[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 59 (Wednesday, April 2, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2116-S2118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Fentanyl

  Mrs. MOODY. Mr. President, good afternoon. I rise today in the Senate 
Chamber for the very first time as a U.S. Senator to address a topic 
that unfortunately has become important to so many States, so many 
communities, so many families across this great Nation.
  Before I became a U.S. Senator and one of your colleagues, I was the 
Florida attorney general. For the past 6 years in that position, I made 
it my mission every day to fight against the opioid crisis and put 
poison peddlers that sought to do harm to our families behind bars.
  As many of you know, fentanyl now kills more Americans than any other 
drug by far, and it is the leading cause of death for working-age and 
fighting-age men and women. It is also a cause of death of infants and 
children that are exposed to the substance, and that number is 
increasing exponentially.
  Florida is no stranger to the opioid epidemic. We suffered from a 
pill mill crisis, and we had to address that by tightening our laws and 
making sure people had access to help. Following that, we saw a surge 
of fentanyl pouring into our country and people overdosing from that 
drug.
  Fentanyl now claims 70,000 lives a year. It is the deadliest drug our 
Nation has ever encountered. That is why it is vital that we continue 
to not lose focus that this is the deadliest thing facing our men and 
women right now. This is our challenge. We cannot be distracted, and we 
have to stop this drug from coming across our borders and into our 
communities.
  That is why we have to continue to provide law enforcement the tools 
they need to get this drug off our streets and make sure we are 
providing lifesaving medications like Naloxone to first responders and 
that people who are struggling with addiction know where to get help.
  After 4 years of a wide-open border and free range given to drug 
cartels to smuggle illicit substances into our country, it is no 
surprise that our Nation was flooded with fentanyl.
  In Florida, we fought back despite the surge. Our law enforcement 
officers were up for the task. Our leaders gave us additional 
resources. Florida led the Nation in fentanyl seizures.
  I, back in 2023, called for the cartels to be labeled ``foreign 
terrorist organizations.'' President Biden ignored our call. I called 
for the border to be closed and the then-head of DHS to be fired for 
allowing drug smugglers and countless amounts of fentanyl to flood our 
country. Those calls were also ignored.
  So Florida took Biden to court. First, when he stopped deporting 
those here illegally, committing serious felonies against our citizens, 
we took him to court. Then, when he started welcoming in and paroling 
everyone into the Nation that was barely vetted, we took him to court, 
and we won.
  We also sent Florida law enforcement to the border to slow down the 
flow of drugs. We ramped up interdiction efforts with Florida Highway 
Patrol and Florida Department of Law Enforcement. We fought back with 
everything that we had.
  The death and destruction caused by illicit fentanyl started to 
decline. We started to see hope. Before I left the Attorney General's 
Office, Florida reported 2 straight years of reductions in the number 
of drug-related deaths. According to a recent FDLE Drugs Identified in 
Deceased Persons by Medical Examiners annual report, fentanyl deaths in 
our State of Florida dropped 10 percent. This rate of decline is well 
ahead of the national average, which declined by about 2 percent during 
the same time.
  Still, thousands across our Nation are dying--tens of thousands--and 
we cannot take our eyes off the ball. While we have had success in 
Florida, we must push forward across the rest of the Nation to deliver 
accountability and protection for the American people.
  Florida has always been a leader in law and order, and we have 
understood the danger presented by fentanyl. We understand that many 
Americans take this deadly drug not even knowing that it is in 
something else they are ingesting within counterfeit pills.
  We classified fentanyl as a schedule I controlled substance back in 
2017. This allows easier prosecutions for these types of cases.
  It is time that the Federal Government follow the request and the 
pleas of national law enforcement organizations, including the DEA, 
which is calling for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances to be 
scheduled permanently as a schedule I controlled substance.
  When I got to Washington, one of my first actions was to join the 
HALT Fentanyl Act as a cosponsor. As attorney general, I led other 
States in calling on Congress to pass this bill. Now as Florida's 
newest U.S. Senator, I will work tirelessly to make sure this gets 
done.
  I am so proud of my Senate colleagues. Last month, we passed the HALT 
Fentanyl Act through the Senate, and now it is in the hands of the U.S. 
House. This bill will ensure Federal agents and prosecutors have the 
tools they need to send a strong message to drug traffickers: If they 
continue to bring poison into our country, they will be held 
accountable. That has always been the case in Florida, and I am so 
proud of my friend and predecessor, former Florida Attorney General Pam 
Bondi, who is taking this fight directly to the cartels.
  The American people gave our great President, President Trump, a 
mandate last November. That was to restore law and order, make sure 
people were held accountable for their crimes. We believe that as a 
Floridian--the first Floridian President in our Nation's history--he is 
going to take that approach we have had in Florida to the rest of the 
Nation.
  While my calls for a closed border and a declaration of drug cartels 
as ``foreign terrorist organizations'' fell on Biden's deaf ears, it is 
no surprise that President Trump immediately got to work on this. On 
day one, he closed the border. We have seen a 93-percent drop in 
illegal crossings since then. Turns out we didn't need a new law; we 
needed a new President. As one of his first acts, he declared cartels 
as ``foreign terrorist organizations.''
  I am incredibly excited to work alongside my new U.S. Senate 
colleagues and President Trump as we begin to make America safe again, 
and this includes voting based on priorities that will make our 
communities and families safe.
  We have a great opportunity in Washington right now to fight this 
crisis instead of fueling it through unlawful immigration policies. Now 
we need to do our part. We need to urge the U.S. House to pass the HALT 
Fentanyl Act and get it to the President's desk as soon as possible.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.
  Mr. RICKETTS. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in 
talking about the fentanyl crisis that Joe Biden created in our 
country.
  Joe Biden had 4 years of open border policies. Millions of people 
crossed illegally into our country. But on top of that, we saw a surge 
of fentanyl coming into our country--fentanyl that is killing our young 
people.
  My colleague from Florida just referenced 70,000 people dying from 
fentanyl. Fentanyl is the leading cause of death among our young people 
age 18 to 45.
  That fentanyl starts in communist China, where the precursors are 
made. It then gets shipped to Mexico. The cartels turn it into that 
final product and bring it across the border.

