White House Asks Congress to Require de Minimis Importers to Provide More Info to CBP

The White House is asking Congress to pass a law that "would require importers of small packages to provide additional information to Customs and Border Protection officials so that we can keep track of these packages and better detect and identify packages that are carrying illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals and related machinery," and is giving agencies 30 days to review public-private partnerships with "shipping companies, freight forwarding companies, e-commerce entities" and others to see how effective they are in stopping the distribution of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, and asking for recommendations on how to close "key gaps" in those partnerships.

Those recommendations could be for legislation or administrative actions, the White House memo, issued July 31, said.

In a press call ahead of the memo's release, a senior official said the bill the White House is seeking would establish a nationwide pill press registry. CBP officials have said that pill presses, and disassembled pill presses, are being sent in the de minimis package environment. Drug dealers use that equipment to make pills that claim to be painkillers or anti-anxiety medications, but actually are a mix of drugs, including fentanyl, and numerous teens and young adults have died after buying those counterfeit pills.

A fact sheet associated with the memo said the bill would "give border officials the tools they need to more effectively track and target the millions of small-dollar shipments that cross our borders every day -- closing a loophole that drug traffickers exploit."

The administration said that its own proposed "Detect and Defeat" bill incorporates many bipartisan ideas introduced in Congress.