Energized by what he has called substantial talks on combatting fentanyl with world leaders on the sidelines of a summit last week, President Joe Biden on Tuesday convened members of his administration for a meeting on addressing the epidemic. 

“I’m committing to doing everything in my power as president to get this crisis under control,” Biden said during brief remarks at the top of Tuesday’s White House meeting. “We are gathered today here to work together to make sure we are coordinating all our efforts in each of the agencies to make progress.”

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden on Tuesday convened members of his administration for a meeting on addressing the scourge of fentanyl 
  • The president is seeking to ensure the “important progress” on stemming illicit fentanyl in his individual sit-downs with China’s Xi Jinping and Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador in San Francisco last week becomes real change – and that momentum doesn’t fizzle out 
  • Mexico and China are the primary sources for synthetic fentanyl trafficked into the U.S. 
  • The president also called on Congress to do more and pass his supplemental request includes aid to Israel, Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific and the U.S.-Mexico border, including funds for fentanyl, according to Biden 

The president is seeking to ensure the “important progress” on stemming illicit fentanyl in his individual sit-downs with China’s Xi Jinping and Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador on the sidelines of last week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco becomes real change – and that momentum doesn’t fizzle out. 

“It's a global challenge that demands global action,” Biden said Tuesday. “We’re pursuing strong international coordination to strangle the flow of these deadly drugs.”

Mexico and China are the primary sources for synthetic fentanyl trafficked into the U.S. Nearly all the chemicals needed to make it come from China, and the drugs are then mass-produced in Mexico and trafficked into the U.S.

“I called this meeting to make sure we are doing everything we can to keep building on the momentum of last week,” Biden said. “How can we accelerate our efforts, make sure that we are delivering real results for the people who are being hurt so badly?”

After a long-anticipated and closely watched meeting with Xi, Biden emerged touting an agreement between the two world powers to work together to curb fentanyl production. 

“During my meeting with President Xi, we took a critical step of resuming counter narcotics cooperation between our two countries,” Biden said on Tuesday. 

Specifically, the U.S. president said he and Xi would take action to stem the flow of precursor chemicals and pill presses from China to the Western Hemisphere. 

“As a result of our recent diplomacy, China’s already taking steps to shut down companies dealing in illicit trade and precursor chemicals,” Biden said, giving a few more details than what was announced immediately following his meeting with Xi. “We’re not just going to trust this is happening, we have to verify it.” 

Two days later, Biden sat down with the Mexican president with migration and fentanyl – two issues that are interconnected – top of mind. Human smuggling over the border is a part of cartel operations that also include drug trafficking into the U.S. 

Biden started the discussion on fentanyl by telling López Obrador that he wanted to tell him about his “great conversation with Xi Jinping on that issue.”

The U.S. president on Tuesday said that the leaders committed to “expanding law enforcement cooperation and intelligence sharing to better disrupt the flow of fentanyl.” 

“We’re fully aware of the damage it poses to the United States’ youth,” López Obrador told Biden in brief remarks at the top of the pair’s meeting last week. “We are sincerely committed to continue to assist at our fullest capacity to prevent drug trafficking, namely the entrance of fentanyl and other chemical precursors.” 

The rate of overdose deaths from synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl was 18 times higher in 2020 than in 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overdose deaths in the U.S. soared during the pandemic. 

Of the more than 100,000 deaths a year linked to drug overdoses since 2020, about two-thirds are related to fentanyl. 

“As families all across the country gather this week with their loved ones for Thanksgiving, too many are going to face looking at an empty chair for the first time at Thanksgiving because so many people have died,” Biden said on Tuesday. “It’s heartbreaking, it’s – it really is an American tragedy.” 

The president declared the goal of tackling fentanyl an issue that “every American can get behind, Democrat and Republican,” and casted it as a part of his Unity Agenda – a list of broad priorities Biden pitched at last year’s state of the union address as something both parties can come together on. 

But the president also called on Congress to “step up in this fight.” 

“Start by passing my supplemental budget request for national security priorities, including significant resources to help stop the flow of fentanyl into our country as well as funds to strengthen support services for people struggling with fentanyl,” he said. 

The president has requested Congress pass a more than $100 billion package providing aid to Israel amid its war with Hamas, Ukraine as it fends off Russia’s invasion, the Indo-Pacific and U.S.-Mexico border. Ukraine has become a sticking point as a portion of House Republicans fiercely push back on additional aid to the country and some Senate Republicans want border policy changes in the bill if Ukraine aid is included. 

A bipartisan group of senators have been negotiating such border changes. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.