[[Page S2117]]

  And we saw the impact in Nebraska. In 2019, law enforcement in 
Nebraska took 46 pills--just 46 pills--laced with fentanyl off of our 
streets. But after Joe Biden got elected, in just the first 6 months of 
2021, that number jumped to 151,000 pills.
  And it wasn't just the numbers; it was the human cost.
  Taryn Lee Griffith is a young mom with two children. She took a pill 
she thought was Percocet, but it was laced with fentanyl. She died that 
night. Now her children are going to have to learn about their mom from 
stories, from pictures because they don't have their mom anymore.
  Sadly, that story is being told all across this country because of 
the fentanyl crisis that we have. President Trump was elected to stop 
this crisis. I mean, think about it. If we had had 70,000 Americans 
killed in a terrorist attack, we would be up in arms. It is more than 
are dying from car accidents or heart disease in that age bracket, and 
yet Joe Biden did nothing.
  And President Trump got elected to stop it, to make a difference, to 
end this catastrophe. One of the ways he is doing that is by putting 
tariffs on the countries that are allowing this to ship through their 
countries, across their borders.
  I already mentioned how communist China and Mexico are linked to 
this. There was a daily podcast from the New York Times that talked 
about how President Trumps' policies are really having an impact on 
Mexico.
  Some people have said: Wait. Using tariffs, that is creating a trade 
war.
  That is absolutely not the case. The case is this is a drug war, and 
the President is using the tool of tariffs to get a handle on it, to 
shut off the flow of fentanyl.
  In just 1 month under Joe Biden, law enforcement intercepted 1,400 
pounds of fentanyl coming into our country--1 month. That is enough to 
kill 300 million Americans. President Trump is using his powers to 
bring that to an end.
  Now, some people have said: Well, that is fine. We get it, Mexico. 
But what about Canada? Canada is not the problem here.
  But our northern border is also exposed. When Canada released or 
eased up on some of its visa restrictions, the cartels saw their 
advantage and started moving operations to Canada to transport both 
people illegally across the border and fentanyl.
  In fact, 60 Minutes just did a story where they talked to one of 
these cartel drug smugglers about what he was doing, and he said that--
this one smuggler--he was responsible for moving 30 kilograms of 
fentanyl across the border from Canada into the United States every 
month. That is enough to kill 15 million Americans, and he was doing it 
every month--and that was one smuggler.
  Now he also said that, lately, it had been quiet. They hadn't been 
moving as much fentanyl. And, again, that gets back to President Trump 
taking a stand to get our neighboring countries to start enforcing 
their border, to put more resources there, and to start blocking this 
fentanyl before it gets into our country.
  These policies are having an impact. They are working. We need Canada 
and Mexico to continue to do more. President Trump is using his powers 
to be able to help stop that flow of fentanyl.
  We are here standing up for secure borders, standing up for American 
families, standing up for those families who have lost loved ones 
already to this terrible scourge. We cannot afford to return to an open 
borders policy. We have to have secure borders. The stakes are too 
high. Too many lives have already been lost.
  President Trump is leading the fight to secure our borders and stop 
the flow of this horrible drug into our country, and I am proud to 
support him in doing that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.
  Mr. BUDD. Mr. President, the fentanyl epidemic has touched nearly 
every American. Whether it is a family member, a friend, a neighbor, a 
coworker--we all know someone whose life has been affected by the 
tragic reality of this crisis. It is widespread, it is devastating, and 
it can't be ignored. For too long, this crisis has been fueled by the 
chaos at our southern border, and now it is happening at our northern 
border.
  Today, I rise to honor the American lives lost to our country's 
horrific fentanyl epidemic, and I call on our Canadian allies to shut 
down these operations before more devastation occurs.
  For many Americans, it started with a prescription. For others, it 
was a single accidental exposure. But for too many, it ended the same 
way: with a loss of life and the eternal grief that comes from losing a 
loved one.
  And the harsh reality is fentanyl is the leading cause of death for 
Americans age 18 to 45--not cancer, not car accidents, fentanyl. Last 
year alone, as my colleagues have shared with you, more than 70,000 
Americans died from a fentanyl overdose, and, unsurprisingly, the Biden 
administration failed to act. Instead, President Biden willingly chose 
to let the situation get worse.
  For years, our southern border has been a major entry point for 
illegal drugs to pour into our country. But under President Trump's 
leadership, illegal crossings at the southern border have now dropped 
94 percent. That is real progress.
  Now, however, we are seeing a dangerous shift. Drug cartels have 
found a new route and a new loophole to continue trafficking drugs into 
our communities, and it is through the northern border with Canada.
  Just last year, Customs and Border Patrol seized enough fentanyl at 
the northern border to kill 9.5 million Americans. That is nothing 
short of alarming.
  In fact, a member of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico's largest and 
most well-known operations, they openly claim, they openly brag--and I 
quote you this:

