WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chair of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, on Tuesday proposed potential investments to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States. The Fight Against Fentanyl proposes additional funding in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s FY24 budget to improve detection and seizure of fentanyl at ports of entry, dismantle smuggling networks, prevent profits from reaching transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), fight fentanyl smuggling routes abroad, and safeguard frontline agents, officers, and investigators. Murphy on Wednesday will chair a subcommittee hearing on combatting TCOs and related trafficking with officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
“The death and devastation of the fentanyl crisis is unlike anything we have faced before. Thousands of families across the country have lost loved ones to this low-cost, highly potent drug, and reducing its flow into the United States must be our top priority. My proposal would supercharge the Department of Homeland Security’s fight against fentanyl and ensure it has the resources to do everything humanly possible to disrupt the trade and keep families safe. This issue is too important to let partisan politics get in the way, and I look forward to working with Ranking Member Britt to ensure fewer lives are lost to this deadly plague of addiction,” said Murphy.
You can read The Fight Against Fentanyl: Investments to Protect American Families here.
Earlier this year, Murphy traveled on a bipartisan, bicameral congressional delegation to Mexico City where he met with President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador to discuss how the U.S. and Mexico can work together stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. and gun trafficking from the U.S. into Mexico. Following his trip, Murphy held a subcommittee hearing on President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2024 funding request for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
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