Providing for Consideration of H.R. Paycheck Fairness Act, and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I am here today to ask my colleagues across the aisle to support the efforts outlined in H.R. 2430 to extend the emergency scheduling of fentanyl analogues.

This is an opportunity for us to work together to help stem the flow of deadly fentanyl and its analogues into our country. This is also an issue that impacts every one of us and the communities that we call home.

We all know someone who has been the victim of an addictive or illegal opioid. Just last week in my home State of Georgia, the Georgia attorney general announced that he is investigating fatal drug overdoses blamed on counterfeit medications--medications laced with fentanyl. Those individuals bought illegal products they believed to be Xanax, Percocet, and Roxicodone. These clusters of overdoses were spread across my State, and I know we are not alone. It continues to take the lives of our fellow Americans, and more must be done to fight this.

Fentanyl is an extremely dangerous substance. Three milligrams is enough to be fatal. It is 50 times more potent than heroin. First responders just touching or accidentally inhaling the substance can experience severe complications and possible death.

So where is this coming from?

Across the border with Mexico.

The GAO even reports that seizures of fentanyl from Mexico increased by more than 200 percent from 2018 to 2020.

Every year, U.S. Border Patrol agents intercept enough fentanyl to kill every single American several times over. In fact, the CBP announced in 2019 that they had enough seized fentanyl to kill 800 million people.

I visited the border last week to see this crisis firsthand. I was surprised. It wasn't a crisis. It was a disaster. It is a disaster on the border. Border Patrol agents are so overwhelmed with a 20-year record high number of illegal immigrants that smugglers and cartels are using this as an opportunity to traffic more fentanyl.

If the President and Vice President would visit the border like I did, then they would be able to talk to the agents firsthand and see for themselves how serious this issue is. Instead, they have elected to leave our border wide open.

We are inviting drug traffickers to bring fentanyl into the country and distribute it into our streets--my streets and your streets, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker, if we don't look at long-term scheduling options for all fentanyl products, then we remove the last line of defense to provide a deterrent to illegal distribution.

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Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Our communities are at risk, Madam Speaker, your community and my community--all of our communities. They don't care if it is a Democratic community or a Republican community. They are at risk.

It is time for us to work together as a Congress to pass good legislation. We started to address the opioid epidemic in a bipartisan fashion when Republicans were in the majority with the passage of the SUPPORT Act--a bipartisan product--and the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. We should get back to working together, and this is a great opportunity to do so.

Madam Speaker, as you know, professionally I am a pharmacist. I have witnessed this. It does not discriminate. Opioid addiction doesn't care if you are a Republican, a Democrat, a male, a female, African American, Caucasian, or Hispanic. It does not care. It is an addiction that is paralyzing our country.

Madam Speaker, I urge defeat of the previous question so that we can immediately consider H.R. 2430.

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