Exclusive — Sen. Jim Banks Introduces Bill to Sanction Chinese Communist Party Officials Who Refuse to Curb Fentanyl Trafficking

Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) said on Thursday that his first bill in Congress will be to sanction Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials who refuse to curb the flow of fentanyl precursors to the United States, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.

Banks will make his first mark in the upper chamber of Congress by introducing the Countering Beijing’s Weaponization (CBW) of Fentanyl Act.

The legislation aims to amend the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 to define the deadly drug fentanyl and its precursors as chemical and biological weapons.

The legislation would also sanction Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials who have neglected to curb the flow of fentanyl precursors to the United States.

Banks, in a written statement to Breitbart News about why he chose this as his first bill to introduce to Congress, said, “When I campaigned for Senate across Indiana, I met far too many people who lost a loved one to fentanyl. I promised them that holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable for poisoning hundreds of thousands of Americans would be one of my top priorities.”

He added, “The CCP is the world’s largest police state and could stop the flow of fentanyl from their country overnight if they wanted to. Instead, they continue to allow shipments of this deadly drug to flow through Joe Biden’s open borders and target our communities like a weapon of war.”

The Hoosier conservative first introduced the legislation in 2024 when he served in the House of Representatives.

He has also proposed the Stop CCP Fentanyl Act, which if passed, would sanction China’s Xi Jinping unless the leader halts fentanyl exports. His amendment to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) requires the Department of Defense to ascertain if Chinese government officials assisted or were aware of the smuggling of fentanyl precursors to Mexican drug cartels. The amendment was signed into law as part of last year’s NDAA.

Two years ago, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) seized over 80 million fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills and roughly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder, which is approximately 390 million lethal doses of the drug.

For many Hoosiers, the fentanyl is all too personal.

Theresa Juillerat, the co-founder of Justice, Accountability & Victim Advocacy, is the mother of Christopher Juillerat, who passed away on May 12, 2020, at the age of 23 to fentanyl poisoning,

She said in a statement:

Our nation is under attack and our children are the collateral damage. Our adversaries are contributing towards and taking advantage of our  vulnerabilities, by manufacturing and trafficking the lethal drugs that are getting into our country, into the hands of our children across our entire nation. The time for our Administration to collectively address this crisis is long overdue! It’s time to be aggressive in our approach! Thank you Senator Banks for supporting this urgent initiative and introducing this bill! We must stop the flow of these lethal drugs by securing our borders, while keeping Americans safe and protect our children from these weapons of mass destruction!

“Fentanyl has taken the lives of so many of our children.  Fentanyl has destroyed so many lives. It has to stop. This is a crisis and it’s preventable. This legislation is a big step towards that goal,” Chad Bauer, the captain for the Fort Wayne Fire Department, who lost his son Logan to an accidental fentanyl poisoning, said.

Nathan Moellering, the CEO of Fort Wayne Recovery, executive vice president of Allendale Treatment, cofounder and coproducer of Bare Knuckle Recovery, and a fentanyl poisoning survivor, said:

Over the last decade or so, we have done an excellent job addressing demand through treatment, harm reduction, and prevention efforts. While we still have a way to go, the progress is notable. It is absolutely time to address the supply side of the drug crisis. The Chinese Communist Party and the Mexican drug cartels have been getting away with murder, and I hope they will now pay the price. Fentanyl has been used to strike at the heart of our nation long before a magazine is loaded or a missile is armed. We are woefully behind in addressing this sprawling chemical attack on our nation. Thank you, Senator Banks, for doing what is long overdue.

He added, “This is a vital step toward making America secure again.”