In a GOP Leadership press conference today, E&C Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Congressman Brett Guthrie (R-KY), and Congressman Buddy Carter (R-GA) delivered remarks about stopping the scourge of fentanyl and the HALT Fentanyl Act.
The emergency class-wide scheduling order for fentanyl-related substances is set to expire on February 18, 2022. Just last week, Democrats BLOCKED the HALT Fentanyl Act to permanently give law enforcement the tools they need to stop the scourge of fentanyl-related substances.
Congress can’t keep kicking the can down the road with temporary extensions of the emergency scheduling order. Here’s why Congress must take urgent action to stop fentanyl-related substances and help save lives ↓
E&C Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers:
“This is Carson. The day after Thanksgiving, he took one pill he purchased off Snapchat. One pill a drug dealer told him was Xanax for his anxiety. But it was laced with illicit-fentanyl, and it killed him instantly. Carson had his whole life in front of him. His mom is pleading for action and for justice.
“We need a permanent solution.”
“But last week, Democrats blocked action on this, and the CR includes only another stopgap until March 11. Why? Because they want to exempt traffickers who move fentanyl-related substances from mandatory-minimum prison sentences like traffickers who are poisoning people like Carson.
“Molly asked me how many more letters from grieving parents is it going to take. The fact is, it shouldn’t take another letter, another day. It shouldn’t take another lost loved one.
“These substances are too deadly for Congress to be weak on traffickers and those who sell it to our children.”
Congressman Brett Guthrie:
“So what is happening at the border matters. It makes every state a border state and every community a border community. In Kentucky in 2020 – we don’t have the numbers for 2021 – 70% of all overdoses were illicit fentanyl. And so it is important what’s happening at the border and not [getting stopped] at the border.”
Congressman Buddy Carter:
“I practiced pharmacy for over 35 years. I was a retail pharmacist, your local neighborhood drugstore. Not a day went by when I didn’t have a parent come in and bring a pill and say, ‘can you identify this for me? I found it in my child’s room. They got it at school. I need to know what it is.’ Two out of every five counterfeit pills are laced with fentanyl.”
“These drugs are infesting every community in our country. Every community in our country. We’re losing this battle, and we can win this battle. We can win this!”
“This [fentanyl] does not discriminate. When those parents came into my pharmacy, they were Democrats, Republicans, Independents – it didn’t matter. They were Americans, and they were being impacted by this. Please, Mr. President, please, Speaker Pelosi, do something about this. You have the ability to stop this, let’s stop it. For the sake of our country, for the sake of our children.”
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik:
“House Republicans are demanding Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats take immediate and permanent action to stop this crisis from worsening – this starts by securing our border and empowering our law enforcement.”
