[Pages H2149-H2151]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

TESTING, RAPID ANALYSIS, AND NARCOTIC QUALITY RESEARCH ACT

Mr. MILLER of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 1734) to require coordinated National Institute of
Standards and Technology science and research activities regarding
illicit drugs containing xylazine, novel synthetic opioids, and other
substances of concern, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:

H.R. 1734

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Testing, Rapid Analysis, and
Narcotic Quality Research Act'' or the ``TRANQ Research
Act''.

SEC. 2. XYLAZINE DETECTION AND ANALYSIS.

(a) In General.--The Director shall--
(1) support NIST intramural basic measurement science and
research to advance--
(A) analytical methods to identify, understand,
differentiate, and categorize illicit drugs containing
xylazine, novel synthetic opioids, or other emerging
substances of concern;
(B) measurement technologies to shorten analysis timelines
and enhance narcotic and opioid detection and analysis
capabilities in illicit drugs;
(C) new data tools, techniques, and processes to identify
and publicly disclose relevant information concerning illicit
drugs containing xylazine, novel synthetic opioids, or other
emerging substances of concern; and
(D) all other areas determined by the Director to be
critical to the development and deployment of technologies to
measure and analyze the presence of xylazine, novel synthetic
opioids, and other emerging substances of concern in illicit
drugs;
(2) support activities to inform and expand the development
of near-real time spectrometry capabilities regarding
xylazine, novel synthetic opioids, and other emerging
compounds in illicit drugs;
(3) convene the private sector, institutions of higher
education, nonprofit organizations, Federal laboratories, and
other Federal agencies engaged in the analysis of illicit
drugs to develop coordinated strategies and voluntary best
practices for the safe handling, transport, and analysis of
illicit drugs containing xylazine, novel synthetic opioids,
or other emerging substances of concern;
(4) establish or expand collaborative partnerships or
consortia with other government agencies engaged in
counternarcotic research and development, institutions of
higher education, Federal laboratories, and the private
sector to enhance narcotic and opioid detection and analysis
capabilities regarding xylazine, novel synthetic opioids, and
other emerging substances of concern in illicit drugs; and
(5) provide opportunities for graduate and postgraduate
research on the detection and identification of xylazine,
novel synthetic opioids, and other emerging substances of
concern in illicit drugs.
(b) Controls.--In carrying out activities authorized under
this section, the Director shall ensure proper security
controls are implemented to protect sensitive information, as
appropriate.
(c) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Director.--The term ``Director'' means the Director of
the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
(2) Federal laboratory.--The term ``Federal laboratory''
has the meaning given such term in section 4 of the
Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C.
3703).
(3) Institution of higher education.--The term
``institution of higher education'' has the meaning given
such term in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965
(19 U.S.C. 1001).
(4) NIST.--The term ``NIST'' means the National Institute
of Standards and Technology.
(5) Nonprofit organization.--The term ``nonprofit
organization'' means an organization described in section
501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt
from tax under section 501(a) of such code.
(6) Xylazine.--The term ``xylazine'' means the nonopioid
tranquilizer methyl benzene compound frequently used in
veterinary medicine as an emetic and sedative with analgesic
and muscle relaxant properties.

SEC. 3. REPORT.

Not later that 1 year after the date of enactment of this
Act, the Director of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology shall submit to the Committee on Science, Space,
and Technology of the House of Representatives and the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the
Senate a report on the implementation of this Act. Such
report may include legislative recommendations to improve the
Director's ability to carry out section 2.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Ohio (Mr. Miller) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio.

General Leave

Mr. MILLER of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on H.R. 1734, the bill now under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Ohio?
There was no objection.
Mr. MILLER of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1734, the TRANQ Research
Act, led by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins) and the
gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. Caraveo).
Unfortunately, we are all too familiar with the destruction opioids
like fentanyl are causing our communities. Now these drugs are being
mixed with animal tranquilizers to create deadly new combinations.
Drugs like tranq are presenting new challenges for law enforcement,
healthcare professionals, and first responders. Without a better
understanding of this drug, we cannot slow

[[Page H2150]]

its spread, combat its effects, or ensure safe handling.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, known as NIST,
has already done extraordinary work on fentanyl detection, and this
bill allows them to apply their resources and expertise to analyzing
these new variants. With NIST's help, we will improve our ability to
detect and identify these drugs and improve the tools available to keep
first responders and law enforcement safe when dealing with them.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1734, the TRANQ
Research Act, a bill that I was proud to cosponsor, but I need to thank
especially our colleagues, Representatives Yadira Caraveo and Mike
Collins, for leading this legislation, as well as Chairman Frank Lucas
for his support.
Synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, have taken a terrible toll on
communities all across the country, including in my own district.
Fentanyl is now involved in more deaths of Americans under 50 than any
other cause of death.

