Menendez votes to advance bipartisan bills to hold bank executives accountable and curb the flow of deadly fentanyl to communities

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Wednesday voted in favor of the Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act, which he cosponsored, and the Recovering Executive Compensation Obtained from Unaccountable Practices (RECOUP) Act.

The FEND Off Fentanyl Act is a sanctions and anti-money laundering bill to help combat the country’s fentanyl crisis by targeting opioid traffickers devastating America’s communities.

“The devastating toll fentanyl has inflicted upon the families of New Jersey and those across our nation cannot be overstated. While nothing can bring back the lives that have been destroyed by the fentanyl epidemic, we can honor their memories and their loved ones by ensuring our country is using every tool at its disposal to end this global crisis, including holding accountable the Chinese (PRC) pharmaceutical companies and Mexican drug cartels that are driving the illicit trafficking of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors,” Menendez said. “The FEND Off Fentanyl Act authorizes practical and common-sense steps to ensure these bad actors are held accountable, and I look forward to working with my colleagues in both the Senate and House to pass this bill and help the U.S. substantively expand its capacity to confront one of the greatest global threats facing the American public.”

 Specifically, to disrupt the flow of illicit opioids into the United States, the FEND Off Fentanyl Act would:

• Declare that the international trafficking of fentanyl is a national emergency.
• Require the President to sanction transnational criminal organizations and drug cartels’ key members engaged in international drug trafficking.
• Enable the President to use proceeds of forfeited, sanctioned property of fentanyl traffickers to further law enforcement efforts.
• Enhance the ability to enforce sanctions violations thereby making it more likely that people who defy U.S. law will be caught and prosecuted.
• Require the administration to report to Congress on actions the U.S. government is taking to reduce the international trafficking of fentanyl and related opioids.
• Allow the Treasury Department to utilize special measures to combat fentanyl-related money laundering.
• Require the Treasury Department to prioritize fentanyl-related suspicious transactions and include descriptions of drug cartels’ financing actions in Suspicious Activity Reports

 The RECOUP Act is the committee’s response to the historic bank failures from earlier this spring, working to hold accountable bank executives who drove their banks to the ground.

The RECOUP Act would:

• Strengthen the banking agencies’ ability to remove or prohibit senior executives who did not appropriately oversee and manage the risks and governance of their banks.
• Require banks to include governance and accountability standards in their bylaws.
• Provide the FDIC with the authority to clawback certain compensation from senior executives at failed banks, including profits made by selling the bank’s stock.
• Increase and strengthen penalties against bad actors.

 “Following the recent failures of several regional backs, including SVB and Signature Bank, we have a responsibility to hold the bank executives who oversaw these failures accountable for their actions,” Menendez said. “We must make sure these bank executives pay the price – not the taxpayers, and this bill is a common-sense step forward in making sure Congress can deter any actions that can harm hard-working families and the banking system.”

 The FEND Off Fentanyl Act passed unanimously, and the RECOUP Act advanced by a 21-2 vote.

Tuesday, the Senator introduced the Strengthening Fentanyl Sanctions Act, critical legislation to ensure that the Biden administration has the resources and authorities needed to target malign actors fueling the ongoing fentanyl epidemic in our country. Earlier this year, he held a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on illicit fentanyl trafficking, and how the United States can use every foreign policy tool available to stop the flow of fentanyl into the country. In 2022, Sen. Menendez joined a bipartisan group of Senate colleagues to introduce a resolution urging Congress to combat international criminal organizations, illicit trade, and the use of trade-based money laundering (TBML), which pose a significant threat to U.S. national security. In 2019, the Senator led the Senate passage of the bipartisan Fentanyl Sanctions Act to hold China and other countries accountable to their commitments to crack down on producers and traffickers of fentanyl and other deadly synthetic opioids.

 In May, during a Senate Banking hearing, Sen. Menendez pressed federal financial regulators on their efforts to ensure greater executive accountability and effective supervision in the wake of recent bank failures. In late March, Sen. Menendez led a bipartisan group of Senate Banking colleagues in pressing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on the agency’s use of enhanced supervision and prudential standards for SVB. He also signed a letter led by Chair Sherrod Brown to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gensler requesting prompt examinations of Silicon Valley Bank’s executives purportedly selling millions of dollars’ worth of company stock in the days and months leading up to SVB’s failure.

In response to the recent bank failures, Sen. Menendez joined dozens of Senate and House colleagues to introduce the Secure Viable Banking Act, legislation that would repeal Title IV of S.2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act of 2018, and increase prudential standards for banks similar to Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Sen. Menendez is a longtime advocate for prudent financial regulation, and was outspoken about the dangers of passing S.2155 five years ago, which reduced critical oversight and capital requirements for large banks.