‘We Can’t Allow This Poison To Be Brought Into Our Country’: Jeanne Shaheen Decries Fentanyl Crisis

4 months ago

During a press briefing on Wednesday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) spoke about the need to combat overdose deaths and the fentanyl crisis stemming from the southern border.

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Transcript

00:00 Well, thank you, Senator Savanau.

00:06 In the 10 years between 2013 and 2023, New Hampshire lost 4,616 of our residents to overdose

00:16 deaths.

00:18 That's not just 4,616 lives cut short.

00:23 Its families torn apart, its children growing up without parents, its parents losing children

00:29 way too soon, parents like Kay and Jim Scarponi from Kingston who lost their son Joseph, a

00:36 Marine Corps veteran, to an overdose, or Muriel Lejoy of Concord whose daughter at 22 died

00:44 when she went into a relapse after overdosing.

00:49 The overwhelming majority of these deaths are being caused by fentanyl.

00:55 But whether it's fentanyl or cocaine or meth or other opioids, most of these illicit drugs

01:03 are coming across our southern border.

01:06 And anything, anything we can do to cut down on the amount of fentanyl that's coming into

01:11 the United States, we ought to be doing it.

01:14 Because the reality is America's life expectancy has gone down, largely because of drug overdoses.

01:24 And fentanyl remains a serious national health crisis, a national security problem.

01:31 We can't allow this poison to be brought into our country by transnational criminal organizations.

01:36 And as elected members of Congress, it is our duty to take action to keep these drugs

01:42 off of our streets and to keep families safe.

01:45 That's why we need to pass the bipartisan border deal.

01:49 Now, there are a lot of things that I disagree with the majority of my Republican colleagues

01:55 about, but this is one I agree on.

01:58 We do need to address border security at our southern border.

02:02 And that's what this legislation that we're going to, we voted on 105 days ago and we're

02:07 going to vote on again tomorrow, would do.

02:10 It would bring more resources to bear on the issue of fentanyl and other drugs.

02:15 It would give significant increases in funding for CBP to deploy more non-intrusive inspection

02:22 technology going from about 400 million in the bill that we voted on 105 days ago to

02:29 $2 billion for that intrusive inspection equipment, non-intrusive.

02:36 It would provide immigrations and custom enforcement with increased funding to focus on counterfentanyl

02:41 investigations and enforcement.

02:44 We need more boots on the ground.

02:46 It would do that.

02:48 And sadly, our Republican colleagues walked away from the bill 105 days ago for one reason,

02:54 because Donald Trump said he wanted to campaign on the issue.

02:59 He didn't want us to get something done for the benefit of Americans.

03:03 Well, we have an opportunity again tomorrow to vote to put this legislation back on track.

03:10 I hope our colleagues will join us.

03:13 And the club is sharp. Thank you.

‘We Can’t Allow This Poison To Be Brought Into Our Country’: Jeanne Shaheen Decries Fentanyl Crisis

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