The U.S. House of Representatives voted to reauthorize Caribbean counternarcotics policies in a bill co-sponsored by Virgin Islands Congressional Delegate Stacey Plaskett.
The bipartisan legislation was forwarded to the Senate Dec. 5 after its nearly unanimous passage — 399-1.
Plaskett applauded the bill, which reauthorizes the National Drug Control Policy Office.
“We are well aware of the violence and destruction drug trafficking has exacted in our region. The loss of lives, opportunities and the social structure to these issues must be combated with multiple tools. This legislation is an important one,” Plaskett said in a written statement.
H.R. 9598 reauthorizes and funds the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program and the Drug-Free Communities through 2031. It also reauthorizes other programs, including the Drug Court Training and Technical Assistance Program, the Model Acts Program, the Community-Based Coalition Enhancement Grants Program, and the National Community Anti-Drug Coalition Institute.
The bill bolsters local law enforcement and prosecutorial resources to combat fentanyl and requires the Drug Control Office to conduct a study on lifesaving opioid overdose reversal agents.
“This legislation must still be passed by the Senate before it can go to the president’s desk for signature into law. I am hopeful that this critical legislation will continue to move with haste,” Plaskett said.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. James Comer (R-KY), and co-sponsored by Plaskett, Delegate Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colón (R-PR), Rep. John Duarte (R-CA), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).
California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock was the only member to vote against the Drug Control Policy Office. The next day, Dec. 6, McClintock voted in favor of a bill to make anticommunist teaching tools available to schools. The Crucial Communism Teaching Act warns growing discontent with capitalism posed a threat — and that Chinese-made Confucius Classrooms were channels of communist thought.
The act passed 327 to 62, with 43 members not voting.
