H.R. 747, Stop Chinese Fentanyl Act of 2025

H.R. 747 would amend the Fentanyl Sanctions Act to designate certain foreign entities and government officials as foreign opioid traffickers if they are found to be involved in the opioid industry in the People’s Republic of China and they fail to take steps to prevent opioid trafficking. Entities and officials so designated would be subject to sanctions.

In addition, the bill would require the Administration to report annually to the Congress on its work to prevent foreign opioid trafficking, including its investigations of certain entities in China; that requirement would end after 2029. H.R. 747 also would require regular reporting by the Administration on its use of authorities provided in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to address the conditions that led to the declaration of national emergencies in the United States related to drug trafficking.

Under current law, the Administration can impose sanctions on Chinese entities and officials for involvement in opioid trafficking. If the enactment of H.R. 747 leads the Administration to broaden those sanctions, more people would be denied visas by the Department of State, resulting in an insignificant decrease in revenues from fees. Although most visa fees are retained by the Department of State and spent, some collections are deposited into the Treasury as revenues. Denying foreign nationals entry into the United States also would reduce direct spending on federal benefits (emergency Medicaid or federal subsidies for health insurance, for example) for which those people might otherwise be eligible.

The bill would block transactions involving certain assets either in the United States or under the control of people or entities in the United States. Under the bill, any person or entity violating those prohibitions would be subject to civil or criminal monetary penalties. Such penalties are recorded as revenues, and a portion can be spent without further appropriation.

On the basis of data about similar sanctions, CBO estimates any additional sanctions imposed under the bill would affect a small number of people. Thus, enacting H.R. 747 would have insignificant effects on revenues and direct spending, and would, on net, reduce deficits by insignificant amounts over the 2025-2035 period.

Using information about the cost of reports similar to those required by the bill, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 747 would cost less than $500,000 over the 2025-2030 period. Such related spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

H.R. 747 would impose a private-sector mandate as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) by expanding the scope of authority for the Administration to regulate transactions between entities in the United States and foreign entities and officials of foreign governments who would be subject to sanctions under the bill. That expansion would result in additional burdens on individuals and entities, such as banks, in the United States that are required to monitor and report on foreign transactions and to block access to certain assets owned by sanctioned entities. It also would prohibit transactions between entities in the United States and sanctioned parties that otherwise would be permitted under current law.

The cost of the mandate would be any income or profit lost as a result of the bill’s enactment. CBO expects that because a small number of people or entities would be affected, the loss of income from any incremental increase in restrictions imposed by the bill would be small as well. CBO estimates that the cost of the mandate would fall well below the annual threshold established in UMRA for private-sector mandates ($206 million in 2025, adjusted annually for inflation).

H.R. 747 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined in UMRA.

The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Emma Uebelhor (for federal costs) and Brandon Lever (for mandates). The estimate was reviewed by Christina Hawley Anthony, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.