Andrea Salinas: “I thank my good colleague from New Mexico for her leadership and for yielding me some time. Mr. Speaker, each year…”

“I thank my good colleague from New Mexico for her leadership and for yielding me some time. Mr. Speaker, each year, hundreds of Oregonians die after overdosing on fentanyl. This drug has torn communities apart, from Salem to Sheridan and everywhere in between. It is not just our State. It is all across the U.S. Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids account for more than 85 percent of all opioid-involved deaths in the U.S. This is an issue that harms all of us, and I think Members of both parties can agree that stemming the flow of these drugs into our communities is a bipartisan imperative. The appropriations process is one of our best opportunities to deliver critical funding to the organizations and agencies on the front lines of this fentanyl fight. Yet sadly, this process has been needlessly politicized by far-right politicians who would rather notch political victories than policy ones--and this shameful Defense appropriations bill is a prime example of that. By attaching anti-LGBTQ2SIA+ and anti-choice riders to this bill, extremists in this body have turned what should be a straightforward funding package into a political wedge issue. That needless politicization is especially concerning, given that this piece of legislation contains critical funding to stop the flow of fentanyl into our country. Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford to let politics stand in the way of our fight against the fentanyl epidemic.…”