{time} 1815

As if the opioid epidemic wasn't bad enough already, our communities
now have to deal with various chemicals being added to these drugs that
``enhance'' their effects and make them harder to detect.
One chemical that criminals have started to use is a common animal
tranquilizer called xylazine. When added to fentanyl, this animal
tranquilizer can have terrible side effects, including horrible wounds
at the injection site.
These additives are also consequential to our first responders and to
law enforcement as they deal with these drugs on the street. Drug
mixtures usually contain a very small amount of synthetic opioids,
which makes it difficult to detect and hard to identify new variants.
Even small amounts of some drugs can be dangerous for law enforcement
and public health officials to handle.
This bill would address these challenges by leveraging NIST's unique
research capabilities to help develop technologies to quickly
characterize and safely handle street drugs.
For decades, NIST, the Nation's measurement laboratory, has helped to
provide safe and effective drug detection techniques and handling
practices. NIST also collects and analyzes drug samples in circulation
to help health authorities, as well as law enforcement, better respond
to this crisis. This bill would codify, as well as enhance, those
ongoing efforts.
This is a fantastic example of how we can activate the unique
expertise in our government laboratories to benefit communities across
the country. We can use science to make law enforcement and first
responders safer and help fight this drug epidemic.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. MILLER of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman
from Georgia (Mr. Collins) to speak on his bill.
Mr. COLLINS. Madam Speaker, I thank my fellow freshman colleague for
yielding a few extra minutes, seeing as I am from Georgia and he is
from Ohio, and I don't talk as fast.
Madam Speaker, I also thank Representative Caraveo, Chairman Lucas,
Ranking Member Lofgren, and the other members of the Science, Space,
and Technology Committee who have joined 22 of their colleagues in
cosponsoring this commonsense bill.
I rise to call on my colleagues to support H.R. 1734, the TRANQ
Research Act. This bill directs the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, NIST, to analyze and advance research on dangerous fentanyl
additives that are putting our public safety officers' lives at risk,
including those who are guarding our borders.
As we have seen, fentanyl has been entering our country at record
levels over the past 2 years. Now, we are seeing even more harmful
chemicals like tranq being added to an already deadly drug. You see,
tranq is a deadly substance. It contains a veterinary tranquilizer,
xylazine, which, when combined with fentanyl, becomes deadlier than the
fentanyl itself.
These drug traffickers dealing in tranq are following the same
playbook that they used when fentanyl first flooded the United States.
It took us too long to recognize the dangers of fentanyl once it was
first detected, putting the lives of first responders and everyday
Americans at risk. These are mistakes we simply can't afford to make
with this new drug.
As a matter of fact, the Drug Enforcement Administration reports that
between 2020 and 2021, detections of tranq in fentanyl increased nearly
200 percent in the Southern United States. Those numbers continue to
rise, and first responders are struggling to keep up.
This bill is one step in fighting dangerous fentanyl additives. By
understanding what these additives are, how to test for them, and how
to safely handle them, we can better protect our first responders.
NIST has a long history of partnering with State and local agencies
to protect frontline workers from dangerous substances. The agency has
developed new drug detection and identification tools that are used in
the field today. It is also a frequent partner of law enforcement,
providing analytical services when they come across new substances.
NIST has also helped create drug handling practices that have become
the gold standard for keeping law enforcement officers safe when they
have to handle fentanyl and other drugs. These are exactly the kind of
efforts we should be making with tranq and other novel synthetic
opioids that are hitting the market.
This is a commonsense bill that will allow NIST to focus its work on
tranq and help us to better understand the rise of fentanyl additives
plaguing our communities.
Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill.
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from
Colorado (Ms. Caraveo) and recognize her leadership on this matter.
Ms. CARAVEO. Madam Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Lofgren for
yielding time.
Today, I am proud to stand in strong support of the Testing, Rapid
Analysis, and Narcotic Quality Research Act that I introduced with my
colleague from Georgia, Representative Mike Collins.
In recent months, criminals have turned to xylazine, a common animal
tranquilizer, to make fentanyl. If injected, this drug can have
horrible side effects, including large wounds at the injection site.
As a doctor, I have seen firsthand the horrific impact of the drug
crisis on our families and communities.
Addictive, dangerous substances like opioids have wreaked havoc in
Colorado, where we are now losing approximately 2,000 Coloradans a year
to fentanyl and meth overdoses. These numbers are likely to worsen with
the emergence of xylazine.
Our bipartisan legislation directs the National Institute of
Standards and Technology to make it easier and faster to detect drugs
containing xylazine and novel synthetic opioids. It also supports the
development of safe handling processes to protect law enforcement
officers and forensic chemists from this dangerous substance.

