Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I wish to speak in strong support of amendment No. 3362, offered by Senator Feinstein and me, the Transnational Drug Trafficking Act. This is a bill that she and I have worked on for many years. One of the many reasons for the ongoing heroin epidemic in this country is the increase in heroin supply on the streets of the United States. Mexican cartels are aggressively expanding into new territory here. And they are flooding our communities with cheap, pure heroin. Indeed, heroin seizures at the border have more than doubled since 2010. The U.S. Government estimates that Mexican heroin production jumped an incredible 62 percent from 2013 to 2014 alone. And the reality is that it isn't just heroin coming over the border. Between 2009 and 2014, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a 300 percent increase in methamphetamine seizures on the southwest border as well. This bill is a natural complement to CARA. We can't arrest our way out of this heroin epidemic. We can try to reduce the heroin supply on our streets by making it easier to target these cartels for prosecution. This is in part why Senator Feinstein and I introduced this legislation. Our bill would make it easier for the Department of Justice to prosecute cartels who harm our communities from abroad by trafficking heroin, other drugs, and precursor chemicals for ultimate delivery here.…”