During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in July, Sen. James Risch (R-ID) accused China of aiding Mexican drug cartels in the transport of drugs and money laundering operations.
00:00We will come to order. We have, as usual, a little turmoil this morning as we have a business meeting to start with.
00:09We have on the agenda three NOMs, which we've previously heard.
00:14Then we're going to go to a policy hearing on transnational criminal organizations in the Americas.
00:22And since we have a quorum to proceed with voting, we are going to take up the nomination of John Arrigo of Florida to be Ambassador to the Portuguese Republic.
00:36Is there a motion?
00:38So moved.
00:39It's been moved and seconded, perhaps?
00:42Seconded.
00:42Seconded that we send Mr. Arrigo to the floor with a do-pass recommendation.
00:46Is there debate?
00:48There'd be no debate.
00:50I'd like a roll call vote.
00:51The, uh, Senator Shaheen has asked for a roll call vote that will be granted and the clerk will call the roll.
00:57Mr. Ricketts?
00:58Aye.
00:59Mr. Corbett?
00:59Aye.
01:00Mr. Daines?
01:00Aye.
01:00Mr. Daines?
01:00Aye by proxy.
01:01Aye by proxy.
01:02Mr. Hattery?
01:03Aye by proxy.
01:03Aye by proxy.
01:04Mr. Barraza?
01:05Aye.
01:06Mr. Lee?
01:07Aye by proxy.
01:08Aye by proxy.
01:09Mr. Paul?
01:09Aye.
01:10Mr. Cruz?
01:11Aye by proxy.
01:12Mr. Scott?
01:13Aye.
01:13Mr. Curtis?
01:15Aye.
01:15Mr. Corbin?
01:16Aye.
01:18Mr. Shaheen?
01:19Aye.
01:20Mr. Coons?
01:21No.
01:22Mr. Murphy?
01:23No.
01:24Mr. Cain?
01:25No.
01:27Mr. Merkley?
01:27No by proxy.
01:29Mr. Booker?
01:30No by proxy.
01:32Mr. Schatz?
01:33No by proxy.
01:34Mr. Van Hollen?
01:34No by proxy.
01:36Mr. Duckworth?
01:36No by proxy.
01:38Mr. Rosen?
01:39No by proxy.
01:39Mr. Rosen?
01:39No by proxy.
01:40Oh, I'm sorry.
01:42I'm just, I'm just reading from my list.
01:44You'll be recorded as no in-person.
01:50Mr. Chairman?
01:51Aye.
01:52Clerk to report.
01:53Mr. Chairman, the age of 13, the number nine.
01:57The motion has passed, and Mr. Riegel will be sent to the floor with the due pass.
02:02We now have Christine Toretti of Pennsylvania to be ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden.
02:09Is there a motion to send her to the floor?
02:12So moved.
02:12It's been moved.
02:14Seconded?
02:14Seconded.
02:15And that we send her to the floor with the due pass recommendation.
02:19Is there debate?
02:21No, but I'd like a roll call.
02:22And Senator Shaheen has asked for a roll call vote.
02:24There'll be a roll call vote, and the clerk will call the roll.
02:26Mr. Ricketts?
02:26Aye.
02:27Mr. McCormick?
02:28Aye.
02:29Mr. Daines?
02:29Aye by proxy.
02:30Aye by proxy.
02:31Mr. Hidrides?
02:32Aye by proxy.
02:33Mr. Riegel?
02:34Aye.
02:34Aye.
02:35Aye.
02:36Aye by proxy.
02:39DePaul?
02:39Mr. McCormick?
02:40Aye.
02:40Mr. Cruz?
02:42Aye by proxy.
02:44Mr. Scott?
02:45Aye.
02:46Mr. Curtis?
02:47Aye.
02:48Mr. Corning?
02:49Aye.
02:51Mr. Jaheen?
02:51Aye.
02:53Mr. Cruz?
02:53No.
02:54Mr. Murphy?
02:55No.
02:56Mr. Payne?
02:56Aye.
02:58Mr. Murphy?
02:59No by proxy.
03:01Mr. Booker?
03:02No by proxy.
03:03Mr. Schatz?
03:04No by proxy.
03:06Mr. Beth Holland?
03:06No by proxy.
03:08Mr. Stuckler?
03:08No by proxy.
