(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, has introduced a bipartisan bill to crack down on fentanyl trafficking.
The new legislation would reauthorize the High Intensity Drug Traffic Areas program, which brings local and federal law enforcement together to stop drug trafficking.
The HIDTA Enhancement Act would authorize $333 million to be spent annually from 2025 to 2030 and increase the amount of competitive grants to more than $14.2 million. It would expand the use of money for fentanyl seizure and prevention.
Under the program, which Congress created with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, areas in the U.S. can be designated an HIDTA if there’s a significant amount of illegal drug production, manufacturing, importation or distribution. Areas must also meet criteria such as state, local and tribal law enforcement committing their resources to fight drug trafficking, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
In addition to reauthorizing the program, the HIDTA Enhancement Act provides law enforcement with greater federal resources for preventing and seizing fentanyl. The U.S. attorney general would make investigative and prosecutorial resources available. That would include temporary reassignments of assistant U.S. attorneys.
As a southern border state, Arizona is in particular need of more resources, Kelly’s office said in a news release.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said Arizona’s HIDTA operations, in collaboration with her office, have seized a large volume of dangerous drugs.
The state has a history of dealing with smugglers and making high-profile drug busts. In 2023, Arizona law enforcement agencies seized more than 123 million fentanyl pills and 2,001 kilograms of fentanyl powder because of HIDTA initiatives and other efforts, according to Kelly’s office.
“Law enforcement agencies in Arizona are doing their best every single day to keep families safe from lethal drugs like fentanyl. We’re supporting them by boosting collaboration between federal and local law enforcement to crack down on drug trafficking,” Kelly said when he introduced the HIDTA Enhancement Act last week.
“This is an example of the long-lasting solutions that Republicans and Democrats can work on together to secure our border and prevent the flow of drugs into our communities,” the senator said.
In Arizona’s Maricopa County alone, more than three lives a day are lost on average to fentanyl, Gov. Katie Hobbs said. She added that the HIDTA Enhancement Act will give law enforcement “the tools they need to stop fentanyl from tearing apart our communities.”
The new legislation has support from various associations of sheriffs and narcotics officers and agents.
Co-sponsors of the bill are U.S. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee; Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota.
Cortez-Masto said the HIDTA program has helped law enforcement agencies nationwide to combat drug trafficking and the fentanyl crisis.
“Communities in Tennessee are suffering because of the increased presence of fentanyl,” Blackburn said. “The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program assists law enforcement in combating fentanyl trafficking and targeting these criminals, and I fully support reauthorizing and expanding it.”
