Issues of Significance
Floor Speech
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Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, we discussed last week some of the issues that are of significance, and I don't think the press is paying enough attention to them.
We just had a little bit more progress toward the development of fenofibrate, which is a generic drug, which some researchers from Israel have had some success on in curing COVID. I want to talk about these successes and then talk what is going to be necessary to have happen to get this potentially lifesaving drug in the mainstream.
Two researchers from Israel found 15 people who were on oxygen and had pneumonia; and of the 15 people, after giving them fenofibrate, a generic drug available for very little, they got out of the hospital in 5 days. The other took, I think, it was 14 days.
That is pretty incredible stuff. If it could be used routinely, it would dramatically have reduced the number of deaths in this country.
Right now there are a variety of people around the world trying to do research on this topic, including the University of Pennsylvania, and they are grateful they got some money from the U.S. Government. But given the promise of this drug, I think they should have gotten a lot more money to deal with it quickly.
I have talked to the researchers, and they think they will be able to get together. I guess they need 700 patients before they can make a determination. They think they will be able to make a determination that this is a good drug by the end of March. That is not quick enough.
If they had more money and more push, they would be able to get more potential patients, and I would like to think get a final determination by the end of December.
So I am calling on my colleagues in Congress, as well as the NIH and the CDC, to highlight fenofibrate. It is also known as Tricor. It has been around a long time without dangerous side effects. Maybe there will be side effects with COVID, but there wasn't dangerous side effects otherwise. It has been used by millions of people. I am going to be circulating a letter, hoping that the administration wakes up and does something and does something quickly.
And by the way, this doesn't only cure it, but one of the underpublicized problems with COVID is that if you get it, it can result in long-lasting problems, problems to your lungs, problems to your organs. It appears, tentatively, that fenofibrate will clear up those problems quicker and not as many people will have those problems.
I am afraid from what I read that COVID is going to be around a long time. I know people who have gotten it after being vaccinated; not as bad, I guess, but they have gotten it. So again, I hope that this institution moves, and I hope the administration moves and hope we can move at warp speed and get a final determination on fenofibrate by the end of December.
I would also like to address, given what has happened over the last week, what I believe is the biggest crisis facing the country today, and that is the problem at the southern border.
The numbers are well known. Last July 8,000 people crossing the border, staying in the country. This year, 105,000, and a lot of people think that is a low number. The increase, the percentage increase wasn't quite as great in August. But, again, it was a substantial increase at a time of year where it is very hot and normally people aren't crossing the border.
We know the effects. I also don't think it has been as publicized as it should be. The huge number of people who are dying of illegal drugs, clearing 90,000 in a year for the first time in this country. When I first got this job, 45,000 a year was a lot. Every politician had to say we wanted to do something to fight illegal drug use.
Now that we have fentanyl, an especially dangerous drug, we have more than doubled the number of people dying. Politicians barely talk about it. But obviously that situation has been exacerbated at the southern border.
My local sheriffs are saying, ``Glenn, why aren't they doing anything to stop this coming across the southern border?'' Think of all the families, the people who have died from illegal drug use.
You think of all the humanitarian problems in addition to the huge financial impact this is going to have on America.
I have been down at the border looking at the little children in pens, under 8 years old, unaccompanied by parents, staying there. What is going to become of these children? Apparently we don't care. We continue to let the system go on. We continue to allow the word go out around the world, not just Central America, but South America, Asia, everywhere, Russia, Cuba, Haiti, more and more people coming in this country. And every day we don't do something, the word gets out and the number continues to go up.
But what I would like to address is how have some Members--I hope not that many. But currently the reconciliation bill that is under consideration, you read about it in the paper, how do they respond? Do they respond with more Border Patrol agents? No, we are going to keep the Border Patrol understaffed.
Do they respond with a wall? Which whenever anybody thinks about it, whenever I am on the border talking to local law enforcement, talking to the Border Patrol, all thought the wall was a good idea. No, we are not going to respond that way.
We are going to look at the crisis and change immigration law to dramatically increase the number of people coming here, whether it is increasing the number of green cards, increasing chain migration. Right now, and something that I think would end the United States as we know it, if this reconciliation bill passes, it will result in a dramatic increase in immigration.
So instead of doing what anybody with an ounce of common sense would say, and let's hire more Border Patrol agents for the border, we go the other way and say we don't have enough people in this country. We are near record levels of the number of current Americans who have been born abroad. Immigrants are fine. I think in 2018 we swore in, I believe, 830,000 new citizens.
But to respond to the crisis at the border, all the Haitians being let in, all the people from around the world to say let's change immigration law and let's dramatically increase the number of people who are coming here legally, to boot, is just crazy.
It is unfair to all the people who have done things right. And it is up to us to make sure that in the future, people who come here have their years in doing jobs, are appropriately vetted, and make sure they are good citizens. Not to slap dash say, as scandalous as things are at the border, let's let in a lot of new people here as chain migration relatives or that many more green cards as well.
So I beg this body to wake up. I beg the press corps to wake up as far as what is going on at the border, as well as what is going on in the reconciliation bill, and let the American public know what is going on.
I realize that the reconciliation bill is long and complicated. We can't cover it all. But at least the American public ought to know what we are voting on before we destroy America. In addition to the generosity that is in the bill as well that further serves as a carrot to bring people here.
We have a provision in there to give free Pell grants, free scholarships to people who are coming here illegally. Which, of course, will further encourage more people to come here. I still find that hard to believe. That if that bill passes as is, the average middle-class American will be expected to owe $20,000, $40,000, $50,000 in debt and may or may not get something available at the university. But if you show up at the southern border because you don't have a lot of money and are considered poor, you will get free college. I mean, no wonder people are coming here when they see the type of bills that our Congress propose.
But above all, the other provisions are going to result in huge increases in immigration, and I beg the press corps to cover that.
I would like to thank you for giving me this time to address these two problems, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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