America Must Demand Better

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, nearly 100 days after being appointed as the Biden administration border czar, Vice President Harris finally visited the southern border at the end of last week. It was 800 miles away from the crux of the problem, but I suppose it is a start.

Clearly, the Biden-Harris administration knows that it is facing a border crisis. To them, it is a PR crisis. To the American people, the Biden border crisis is so real.

As I have said time and time again, the illicit fentanyl that is made in China or elsewhere crosses the porous southern border and winds up on our streets in Pennsylvania. It spurs addiction; it tears apart families; it destroys the workforce; and worst of all, it is killing friends and neighbors.

Last month alone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection intercepted more than 900 pounds of fentanyl. In fact, border agents have seized more fentanyl at the border so far this year than in all of last year.

As my friend and Franklin County Coroner Jeff Conner just recently told me, fentanyl is easy to get and fast to kill. This is true in Pennsylvania, and this is true across our country.

Can you imagine what 900 pounds of fentanyl means for American communities, what it means to American families?

The chaos on the southern border is absolutely a crisis for first responders, law enforcement, healthcare providers, and community leaders on the front lines of the drug epidemic in our communities. Every day, I hear from Pennsylvanians who have experienced the ramifications of this crisis firsthand. For them, this is a stark reality.

Vice President Harris says that the Biden administration is making progress on this crisis. If that is the case, what is the President's definition of progress?

Does the President believe that his administration is making progress on the Biden economic crisis, as inflation spirals out of control and hardworking families bear that cost?

Does the President believe that his administration is making progress on the Biden crime crisis, as violent crimes skyrocket in cities across the country and our brave law enforcement officers face unprecedented opposition?

If this is President Biden's idea of progress, we must demand better.

Once again, I stand ready to work with the President and my colleagues on commonsense reforms to restore law and order and end the administration's border crisis. We must demand real progress.

Lives are depending on our work. All of America is depending on our work.

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