Chip Roy: “I thank the gentleman from Maryland. I appreciate my friend from New York's concern about this important issue that is…”

“I thank the gentleman from Maryland. I appreciate my friend from New York's concern about this important issue that is obviously paramount for the Nation. Every State in the Union is touched by the tragedy of opioid abuse. I do want to point out, as has, I think, been made clear by my colleagues and myself about our continued concern about our lack of appreciation and effort by this body to deal with the crisis at our border, that the impact on the opioid problem by the trafficking going on at our southern border is significant. I think we all agree on that. We all recognize that. In fact, my colleague from New York and I have sat in Oversight hearings where we have had witnesses there where we talk about the massive increase over the last several years in the amount of narcotics that are coming through our southern border, and this is just something that I hope we can have a bipartisan understanding and agreement on about addressing and actually dealing with the concern. According to Border Patrol's most recent data, through the end of May, they seized 144 pounds of fentanyl between ports of entry since October; 98 percent was seized on our southwest border. Fentanyl, in a pack of sugar, is enough to kill everybody in this room. It is a very dangerous narcotic--144 pounds between ports of entry. In 2018, U.S. Border Patrol seized 388 pounds of fentanyl.…”