Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, this Congress, I have the great privilege of cochairing the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control with the senior Senator from California, Dianne Feinstein. As more families across the country lose their loved ones to the scourge of opioids, the work of this caucus could not be more important.

Today, people in our country are more likely to die from an opioid overdose than a car crash, but that hasn't always been the case. Our country's opioid abuse epidemic began in the 1990s when pharmaceutical companies promoted aggressive pain management, assuring the medical community that patients would not become addicted to these drugs. As a result, doctors began to prescribe more and more of them. We know what happened next. In the decades since, we have faced a steady increase in opioid abuse and have undertaken aggressive efforts to address this epidemic.

There has been a concerted effort across the country to attack overprescribing of opioids in the hope of preventing more people from becoming addicted. But that alone cannot be our sole focus. Of the more than 70,000 overdose deaths in America in 2017, more than half were the result of heroin and synthetic opioids, not prescription drugs.

The more we step up our efforts to limit prescription opioid diversion, the higher the demand for other illicit drugs, many of which are funneled into our communities by criminal organizations operating across international borders. These groups run sophisticated drug trafficking operations, moving vast amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, and other illegal drugs through Central America and Mexico and into the United States. With Customs and Border Protection personnel spread thin because of the current humanitarian and security crisis at the border, these criminal organizations have no problem exploiting the security gaps.

I can say confidently that without coordinated government response, the problem is going to get worse and worse, which means more and more Americans will die as a result of drug overdoses.

In the past, this caucus has examined everything from prescription drug abuse, to the expansion of fentanyl, to trafficking across our southern border. As these and other hearings have illustrated, there is no single contributor to this crisis and no silver bullet.

The opioid epidemic is called a crisis for a reason: It is pervasive and all-encompassing. We can't look at the problem through a soda straw, focusing only on how the drugs get here or how to more effectively treat those who are already addicted. We need to take a more holistic approach that focuses on reducing supply by reducing demand and eliminating the myriad of factors that fueled this fire.

The International Narcotics Control Caucus will hold a hearing this afternoon to examine how the U.S. Government can expand our international efforts against drug abuse and narcotics trafficking and take the first step toward developing a comprehensive strategy.

Our first witness will be the Secretary of State, Secretary Pompeo, whose Department works across the U.S. Government and with our partners around the world to combat this transnational crime. We look forward to hearing from him, as well as other experts on the second panel about the growing epidemic and what Congress must do, working in a bipartisan effort, to address it.

As I said earlier, our whole-of-government strategy must focus on supply and demand. Last Congress, we passed landmark legislation to combat the opioid crisis, which President Trump called ``the single largest bill to combat a drug crisis in the history of the country.'' Through the collaboration of 70 bipartisan proposals in the Senate, this law aims to not only stem the tide of drugs coming across the border but to offer some support and hope to those suffering from drug addiction. It was a major bipartisan accomplishment and one that I hope we can continue to build on in this Congress because a great deal of work remains to be done.

Beyond supply and demand, we need to take aim at the criminal organizations that traffic drugs and engage in a whole host of criminal activity. As others have pointed out, these criminal organizations are commodity-agnostic--they will engage in human trafficking, migrant smuggling, money laundering, counterfeit goods, public corruption, and the list goes on and on. What they are really about is making money. They don't care anything for the migrants or the people affected by their crimes. The real kicker here is that while these criminal organizations are perpetuating the opioid epidemic, fueling a cycle of violence, and abusing innocent civilians, they are growing richer and richer by the minute.

Targeting these organizations means more than stopping the flow of drugs into our country; it means ending a cycle of crime and violence and working together with Mexico and Central American countries to help them escape the savage grip of these criminal organizations.

Additionally, we need to strengthen security cooperation with our international partners so that they are able to more effectively fight side by side with us. Mexico and Central and South American nations often lack the ability to adequately counter the trafficking occurring within their borders, and corruption serves as a major roadblock in efforts to stop criminal activity.

There are a number of programs in place already--many of which began through the Merida Initiative--which have yielded positive results, but we need to look at all of these and make sure we understand what works and what does not work so we can justify the expenditure of U.S. taxpayer dollars in this fight. By strengthening and expanding these operations, we can help our southern neighbors fight drugs, crime, and corruption within their own borders, which would more effectively reduce the flow of drugs and other illicit goods moving across our southern border.

Finally, if we want any of these efforts to be sustainable, we can't just focus on law and order; we must look at ways to invest in economic development to help these countries build stronger economies. These are beautiful, vibrant countries that are also victims of endemic crime in the region. Helping them promote economic security will carry immense benefits for the entire region, and it is something we need to discuss more in the coming months.

Senator Feinstein and I have worked together in the past on legislation to address the drug epidemic, such as the Substance Abuse Prevention Act, which is now the law of the land. This Congress, we will continue our important work together on the International Narcotics Control Caucus. I look forward to hearing from our distinguished witnesses this afternoon and engaging in a larger discussion--hopefully a nationwide discussion--about how we can reverse the devastation caused by the opioid crisis and drug overdoses in America.

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