This effort will ensure our first responders have the support that
they need to detect, identify, and better understand synthetic opioids
and ultimately help save American lives.
At a time of deep division in our country, I am encouraged by the
bipartisan support to address this next wave of the drug crisis.
I thank Representative Collins for working with me to introduce this
bill and Chairman Lucas and Ranking Member Lofgren for their help in
bringing it to the House floor. I also thank Senators Welch and Cruz
for spearheading this effort in the Senate.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
Mr. MILLER of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from
Michigan (Ms. Stevens), a valued member of our committee.
Ms. STEVENS. Madam Speaker, for everyone watching back at home, H.R.

[[Page H2151]]

1734 is bipartisan lawmaking at its best.
A new Member of Congress, Mr. Collins of Georgia, the chair of the
Subcommittee on Research and Technology of the House Science Committee,
a subcommittee I was privileged to serve as the chair of for two terms,
and the brilliant Ms. Caraveo, another new Member of Congress from
Colorado, came together to tackle an opioid epidemic plaguing the
American people, plaguing youth, to get in front of tranq.
This is why the Science Committee, for everyone watching back at
home, is so very important. We are utilizing NIST, the standards agency
of the United States of America, to make sure that we can track and
tackle these insidious drugs that are in our streets, that are in our
neighborhoods, and that are in our homes.
Madam Speaker, I thank Ms. Caraveo, Mr. Collins, and the leadership
of this committee.
Mr. MILLER of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I am ready to close, and I reserve
the balance of my time.
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close and yield myself
the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, this is another example of how the Science Committee
can successfully follow our history of bipartisan work for the well-
being of our country--two freshmen coming together for something that
is important.
Madam Speaker, I also will mention that Representative Caraveo is not
just Representative Caraveo. She is Dr. Caraveo. She comes with
significant expertise to this body and especially to the Science
Committee. We are grateful to her constituents for sending her to us.
She, like Mr. Collins, has only been here several months, but she has
already shown leadership, a focus on law enforcement and health, and a
real willingness to work on a bipartisan basis to solve problems that
face our country.
Madam Speaker, I thank Representatives Collins and Caraveo for their
hard work, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. MILLER of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my
time.
Madam Speaker, as we have heard today, this zombie drug has gruesome
side effects and is leading to an alarming rate of overdose deaths.
Overdose deaths involving tranq have increased in all regions of the
United States, according to the DEA. From 2020 to 2021, these deaths
surged 100 percent in the Northeast, more than 500 percent in the
Midwest, and 750 percent in the West, as well as skyrocketing by more
than 1,100 percent in the South.
Our first responders need every tool they can get to identify and to
fight this growing epidemic of synthetic drugs. H.R. 1734 will
authorize NIST to give them those tools by expanding real-time analysis
capabilities to frontline workers like law enforcement and EMTs.
This legislation was favorably reported out of the Science, Space,
and Technology Committee by a vote of 36-0. It is bipartisan and
addresses a critical issue every district in the Nation is facing.
I thank Representatives Collins and Caraveo for their leadership on
this bill.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield
back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Miller) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 1734, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. MILLER of Ohio. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and
nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.

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