Glenn Grothman: “I am going to try to add a few additional things about fentanyl. I first got here about 7 years ago, and at the time…”

“I am going to try to add a few additional things about fentanyl. I first got here about 7 years ago, and at the time there were 47,000 deaths caused by illegal drugs a year. By comparison, there were 57,000 people who died in Vietnam, but that was over a 10-year period, a 12- year period. This is over 1 year, 47,000 people. And it was a national crisis. And every politician had to address that crisis. Well, 7 years later what became of that statistic, 47,000 deaths a year from fentanyl? It went up to 100,000 deaths a year. Now, I have been at the border five times. Every time I am down there the Border Patrol, again and again, emphasizes that with this open flow of people coming into this country, you're getting unlimited fentanyl. So we have to do two obvious things to address the problem. We just passed a continuing resolution today with some increases in there, but the budget proposed by our President doesn't increase funding for the Border Patrol at all. You go through that budget, 12 percent over here, 18 percent over here, 7 percent over here. Border Patrol, nothing. Like these lives don't matter at all. We have got to spend more money at the border. Secondly, when it comes down to penalties for people who are selling this fentanyl or trafficking in fentanyl, they are not great enough. Right now, your penalties for heroin, which is a fraction as lethal as fentanyl, are much higher, the mandatory minimums, than the cutoff for fentanyl.…”