Combatting Opioids / Fentanyl
Here is additional information about my legislative work to address Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) and behavioral health.
I co-sponsored and voted for passage of the Methamphetamine Response Act of 2021 (H.R. 2051 / S. 854) — enacted into law (P.L. 117-99)
Designates methamphetamine as an emerging drug threat (a new and growing trend in the use of an illicit drug or call of drug); and directs the Office of National Drug Control Policy to implement a methamphetamine response plan.
I voted for passage of the Rural Opioid Abuse Prevention Act (S. 2796)— enacted into law (P.L. 117-250)
Expands the allowable uses of grant funds under the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program administered by the Department of Justice, enabling community response programs focused on reducing opioid overdose deaths, which may include presenting alternatives to incarceration.
I voted for passage of theRestoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act(H.R. 7666)— most elements enacted into law (P.L. 117-328), legislation to expand treatment for opioid-use disorders, promote behavioral health integration, and reauthorize critical programs that support mental health and substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery.
I am also working with colleagues on devising and supporting legislation to better enable law enforcement entities to suspend websites that facilitate the sale of illegal drugs, and help keep deadly poison out of the hands of minors and other users.
Fentanyl Poisonings / Overdoses & Deaths; Securing Our Southern Border
Communist China remains a key source of supply for fentanyl precursor chemicals that Mexican cartels use to produce large amounts of fentanyl that they are smuggling into the United States and across our southern border.
Many experts cite that the current administration’s open border policies have emboldened drug cartels looking to exploit an increasingly overloaded immigration system, by smuggling more unlawful migrants and lethal, illicit substances across our southern border.Border agents are hamstrung to catch many of the illegal drugs because they are being forced to tend to the sheer volumes of migrants illegally crossing our border. And despite official reports of record amounts of illicit fentanyl being seized at our southern border, this does not account for all the fentanyl that we know has been smuggled across our borders undetected.
On numerous occasions I have voted for measures and signed letters urging President Biden to secure our southern border and reverse his open-border policies that have led to a humanitarian, public health, and national security crisis. President Biden’s open-border policies have emboldened Mexican drug cartels to smuggle ever-increasing quantities of illicit fentanyl and other dangers drugs into our country.
Please also see two columns I have written on our tragedy of illicit fentanyl poisonings and how the crisis at our southern border is contributing to it.