HALT Fentanyl Act

Places fentanyl-related substances as a class permanently into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, defining the class by five structural modifications to the fentanyl molecule (Section 2). It extends the existing trafficking penalties and import/export penalties that apply to fentanyl analogues so they also cover any fentanyl-related substance (Section 6). Alongside the scheduling, it rewrites the research rules: it creates an expedited registration process for Schedule I research tied to FDA investigational-use drugs or federally funded research, lets a second researcher at the same institution work under one registration, allows a single registration across related research sites in the same city or county, waives a new inspection when a registrant adds a substance in the same or a higher-numbered schedule, lets research continue on a substance newly added to Schedule I while a registration application is pending, and treats small-scale manufacturing as part of research, except for growing marihuana (Section 3). The Attorney General must issue implementing rules within six months and may make them effective immediately as interim final rules (Section 5). The amendments apply as of the date of enactment regardless of when the rules are finalized (Section 7).

At least 24 organizations named this measure in a lobbying filing. A floor, not a total: they were counted by the client name on 75 quarterly reports filed by 7 lobbying firms and by 16 organizations lobbying for themselves in 2025 Q1, 2025 Q2, 2025 Q3, 2025 Q4, 2026 Q1, 2026 Q2 and 2026 Q3. An organization that lobbied this measure without naming it is not counted here.

8 of those filings did not cite this bill by number. They named a short title it shares with its House companion, HR 27, so the reference belongs to the pair rather than to one chamber’s vehicle.

The filings record that lobbying was reported on the measure. The form has no per-bill dollar figure and no field for a position, so nothing here says how much was spent or which side an organization took.

5 of them, in no ranking: National Association of Police Organizations, Inc.; National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL); National Council for Behavioral Health; City of San Diego, Ca; The Sentencing Project. Listed as filed, in the order the filings were read, and 19 others are not shown. These are not the largest, the earliest or the most active: we keep five names per measure, and the filings give no ranking.

From the LD-2 quarterly lobbying filings published at lda.gov by the Senate Office of Public Records. Read for 2025 Q1, 2025 Q2, 2025 Q3, 2025 Q4, 2026 Q1, 2026 Q2 and 2026 Q3. Our copy holds 24 fewer filings for 2025 Q1, 39 fewer filings for 2025 Q2, 42 fewer filings for 2025 Q3, 33 fewer filings for 2025 Q4, 28 fewer filings for 2026 Q1, 48 fewer filings for 2026 Q2 and 218 fewer filings for 2026 Q3 than the Senate's register counts, so those quarters are the filings we could read rather than every one filed. 2026 Q4 is still inside its filing window, so that quarter is only the filings posted so far.