Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I voted today to oppose cloture on the motion to proceed to the HALT Fentanyl Act. Our Nation and my State of Maryland are experiencing a crisis with synthetic opioids like fentanyl and related drugs, and I strongly support action to combat drug trafficking and prevent overdoses. We need public health solutions that will help American families and our communities, but instead, the bill before us could lead to harmful unintended consequences, including limiting the potential for less addictive pain therapies and treatments like Naloxone that could prevent and reverse overdose. It also expands mandatory minimums, which increase incarceration but do not reduce crime, and applies them to a broad class of drugs regardless of their actual physiological effects, so that someone could be incarcerated for a decade or more for drugs that are effectively harmless. It is my hope that we will have the opportunity to amend this legislation, including with amendments put forward by my colleague Senator Booker. However, as we have no guarantee that amendments will be permitted by the majority despite the urgency of the issue before us, I voted against cloture today. I urge my colleagues to work to improve the bill in the coming days in order to address the possible unintended consequences of this legislation so, instead, the bill focuses on tackling dangerous drugs and allows for lifesaving research and development of potential treatments. ____________________”