Our Nation's Fentanyl Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mr. MEUSER. Madam Speaker, there is a fentanyl crisis in our country. It is plaguing our communities. It is plaguing my district, poisoning our children, and devastating American families.

Madam Speaker, it seems to be ignored by many, however, both in the White House and on this House floor. Our southern border is an unmitigated disaster due to this administration's open border policies. Drugs, crime, and the secret transportation of illegal immigrants flooding into our communities without warning in the middle of the night is causing serious, long-term damage. Yet, it seems to be ignored by too many.

Fentanyl is an extremely deadly substance. It has flowed into our country in droves by way of the southern border. A recent study found that fentanyl deaths have doubled in 30 States amid the border crisis. Americans are suffering at the hands of the drug cartels.

Customs and Border Patrol reported a 134 percent increase in fentanyl seizures in fiscal year 2021 with a disturbing 11,201 pounds confiscated, which is estimated to be able to kill every American seven times over. This is devastating and unbelievable.

With this high amount confiscated, the Drug Enforcement Agency was forced to put out a Public Safety Alert, warning the American people about fake pills laced with fentanyl and other fentanyl-related poisons putting so many at risk.

Drug overdoses have hit a record high in 2021 at over 100,000 deaths in the United States including more than 5,000 deaths in Pennsylvania. Nearly two-thirds of these deaths were connected to fentanyl.

In 2021, the leading cause of deaths for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45 were drug overdoses. Is there any question that Congress should act? Madam Speaker, I am a cosponsor of the HALT Fentanyl Act. This legislation will permanently schedule fentanyl substances as a schedule I drug, giving law enforcement the ability to prosecute the trafficking of deadly fentanyl into American communities.

My Democrat colleagues recently blocked this lifesaving legislation when my Republican colleagues offered it for consideration last week. It truly is hard to understand why President Biden and far too many of our Democrat colleagues, in fact, all last week, have ignored this crisis, blocked legislation that would help fight it, and have sat idly by as they contemplate what the root causes of our southern border crisis might be.

Madam Speaker, if someone can show me where we have seen the White House actually mention fentanyl as the terrible scourge on our country, I would like to see it. If, however, they were to take a mirror to their own policies, they might realize that the root cause is the policies themselves. It is certainly time for Congress to act, to step up and do its job together to stop the flow of fentanyl into our communities.

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