{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom-news-releases-barrasso-bidens-open-border-is-to-blame-for-fentanyl-deaths/", "Barrasso: Biden\u2019s Open Border is to Blame for Fentanyl Deaths", "2024-05-23", "2024", "2024-05", "Republican", "Senate", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", "barrasso", "https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom/news-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cUntil we secure the border and protect Americans, we\u2019re not going to be able to get to the bottom of the fentanyl problem.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 At today\u2019s Senate Committee on Finance hearing, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) discussed how the Biden administration\u2019s open-border agenda is escalating the fentanyl crisis across the country.\n\nSenator Barrasso spoke with addiction treatment experts about how increased drug trafficking has contributed to fentanyl overdose deaths in Wyoming. Barrasso also touched on improving rural access to fentanyl recovery health care and protecting Wyoming\u2019s Native American populations that are targeted by Mexican drug cartels.\n\nTony Vezina, Abigail Heron, DO, Caleb Banta-Green, Ph.D., MPH, MSW, and Jeanmarie Perrone, MD testified at today\u2019s Senate Committee on Finance hearing titled \u201cFront Lines of the Fentanyl Crisis: Supporting Communities and Combating Addiction through Prevention and Treatment.\u201d\n\nOn Biden\u2019s Open Border Bringing Drugs into Wyoming\n\n\u201cI\u2019m truly alarmed by the fentanyl crisis facing our nation, clearly nothing like that existed when I was practicing medicine. It\u2019s everywhere, no community is spared. A lethal dose is equivalent to just a few grains of salt. Across the country, the number of deaths have been skyrocketing.\n\n\u201cIn my home state of Wyoming, you wouldn\u2019t think that it\u2019d be a problem there. We\u2019ve had 81 opioid-related overdose deaths. This past year has doubled the number from five years ago \u2013 completely unacceptable.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s touching every community across our nation \u2013 mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, all losing family members. I hear about it all around the state.\n\n\u201cSince President Biden took office, nearly 10 million illegal immigrants have flooded into our nation. And Senator Grassley touched on this a little earlier today: 77,000 pounds of fentanyl have been confiscated at the border over that time. You don\u2019t know how much got through, but you can imagine just based on the statistics and the deaths, the number is high.\n\n\u201cWhether it\u2019s from China or Mexico, the transnational criminal networks that are producing, transporting, and marketing these drugs are poisoning our country.\n\n\u201cOur border patrol agents are supposed to be our first line of defense in apprehending the drug smugglers, but they can\u2019t get their job done to the level that it needs to be done. They\u2019re being forced, I believe, by this administration to deal with unaccompanied minors, asylum seekers who are surging across the border, which is making an increased opportunity for the criminal cartels to get more drugs across.\u201d\n\nClick here to watch Sen. Barrasso\u2019s remarks on Biden\u2019s open border and drugs in Wyoming.\n\nOn Helping Rural Communities to Receive Adequate Fentanyl Recovery Care\n\n\u201cMr. Vezina, I\u2019ve read your story, heard what you have to say. I really appreciate your ability to be here, to speak on the substance use disorder care, because that\u2019s what we\u2019re looking for. Care is needed now more than ever.\n\n\u201cToday, you\u2019ve spoken about the challenges that folks in recovery face when they don\u2019t receive a full continuum of services. It\u2019s not like one silver bullet on this, you need the whole thing.\n\n\u201cYour experience as someone in recovery, someone providing collaborative care, says you need a network, mental health counseling, substance use counseling, peer support, case management, medication assisted treatment, all of those things.\n\n\u201cGiven the frontier nature of my home state of Wyoming, people are spread out, you don\u2019t have all of those services available everywhere. There are only two towns with a population that can support this level that you\u2019ve described as a specialty care, even less availability for youth focused programs like yours.\n\n\u201cAre there existing programs \u2013 either state or federal \u2013 that you\u2019re aware of that can help in rural communities where you don\u2019t have that full continuum, even though we know that\u2019s the best treatment?\u201d\n\nClick here to watch Sen. Barrasso\u2019s remarks on rural access to recovery care.\n\n\u201cIn February this year, the DEA reported on regions of the U.S. being targeted by the Mexican drug cartels. I live in one of those regions in Wyoming.\n\n\u201cThey found that the cartels are targeting states further away from the border. The highest area of focus are Native American reservations. Certainly that\u2019s the situation in Wyoming.\n\n\u201cOur Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho, they live on Wind River Reservation, larger than the state of Connecticut. I mean, we\u2019re talking about a big geographic area and low population.\n\n\u201cIt continues to experience one of the highest drug overdose death rates in the state. I\u2019m deeply concerned about the cartels that are targeting our Native American populations.\n\n\u201cA lot of them have to do with the fact that the size of the geography and the smaller number of people make it an area where they can really focus.\n\n\u201cCan the federal government do things? How can we best respond from the federal government level to counter the efforts by the cartels?\u201d\n\nFollow Up:\n\n\u201cUntil we secure the border and protect Americans, we\u2019re not going to be able to get to the bottom of the fentanyl problem.\u201d\n\nClick here to watch Sen. Barrasso\u2019s remarks on targeted Native American populations.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:12:30Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom-news-releases-barrasso-bidens-open-border-is-to-blame-for-fentanyl-deaths/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.709023792296648, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}