03:09Mr. Brokie?
03:11Aye.
03:13Mr. Chairman?
03:15Aye.
03:15Senator Daines, did you want to be recorded in present?
03:19Senator Daines will be recorded, aye, in person.
03:22The clerk will report.
03:25Mr. Chairman, the yays are 15 and the notes are 7.
03:27The motion has passed and Ms. Doretti will be referred to the floor with a do pass recommendation.
03:35The last one we have on the calendar is Michael G. Walts.
03:38There's been a request to hold this.
03:39I'm going to recess the business committee meeting until further notice as we consider Mr. Walts further.
03:46With that, we will move to the business meeting.
03:51And I've been reminded we want to welcome everyone in the audience who's here to be with us today.
04:01We're always glad to have you.
04:02As is well known in this committee, there is zero tolerance for interruption.
04:08That is, anyone attempting to communicate to protest here in the committee or communicate with either any members of the committee or the witnesses
04:21will be immediately removed by law enforcement that is here, be arrested, and banned from the committee for a year.
04:26And so, with that, we will proceed to the hearing on the subject matter before the committee here today.
04:43What we're going to do is, Senator Shaheen and I, assuming she returns, oh, there she is.
04:51I'm going to make an opening statement for a few minutes.
04:54As Senator Shaheen will do likewise, we'll then hear from our guests.
05:00And thank you so much for being here today.
05:02And after we're done with that, we will proceed to a round of questions and hopefully have a good airing of this important issue that's before our committee today.
05:14And that issue today is the tragic drug epidemic that we have that has discouraged the country today.
05:23Thousands of Americans die from an overdose every year.
05:27Overdoses continue to rise.
05:29In 2023, there were 264 deaths related to opioids in my home state of Idaho.
05:36And half of those deaths involved fentanyl.
05:41I suspect numbers are very similar in other states around the United States.
05:45Tragically, other synthetic opioids and cocaine also wreak havoc on communities across the country.
05:52I want to be clear.
05:53Though more could always be done to curb illicit drug use in the United States, these deaths are the result of two of America's foremost adversaries.
06:02China and the transnational criminal organizations uniting against us to pump these drugs into our country and make a profit, take money out of America, all at the expense of American lives.
06:14Today, we will examine the threat posed by these transnational criminal organizations to the security of our country and the stability of the Western Hemisphere.
06:24Mexican cartels and Colombian criminal organizations are the main source of synthetic opiates and cocaine driving U.S. overdose deaths.
06:34But the cartels are only able to make these drugs with the help of China.
06:39China, America's greatest competitor, provides significant tax incentives to domestic producers of fentanyl precursors and allows those producers to export freely through the U.S. and to Mexico.
06:53You heard that right.
06:54China is subsidizing the fentanyl that flows across our borders and kills Americans.
07:00The Chinese government's tacit endorsement of this massive drug trade is a huge issue, and we have worked to take substantial actions, but more must be done.
07:09The Biden administration touted China's false progress on this, and China is still unwilling to do what is needed to stop the flow of chemicals to our hemisphere.
07:19Neither of those were helpful.
07:20In addition, the rapid growth of Chinese money launders funds not just Mexican drug traffickers, but also a growing cyber scam industry that steals billions from Americans.
07:31All of this is interconnected.
07:33We can and must do more to hold these Chinese actors accountable.
07:36I have, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that recently Mexico has taken positive measures, such as extraditing several senior cartel members to the U.S., and its deployment of armed forces to secure its borders.
07:53But these are small steps compared to what needs to be done, and much more action is needed, and it must be done much faster to save American lives.
08:01As one example, the cartels might take in as much as $500 billion annually, but Mexican authorities reported just $2.6 billion in fraudulent transactions for the three years between 2019 and 2021.
08:16It's simply unbelievable that the Mexican government has not been able to track the other $497 billion that are tied up in this illegal industry.
08:25It's open knowledge that the cartels leverage their profits to acquire sophisticated weapons and commit horrible atrocities.
08:33They murder, extort, kidnap, and torture those who stand in their way, and in some cases, people who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
08:42As part of these operations, the cartels challenge the Mexican government, and as of late, have expanded their reach across our hemisphere, even into Europe.
08:52This situation is growing worse, and it is not getting better, and it's growing worse faster.
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