       Canada's border is much larger than Mexico's. There are 
     more entry points through Canada than through Mexico--a lot 
     more entry points. So that won't stop us.

  And when asked about the impact of fentanyl killing countless 
Americans, here is what he said:

       Unfortunately, here, for money, we do anything. It's a 
     business.

  ``It's a business.''
  Friends, killing America is not a business. We should not be 
endorsing known criminal activity with inaction. This is nothing short 
of a serious threat to our national security.
  When I talk to sheriffs in all 100 counties in North Carolina, I 
repeatedly hear the same message: Every single county in North Carolina 
is a border county.
  The U.S.-Canada border is the world's longest international border at 
more than 5,500 miles long, but it remains extraordinarily vulnerable 
as criminal cartel networks continue to take advantage of the gaps of 
our porous northern border.
  I think it is important to know that 87 percent of all Terror 
Watchlist suspects that were encountered at land border ports last year 
came across our northern border.
  We have invested heavily in our southern border and rightfully so. We 
have done that, and we should continue to do so at our southern border. 
But the northern border has been overlooked and underresourced for way 
too long.
  Our law enforcement officers are doing everything they can. But 
without enough resources, they are being set up to fail, and that is 
not fair to them. We are just watching history repeat itself, and if we 
don't act to provide our law enforcement officials with the proper 
tools and technology that they need to defend our northern border, we 
are going to allow this to get even worse.
  What is even more disturbing is that Mexican cartels are now setting 
up fentanyl labs in Canada and expanding their role in the global drug 
trade.
  Now, as our ally, we need Canada to step up before more lives are 
lost, because the truth is that behind every statistic--behind every 
statistic--is a grieving family, and the American people deserve more 
than just empty words. They deserve real action.
  The fentanyl crisis will only continue to strangle our country until 
we deal with the threat at our northern border like the emergency that 
it truly is.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Banks). The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in 
calling

[[Page S2118]]

attention to the devastating fentanyl fallout, made significantly worse 
by 4 years of failed Democrat open border policies and to note the 
return of commonsense border security policies led by Senate 
Republicans and President Trump.
  In March, Border Patrol agents encountered just 7,181 illegal 
immigrants attempting to cross the border--the southern border, 7,181. 
This is in stark contrast compared to just 1 year ago, when, under 
President Biden, the total encounters for the month of March totaled 
137,473. That represents a 95-percent decrease in crossings, from over 
137,000 to about 7,000.
  This sharp drop of illegal encounters is thanks to a new 
administration and a new Republican majority in the House and Senate, 
which has prioritized securing our border by resuming policies that 
brought historically low encounters just 4 years ago. And, I mean, 
policies that we put in place 4 years ago that worked then, we have put 
them back in place. They are working now.
  So all that discussion on the part of the Biden administration 
saying, oh, my gosh, they needed some new law somehow, just isn't so; 
is it? The numbers make that abundantly clear.
  And, of course, that means reinstating the migrant protection 
protocols, or the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. Again, commonsense 
policies. Reinstating these policies helped curb illegal entries of 
individuals at our border and has begun the process of making our 
country safe again.

