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Floor Speech
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Mr. COTTON. Madam President, the United States is in the midst of the deadliest drug epidemic in our Nation's history, caused by the most lethal drugs ever created.
More than 108,000 Americans died last year from drugs--more than 108,000--which is almost double the number of Americans killed in the entire Vietnam war. That is the worst slaughter of American citizens by drug dealers and traffickers on record.
The biggest killers, by far, were lab-made opioids, most notably fentanyl, which are cheap to produce and easy to mix with other street drugs. These lethal cocktails have devastated countless families and communities across our Nation. Too many parents have come home to a dead child who has mistakenly taken a prescription pill or a so-called party drug that might have been laced with fentanyl. Indeed, almost no one dies of a fentanyl overdose thinking he took fentanyl. It is laced into other drugs.
That is why, repeatedly, over the past 2 years, I and many of my colleagues have offered a measure to keep it illegal to traffic new variants of fentanyl, but, each time, a Democrat has blocked that measure. Later today, they will do so again.
Perhaps we can at least agree on one thing: We should have no tolerance for people who willingly trick addicted drug users or other innocent persons into taking deadly fentanyl by telling them it is really something else. This happens every day with heartbreaking consequences across the country.
For example, just 2 weeks ago, a drug trafficker was sentenced to life in prison for his role in distributing fentanyl to unsuspecting users in Minnesota. Eleven people died. They thought they were buying illicit Adderall. When he heard about the deaths, the dealer asked his Chinese suppliers for a discount on his next shipment.
That same week, another drug dealer was arrested just minutes from the Capitol Building, where we stand--in Silver Spring, MD--for killing a child with a fentanyl pill, which he said was Percocet. He was hiding the fentanyl-laced, fake Percocet pills inside small bags of marijuana.
Last week, a few minutes in the other direction, a trafficker was tried in Northern Virginia for distributing cocaine laced with fentanyl at a party. Six partygoers overdosed. One died.
These cases happen every day. Drug addicts are especially lulled into a false sense of safety by fake prescription pills, believing them to be medicine for which they have some past experience. That is why fake prescription drugs are on the rise. Federal law enforcement encountered as many fake prescription pills in 2021 as in the previous 2 years combined.
If Democrats refuse to help Republicans keep all fentanyl variants off the streets, hopefully, we can at least agree on keeping deceptive fentanyl traffickers behind bars. My bill would establish that any drug trafficker who knowingly misrepresents fentanyl as though it is something else would be subject to 20 years in prison. If the criminal has a prior felony criminal record or if its misrepresentation kills someone, then the criminal would be subject to life in prison or would even be eligible for the death penalty. There can simply be no leniency for people who trick unsuspecting users into taking deadly fentanyl.
4984, which is at the desk. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mr. COTTON. Madam President, what we heard is a lot of the same excuses that the Democrats have made for years about being soft on crime and their claims about mass incarceration or systemic racism or what have you.
I would point out that almost no one--almost no one--is in Federal prison for mere drug possession. It is a myth that there are low-level, nonviolent offenders in prison because they are addicted to drugs.
Where we are is at a 21-year low in the number of Federal inmates we have. Do you know where we are not at? A 21-year low in drug deaths-- the highest on record every single year, year after year. Almost twice as many have died as in the Vietnam war. Almost 24 times as many have died as in the entire Iraq war. Almost 35 times as many have died as on 9/11. Yet the Democrats repeatedly refuse to crack down on deceptive fentanyl dealers.
As I have mentioned, I have also offered bills in the past that would permanently add fentanyl to the Controlled Substances Act scheduling. The Democrats refuse to do so. They will do it temporarily from time to time, but they want a trade. They want to get a trade for something. They want to either reduce sentences or let prisoners out. This is whether they are Democratic Senators or Democratic Governors in places like Illinois, in their eliminating the bail system, or whether they are Democratic mayors or Democratic prosecuting attorneys in places like Chicago. As a result, we have a crimewave and a drug epidemic all across America.
Let me just reiterate. The bill I just offered, which the Senator from Illinois blocked, would simply say that you cannot sell another drug and not acknowledge that fentanyl is in it; that you cannot misrepresent what you are selling.
It is not just opioids. It is not just heroin. It is even marijuana. It is pills that are passed off as mere prescription drugs, like in some of the examples I gave--Adderall, OxyContin, Percocet--that people all across the America are dying from. Unanimous Consent Request--S. 621
Madam President, let's take another angle on this problem. Almost all of these drugs come from Mexico. Almost all of the drugs in America today come from Mexico. Almost all come from a handful of vicious, depraved cartels in Mexico--cartels that have taken on the powers of a quasi-state, cartels that the Mexican Government either cannot or will not crack down on. So let's look at it from that perspective. It is past time that we bring the full weight of the U.S. Government to bear on these cartels and to destroy them for what they are unleashing on our streets.
