Extending Temporary Emergency Scheduling of Fentanyl Analogues Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I am here today to ask my colleagues across the aisle to set aside this weak bill and support permanently--permanently as in forever--scheduling fentanyl and its analogues.
We just heard from the gentlewoman from Texas. We all agree: It is not good. Fentanyl is the problem.
Here, we have an opportunity for us to work together to help stem the flow of deadly fentanyl and its analogues in our country. This is an issue that impacts every one of us--every one of us. Whether we are Republican, Democrat, Independent, it impacts every one of us in our communities.
Just last week, in my home State of Georgia, the Georgia Attorney General announced that he is investigating fatal drug overdoses based on counterfeit medications laced with fentanyl and its analogues. These individuals bought illegal products they believed to be Xanax, Percocet, and oxycodone.
Overdoses like this happen every day all over the country--all over the country. Yet, some of my colleagues want to go soft on fentanyl analogues and let these products become legal in just mere weeks, or temporarily schedule it for a few months until they can craft another weak plan.
How can anyone seriously argue that a drug 50 times more potent than heroin and which almost always proves fatal when ingested, should ever be legal?
These products are manufactured illegally, and they are largely brought into the U.S. through the southern border. Every year, U.S. agents intercept enough fentanyl and its analogues to kill every single American several times over. In fact, Customs and Border Patrol announced in 2019, they had enough seized fentanyl to kill 800 million people. And that is what they had seized; we don't know what else came across.
I visited the border last week to see the crisis firsthand. 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 substances.
If the President and Vice President would visit the border, they would be able to talk to the agents firsthand and see for themselves how serious the issue is.
Instead, they have elected to leave our border wide open. We are inviting drug traffickers to bring fentanyl substances into the country and distribute it in our streets. This should not be a partisan issue. Fentanyl does not discriminate. It does not.
The individuals manufacturing and distributing fentanyl and its analogues are criminals, and they are getting our neighbors killed. This is not an issue that is going away. It is only getting worse. The CDC reports that there were enough overdoses last year than any single year before.
This is the time for us to crack down on fentanyl-related substances, and I hope that we will do that.
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