Senate sends opioid bill to president

Legislation includes provisions to require advance electronic data for international postal shipments and to strengthen DOT’s alcohol and drug testing practices.    The Senate on Wednesday passed and sent to the White House for signature legislation that would require the U.S. Postal Service to transmit advance electronic data to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for international shipments and would strengthen the Transportation Department’s alcohol and drug testing regime for transportation workers.
   The Senate passage follows the upper chamber’s Sept. 17 passage of legislation that included the same language, after which the Senate and House reconciled their respective bills into one piece of opioid legislation that needed to pass both chambers. The House passed the reconciled legislation on Sept. 28.
   The final package, H.R. 6, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act includes Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act provisions that would require USPS to transmit advance electronic data to CBP on at least 70 percent of international mail arriving in the United States by Dec. 31 and on 100 percent of such mail on Dec. 31, 2020, before these shipments reach the U.S. border.
   The legislation requires USPS to refuse shipments for which the data is not provided and sets forth civil penalties if USPS accepts international mail shipments without the advance data starting in 2021.
   Private express couriers have been required to provide advance electronic data for their shipments to CBP since 2002.
   Further, the final legislation includes provisions sponsored by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., that would expand railroad drug and alcohol testing requirements to rail mechanical employees and yardmasters, require DOT to create a publicly available database of drug and alcohol testing data, and provide increased oversight of legally required safety improvements, among other things.
   “I am proud that despite these highly partisan times, members of Congress came together to identify meaningful solutions to address the opioid epidemic,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement. “I look forward to seeing this legislation, which includes proposals across five Senate Committees, eight House committees and is the work of dozens of senators and representatives, signed by the president.”