Imagine if ISIS or al-Qaida set up shop across our border and was responsible for more than a hundred thousand American deaths every single year. What would we do? What would you do?
I know what we wouldn't do. We wouldn't hesitate to act, and that is exactly what we should do with these Mexican cartels.
Unfortunately, President Biden has done the opposite. Since the day he took office, he has flung open our borders, created a border crisis, and made it easier than ever to smuggle massive amounts of illegal drugs into the United States.
Already this year, the Border Patrol has found over 12,000 pounds of fentanyl being smuggled over our borders--12,000 pounds. You may not be able to put that in perspective. Let me put it in perspective for you: It is enough to kill every man, woman, and child in America many, many times over.
That doesn't even include any fentanyl brought in by the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens whom the DHS calls got-aways.
President Biden could declare fentanyl-peddling cartels to be terrorist organizations, but he has refused to do so. So the bill that I am about to bring up would give him additional tools, short of labeling these cartels ``terrorists.''
My bill would create a new designation called a significant transnational criminal organization, and it would enable the Federal Government to impose many of the same sanctions and use many of the same tools against cartels that it already does against terrorist organizations like al-Qaida and ISIS. Those would include barring cartel members and their immediate families from entering the United States, freezing assets belonging to the cartels to hit their wallets and to keep them from profiting off of death and destruction, and enabling civil and criminal penalties for anyone who provides material assistance or resources to the cartels.
The Democrats are going to block a bill later today that would keep new fentanyl variants illegal. They just blocked another bill that would target drug traffickers who trick people into taking the fentanyl that kills them. I hope at least Democratic Senators would be willing to say that we should give the Biden administration more tools to use against the Mexican cartels, some of the worst and most depraved criminals on Earth.
621, the Significant Transnational Criminal Organization Designation Act, and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mr. COTTON. Madam President, I think we know who is soft on crime. It sounds like I hit a nerve. I didn't stand up here saying I am not soft on crime five or six times in a row. It is the Senator from Illinois who said that, just like Senate Democrats have been saying it for the last several months, just like their candidates all across America are saying it.
Let's look at the first bill he mentioned, the American Rescue Plan. You know what that is, right, the American Rescue Plan? That is their $2 trillion wasteful spending bill from last spring that is responsible for 13 percent inflation.
Do you know what is also included in it? A measure that would get stimulus checks to prisoners. That is right--depraved, violent felons; murderers and rapists and drug traffickers all across America. People like the Boston marathon bomber got stimulus checks last year because the Democrats believe that criminals are really, at heart, victims as well, victims of an oppressive society and system.
If I am not mistaken, when I offered my amendment to prevent prisoners from getting stimulus checks, I think it was the Senator from Illinois who stood up and blocked it. I know that he voted against it. I know that he wanted prisoners to get stimulus checks. That is what he is talking about.
What about his objection to this bill, that it is going to target mothers and kids, the poor mothers and children of drug kingpins, a very common feature of American sanctions efforts--in fact, sanctions efforts that we are doing exactly against Russian oligarchs and regime figures, which I support, by the way. I support. No, the wives and the children of Russian oligarchs and Mexican cartel kingpins should not benefit from their ill-gotten gains.
But I care more about the lives of American citizens--the hundred thousand-plus American citizens whom we lose every single year--than anyone else in the world.
The Biden administration's policy, though, is that we will use this tool against Russians, but we are not going to use it against Mexican cartel members. I think that goes to show you where their priorities are.
Again, just to recap, we tried to pass legislation that would have imposed heightened penalties on drug traffickers who misrepresent their drugs and say they don't contain fentanyl. The Senator from Illinois blocked it on behalf of the Democrats.
Just now, we tried to give the Biden administration more tools to target the cartels that are smuggling these drugs into our country, that are killing a hundred thousand of our fellow citizens. Again, on behalf of Senate Democrats, the Senator from Illinois blocked it.
I say, again, over 108,000 Americans were killed by drugs last year. Yet the Democrats continue to refuse to crack down on drug traffickers and cartel kingpins.
Some of my other colleagues are going to offer similar bills today, just like I am going to offer, yet again, my permanent fentanyl scheduling bill that would stop the annual Kabuki dance here of the Democrats demanding some pro-criminal law just so we can permanently add fentanyl to the Controlled Substance Act schedule.
Think about that. At a time when 108,000 Americans are dying every single year--that is not an aggregate number, every single year--the Democrats refuse to act if they don't get something in return on behalf of criminals, if they can't reduce drug sentences for hardened criminals, if they can't let more felons out of prison. It shows a depraved indifference to the lives of our people.
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