Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my colleague from Texas for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to H.R. 2851, legislation that would give Attorney General Jeff Sessions through the Drug Enforcement Administration sweeping new authority to combat the synthetic drug crisis facing our country. In 2016, nearly 64,000 Americans died because of a drug overdose, and the overdose rate from the synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl and fentanyl analogues, nearly doubled. We know that illicit fentanyl and fentanyl analogues are extremely deadly and increasingly are being shipped into our country through China. I know all Members would agree that synthetic drugs are a very real threat that we have to combat. However, it is unclear to me that the appropriate response to this crisis is the creation of a new schedule-- schedule A--that would impose new burdens on researchers and manufacturers. It would also dramatically limit the scientific and medical role HHS and the FDA play in our scheduling process today. In fact, the DEA already has the authority today to temporarily add these synthetic substances to the Controlled Substances Act if they determine that they pose an imminent hazard to public safety. The agency has used this authority over 80 times, including most recently to put all fentanyl-related substances into schedule I.…”