(WKBN) – Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown said his plan to attack the country’s growing fentanyl crisis could be just hours away from being approved on Capitol Hill.

Voting has begun on the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which would go after companies in China and elsewhere that make the pre-drug chemicals needed to make the drug, as well as the Mexican cartels that ship it to this country. across our southern border.

“Freeze your bank accounts. You get federal agents attacking their sources of income. The same thing is done in Mexico and then we also have to monitor the border where things enter: the ports of entry.”

Brown says he was able to attach his measure to a broader national security bill that is expected to be signed by President Biden after the vote.

Brown said the fentanyl epidemic affects local communities and the numbers are staggering.

“Four hundred Ohioans died each month from fentanyl poisoning. And it’s not the number, it’s what that does to a family in Warren, Girard, Youngstown or Struthers. What it does to the community when young people, especially, die from fentanyl poisoning,” Brown said.

The Fraternal Order of Police, the National Police Officers Association, the National Sheriff’s Association and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association have called for passage of the legislation.