FEND Off Fentanyl Act approved by Senate Banking Committee

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - The Senate Banking Committee recently approved a bill Arizona U.S. Senator, Kyrsten Sinema helped broker and shape.

The Fend Off Fentanyl Act is particularly relevant to Arizona because it strengthens the state's response to the fentanyl crisis and cracks down on the flow of fentanyl into Arizona by deploying federal resources to target cartels’ criminal funding.

The bill requires the Treasury Department to prioritize stopping the fentanyl crisis by deploying sanctions and anti-money laundering authorities to target criminal cartels’ funding.

The Fend Off Fentanyl Act ultimately follows the money trail to make it harder for opioid traffickers to engage in money laundering to hide their crimes and officially declares the international trafficking of opioids as a national emergency.