HR5880-119

What This Bill Does

The Fight Illicit Pill Presses Act targets equipment used to produce counterfeit or illicit pills. It expands the Controlled Substances Act definition of regulated person to include people who manufacture, distribute, deliver, sell, import, or export tableting machines, encapsulating machines, or critical parts, and brokers or traders for international transactions involving those machines or parts. It defines critical parts to include upper punches, lower punches, and dies, and defines each term. Regulated transactions are expanded to include distribution, delivery, sale, importation, or exportation of the machines or critical parts. Regulated persons must permanently affix engraved, cast, or otherwise nonremovable serial numbers to tableting machines, encapsulating machines, and critical parts when and as Attorney General regulations require. Transaction records must include those serial numbers. Within 180 days, the Attorney General must issue regulations, including guidance for serial numbers on machines and parts manufactured before enactment. The new serial-number duties apply prospectively after the regulations take effect. The bill also makes it unlawful to remove, alter, or obliterate required serial numbers, or knowingly transport, ship, receive, possess, distribute, deliver, sell, import, or export covered machines or parts whose required serial numbers have been removed, altered, or obliterated.

Who Benefits and How

Drug Enforcement Administration investigators benefit because serial numbers and transaction records make pill presses, encapsulating machines, punches, and dies easier to trace. Law enforcement agencies pursuing counterfeit fentanyl and illicit pill production benefit from stronger equipment identification and trafficking offenses. Communities harmed by illicit counterfeit pills benefit if serial-number requirements disrupt untraceable pill-press supply chains. Compliant machinery sellers benefit from clearer federal rules that distinguish lawful regulated transactions from suspicious unserialized equipment.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Manufacturers, distributors, sellers, importers, exporters, brokers, and traders of tableting machines, encapsulating machines, and critical parts must comply with serial-number and recordkeeping rules. The Attorney General and DEA regulatory staff must issue regulations within 180 days and write guidance for pre-enactment machines and parts. Machine owners and dealers face criminal exposure for removing, altering, obliterating, or trafficking in covered equipment with missing or altered serial numbers.

Key Provisions

• Amends Controlled Substances Act definitions of regulated person and regulated transaction to cover tableting machines, encapsulating machines, and critical parts.
• Defines critical part to include upper punches, lower punches, and dies used in tableting or encapsulating machines.
• Requires regulated persons to permanently affix serial numbers to covered machines and critical parts as Attorney General regulations require.
• Requires transaction records for covered machines and critical parts to include serial numbers.
• Directs Attorney General regulations within 180 days, including guidance for machines and parts manufactured before enactment.
• Prohibits removing, altering, or obliterating required serial numbers and trafficking in covered equipment with altered or removed serial numbers.