Political Quotes

“I absolutely respect my colleague from Massachusetts and look forward to working with him. Let me just put on the record here the concern in why this legislation is so necessary. Time is of the essence here. We are talking about saving lives. Never, ever would we want to undermine the process to move forward, but unfortunately, in this case, the process of moving forward is going to take, one, time that we know is very bureaucratic; two, the process moving forward, if we are to wait for it, does not take into consideration our veterinarians, farmers, and ranchers. If we wait for the proposal to come forward from the DEA, that proposal will not carve out and still allow this particular drug, xylazine, to be utilized by our veterinarians and farmers. It will absolutely make it a schedule III and take it off completely. That is why this legislation was essential. That is why, working with our veterinarians and working with the DEA and the entire executive branch, we wanted to bring them into this process, without undermining that process, to make sure we were doing everything possible to address this in a timely manner. It is also why, earlier this year, the executive branch issued several legislative proposals in its ``Detect and Defeat'' Counter- Fentanyl Proposal, which was shared with Congress. Those proposals made a provision to make xylazine a schedule III drug.…”