timetable to get it done. dr. gupta: i will get that to you very responsibly and quickly. sen. grassley: i have heard from parents about counterfeit bills -- pills laced with fentanyl. drug networks are releasing fake pills and falsely advertising them to young people with deadly results. as a parent and grandparent, this is a problem that young people are susceptible to online marketing of these deadly pills.

i recently introduced a bipartisan bill that reduces enhancement for spreading laced counterfeit pills. the fda is also releasing a campaign to address the issue, despite the seizures of laced pills ironic -- skyrocketing in the country. when i searched the 2022 strategy, the phrase counterfeit pills came up four times. compare that to the phrase harm reduction, which was mentioned 148 times. how are you going to refocus efforts to stop the spread of counterfeit pills and what can congress do to support your effort? dr. gupta: the counterfeit pills are a challenge ahead of us.

it is our populations they are looking at getting nonprescription pills. every life lost is tragic, especially when it is a child. the important thing here is along with the dea, and thank you, i am looking forward to working with the dea on these pieces, we are working on the one pill can kill campaign, working with social media companies and working with various other law enforcement agencies to make sure we know what the e-commerce market is. services are working with e-commerce as well to look at the supply chain and those things are happening as we speak. we can do much more in terms of making sure that parents, school teachers, neighbors are aware the danger of these counterfeit pills because they are a true danger in our communities. sen.

supple have some -- sen. hassan: i want to -- we have been working together to get fentanyl permanently scheduled. dr., it was good to have you in new hampshire recently to see the problems we have on the ground as the epidemic of substance use continues as well as what we are doing in the granite state to address the drug crisis. i look forward to welcoming you back again. i want to start by just talking a little bit about the issue of fentanyl precursors in particular. i work with my colleagues to pressure china to take additional steps to regulate a fentanyl analogues and fentanyl precursors, which are the chemical chemical components that make up fentanyl. while there has been a drop in

fentanyl trafficking directly from china to the united states we have recently seen a rise in fentanyl precursors coming from china, going to mexico, where fentanyl is now produced. and then it is smuggled into the united states. how is ondcp coordinating efforts along the law enforcement agencies to improve efforts to disrupt drug smuggling from mexico, and precursor chemical shipments from china and india to mexico where the drugs are manufactured? dr. gupta: thank you, senator. it was indeed a pleasure to be able to visit new hampshire and see a lot of great work that is happening on the ground. very impressive. with respect to china, we have a long-standing counter narcotics relationship that is currently showing uneven progress. the fact is, i echo the words of secretary blinken that said we have to compete with china, but this is an area where we can cooperate. we are working very closely. i have regular conversation with ambassador burns, our lead diplomat in beijing, this is very high on his list of priorities. we are very specific

asks of china to contain these precursor shipments to make sure they are following the international norms of shipping and labeling, and we are cooperating on these dual use chemicals coming to mexico and the united states. it is important that we continue to hold them accountable as a global leader. if that is what they want to be, they have to take a lead on these issues. with mexico, we have invested over the years a lot of resources as well as a lot of other aspects of expertise with mexico. similar to, it is a shared responsibility with the mexican government. it is important that the amount of resources as well as energy we have spent both in gun trafficking and cash flow and other aspects, that we continue to have dialogue, how we can have the same level of cooperation and enthusiasm with us. i was in mexico my first week in office, we met with the military, as well as the

addiction council. we continue to believe that the bicentennial security agreement that was signed in two countries in public health, security and community safety, will be an important path forward. sen. hassan: following up a little bit, has there been outreach and work with india and its role with precursors as well? dr. gupta: yes, india is a promising improving global counter relationship, current relationship. we are having the third visit, third meeting of the counter narcotics people from india. our team will be traveling next month there. a high-level agreement on some of the goals, that includes not just precursor shipments, but also other opioids like tramadol and those substances that we are seeing shipments of here. sen. hassan: thank you. i was heartened to see that the 2022 strategy highlights the importance of medication assisted treatment. in treating substance use disorder. how does access to medication assisted treatment factor into your

treatment and recovery benchmarks? dr. gupta: thank, you senator. the treatment, the fact is, today a fraction of the americans who need treatment are getting treated. part of this is stigma. part of this is really the inability to get treatment and access treatment. awesome -- just looking at having universal treatment access by 2025, increasing treatment behind the walls, and making sure that those drugs are available to all people, is very critical. that allows people, first of, all not to die. second of all, get into treatment, and then get on to recovery, so they become productive parts of this nation's economy. as we talked about, there is a lot of loss, economic and labor force participation loss, that is attributed to addiction and substance use. sen. hassan: thank you, that is exactly why i introduced the substance abuse prevention treatment and recovery act. to reauthorize and improve the

block grant. it is a bipartisan bill with senators murkowski and lujan, which will provide desperately needed resources for communities grappling with substance use disorder crisis and to ensure efforts are based on what we know is effective and lasting. one thing you talked about, the stigma, there is more work we can do to help people understand medication assisted treatment is the gold standard at this point. and really is effective. last quick question. several cities and regions are seeing an increase in new synthetic opioids that are even more powerful than fentanyl. which is, from what i understand, the power of fentanyl, it's hard to comprehend. how is ondcp working with scientific and law enforcement organizations to develop ended -- and deploy field testing kits that are able to detect these new even more dangerous synthetic drugs? dr. gupta: thank you, senator. we know that with synthetic, there is a very important shift that has happened recently in the drug policy world, a shift

from plant-based to synthetics. with those synthetics, pandora's box has been opened. we can expect to see much more potent substances. it's really important for us to continue to work with the scientific community, to understand, and that's why part of the harm reduction agenda is also to be able to have that drug checking ability. to understand what's in people's drugs so we have an idea of what is prevailing and looking at those emerging threats and acting before it is too late. sen. hassan: and having a system that's agile enough so that as the synthetics are changing, as the compounds are changing, the testing mechanisms can change quickly and be produced, quickly, right? dr. gupta: yes, senator. sen. lee: -- sen. hassan: thank you very much. >> thank you very much, dr. gupta, there will be questions for the record from those of us who are here and those whose schedules prevented them from being here so i hope you will answer those and we will