  But the work is not done. While taking advantage of the failed border 
policies of the prior administration, cartels and other transnational 
criminal organizations, or TCOs, flooded the border and gained a 
criminal foothold in our country. The presence of the cartels and other 
bad actors operating within our borders led to criminal acts like drug 
trafficking, human smuggling, and other illegal activities.
  On his first day in office, President Trump signed a series of 
Executive orders addressing the border crisis that had been affecting 
our country and began the process of removing criminals who had 
illegally entered under the previous administration.
  These Executive actions have served as the first steps in reversing 
the catch-and-release policies that allowed members of cartels, gangs, 
and violent transnational criminal organizations, like MS-13 and Tren 
de Aragua, to remain in the United States while operating criminal 
enterprises.
  By declaring an emergency at the border, DHS, DOD, and DOJ were able 
to take a whole-of-government approach and begin working together to 
identify the criminals that were illegally operating these networks 
within our country.
  The result of these harmful Democrat open border policies has been 
felt by us all and has turned every State into a border State.
  Leadership for the DEA Omaha Division, which includes my State, said 
it plainly and simply--the repeated presence of fentanyl in our 
communities is due to outside forces.

       The precursor chemicals are coming from China. They go down 
     to Mexico and from there, they're pushed up into our 
     communities.

  The numbers reflect this. In 2023, officials in North Dakota seized 
21,000 more fentanyl pills than the year before, 30 pounds more meth, 
and 2\1/2\ times more pounds of cocaine.
  Last month, the Republican majorities in both Chambers, the House and 
the Senate, voted to continue funding for key programs at DHS and DOJ 
that combat the rise in illicit drugs like fentanyl. Unfortunately, our 
colleagues across the aisle voted against that effort.
  While the United States stands prepared to take on the scourge of 
fentanyl that is impacting our citizens, other countries must step up 
as well.
  As a result of the actions taken by this administration, both Canada 
and Mexico have begun to be engaged partners on this issue.
  In February, the President of Mexico agreed to send 10,000 National 
Guard troops to help secure its northern border with the United States.
  The Canadian Government has named a fentanyl czar, listed Mexican 
cartels as ``terrorist groups,'' and launched a Canada-U.S. joint 
strike force to combat organized crime, fentanyl, and money laundering. 
Additionally, the Canadian Government increased its law enforcement 
presence at the border, with a 56-percent increase in border personnel 
at land borders and ports of entry.
  CBP officers, Border Patrol agents, and State, local, and Tribal law 
enforcement are stepping up to take on the fentanyl crisis at our 
borders.
  I urge our Democrat colleagues in a bipartisan way to join us and 
support the effort to continue securing our border and to go after the 
criminals that have illegally entered our country and continue to do 
harm.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator 
Wyden and I both be able to complete our remarks before the vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I do appreciate so much my colleagues 
coming to the floor just to be able to talk about the scourge of 
fentanyl and what it is really doing in our communities. Senator 
Ricketts, Senator Moody, Senator Budd, and Senator Hoeven spent a lot 
of time laying out the challenges we really face.
  I think most Americans know it and have seen it, and they just don't 
realize how fast it is really moving. Ten years ago, we had 700 deaths 
in the country due to fentanyl. Last year, we had 87,000. That is the 
acceleration we have seen in a decade.
  A vast majority of fentanyl used to come across the border from, 
quite frankly, China. It was being mailed in. Active work was done to 
be able to shut that down. It started to come through Mexico--that is 
progressively. We are taking that on. The cartels and the criminal 
organizations are shifting more and more to Canada to be able to find 
ways to be able to move it in. The Canadians have seen that and they 
have noted that as well by the aggressive actions they have taken.
  Just to give you a quick glance at this, dealing with just the 
fentanyl issue, in 2020, the Canadians interdicted 1,000 pounds of 
fentanyl precursors; in 2021, it was 11,000 pounds. That is the 
acceleration that is also happening for these criminal organizations 
that are trying to be able to move fentanyl into our country and, quite 
frankly, into Canada as well.
  So we are grateful for their partnership, but we definitely see this 
as an emergency. A decade ago, the United States did not move fast 
enough to be able to stop the movement of fentanyl into our country. We 
lost tens of thousands of Americans. President Trump is determined, 
and, quite frankly, this Congress is determined. We are not going to be 
asleep on that again. We will take it very, very seriously. It is a 
very big emergency.
  So I thank my colleagues for coming here to be able to talk about it 
today.