PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Sep 18, 2025
Fight Illicit Pill Presses Act
This bill broadens the scope of pill machines that are subject to regulation under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The bill also requires regulated machines to have serial numbers and imposes criminal penalties for conduct involving the removal of serial numbers or the transportation of regulated machines knowing the serial numbers have been removed.
Currently, the CSA requires persons who manufacture, distribute, import, export, or purchase certain regulated machines to keep records of and report on transactions involving the machines. Currently, the term regulated machines includes tableting machines and encapsulating machines.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
This bill requires persons who sell or deliver regulated machines to comply with the CSA's recordkeeping and reporting requirements, in addition to persons who manufacture, distribute, import, export, or purchase them.
The bill also expands regulated machines, for which transactions must be recorded and reported, to include critical parts of tableting and encapsulating machines such as dies used to mold pills and punches used to imprint markings and logos onto pills.
The bill requires serial numbers to be permanently affixed to encapsulating machines, tableting machines, and critical parts of tableting and encapsulating machines.
Finally, the bill prohibits, subject to criminal penalties, the (1) removal, alteration, or obliteration of any serial number affixed to a tableting machine, encapsulating machine, or a critical part; or (2) transportation, shipment, receipt, possession, distribution, delivery, sale, import, or export of any tableting machine, encapsulating machine, or critical part knowing the serial number has been removed, altered, or obliterated.
People & committees
Sen. Cornyn, John [R-TX] · R–TX
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Sep 15, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze S.2870 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine S.2870 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine S.2870 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine S.2870 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.