H.R. 10138 explained · 119th Congress · Pending in Congress
CCP Fentanyl Sanctions Act
Cosponsors: 3 (1 D, 2 R) · per Congress.gov, 2026-10-14
Introduced: 2026-08-24
Latest action (2026-08-24): Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Financial Services, Oversight and Government Reform, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
What H.R. 10138 does, in plain terms
The Congressional Research Service has not published a summary of H.R. 10138 yet. Its official title: “CCP Fentanyl Sanctions Act”.
Constitution Index
“VFA Constitution grade”
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H.R. 10138 has not been graded yet. New measures with an official summary are graded daily under the published rubric.
The Framers
“Founders’ Verdict”
Confidence 0.80
Archived SI output (machine-generated)No editorial review recorded. This historical SI verdict was machine-generated by software and predates the review desk; check it against the official bill text.
Synthesis
By a 3-to-1 margin (Madison, Jefferson, Marshall), the Founders hold that sanctions against a foreign nation for illicit narcotics production fall squarely within Congress's enumerated power to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3), reinforced by the Necessary and Proper Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 18) and confirmed by Gibbons v. Ogden and McCulloch v. Maryland. However, the bill's validity is conditional upon: (1) confinement to foreign commerce and foreign actors, without invading purely domestic matters reserved to the States under the Tenth Amendment; (2) penalties attaching by general rule and established fact rather than legislative designation of named persons without trial, avoiding a bill of attainder (Article I, Section 9, Clause 3); (3) any asset forfeiture or penalty respecting Fifth Amendment due process and Article III judicial power; (4) intelligible congressional standards limiting Executive discretion, preserving separation of powers (Federalist Nos. 47, 48); and (5) non-abrogation of existing treaties made under Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, which stand as supreme law (Article VI, Clause 2).
A measure authorizing sanctions upon a foreign nation for the production and distribution of illicit narcotics falls squarely within the enumerated powers of the national legislature. Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 vests in Congress the power 'to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations,' and no instrument of commercial regulation is more established than the restriction or prohibition of trade with a nation whose conduct injures our citizens. In Federalist No. 11, I argued at length that the Union must possess the capacity for 'prohibitory regulations' and commercial retaliation against foreign…
The power here proposed is, in its essence, a regulation of commerce with foreign nations, which the Constitution vests expressly in the national legislature. Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 empowers Congress 'to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations,' and this has ever been understood to comprehend the prohibition of trade, the laying of duties, and the withholding of commercial intercourse from those who abuse it to our injury. A foreign power that suffers the manufacture of poisons destined for our shores makes itself party to the mischief, and Congress may lawfully answer by closing our po…
The subject matter of this bill falls properly within the sphere of the national government. In Federalist No. 45, I observed that the powers delegated to the federal government 'will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce,' while the States retain all objects concerning the lives, liberties, and properties of the people in the ordinary course of internal affairs. Sanctions upon the commerce of a foreign nation—here, the production and distribution of noxious substances flowing into our markets—are precisely such an external object. Artic…
Congress possesses the enumerated power to regulate commerce with foreign nations under Article I, Section 8, Clause 3. As I held in Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), this power is 'complete in itself' and 'acknowledges no limitations other than are prescribed in the constitution.' Sanctions restricting or conditioning trade with a foreign sovereign on account of that sovereign's toleration of illicit narcotics production fall squarely within this grant, for commerce includes navigation and intercourse between nations, and Congress may prescribe the terms upon which such intercourse shall be lawful. Fu…
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