WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chairman of the U.S Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, on Wednesday held a hearing on transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) with officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). In his opening remarks, Murphy highlighted the devastation of the fentanyl crisis, new potential investments in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) FY24 budget, and the bipartisan interest in tackling this critical issue.

“I don’t need to tell people here fentanyl is a nightmare like nothing that this country has ever seen before. I think every member of this subcommittee has family members or met with family members inside their communities that have lost a loved one to fentanyl. And the fact of the matter is, this is a product that is being trafficked into the United States by criminal organizations that have their roots in Mexico and other places south of our southern border,” said Murphy. “We've faced a lot of drug epidemics over the years, but this one is different, and it requires a different, more focused approach from this Congress.”

Murphy laid out how this subcommittee can give DHS the resources to disrupt this illegal trade and seize more fentanyl: “There is no reason that we can't detect and seize more fentanyl at the ports of entry and international mail facilities. The more funding we provide, the more drugs get taken off the market, the higher the price gets, the harder it becomes for the cartels and the sellers to do their business. Today, [DHS is funded to inspect] 40% of the vehicles that enter the United States. There’s just no reason why we can't jump that number to 60, 65, 70% in the next fiscal year.”

Murphy continued: “The United States rightly complains to Mexico they're not doing enough to stop the drugs from coming into the United States. But Mexico rightly complains to us that we're not doing enough to stop the guns and the cash, the profits that move back into Mexico. And so we have the ability to increase the amount of outbound inspections that we are doing to make sure that we're catching more of those illicit profits and firearms before they make their way into the hands of the cartels.”

On the commitment President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador made during Murphy’s congressional delegation to Mexico City, he said: “We could allocate more resources to help Mexico stop the precursor chemicals from getting to Mexico in the first place. A bipartisan group of us went to meet with President Lopez Obrador last month. He committed to us to partner with us in that work.”

Murphy highlighted how House Republicans’ Default on America Act would undermine our ability to tackle this crisis: “Under their plan, FY24 funding for the Department of Homeland Security would be cut by 22%. We're not talking about a single expansion of our fight against fentanyl. The budget proposal from the House would drastically cut funding at the border, would drastically cut funding for the very capacities that right now are trying to fight fentanyl from coming into the United States.”

This week, Murphy proposed potential investments at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to tackle the fentanyl crisis. 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.

A full transcript of Murphy’s opening remarks can be found below:

“Today, the Subcommittee on Homeland Security is having a hearing entitled ‘Combating Transnational Criminal Organizations and Related Trafficking.’ I'm officially calling this meeting to order. I’ll make some quick opening remarks and then we'll turn it over to our witnesses.

“Listen, I don’t need to tell people here fentanyl is a nightmare like nothing that this country has ever seen before. I think every member of this subcommittee has family members or met with family members inside their communities that have lost a loved one to fentanyl. And the fact of the matter is, this is a product that is being trafficked into the United States by criminal organizations that have their roots in Mexico and other places south of our southern border.

“We've faced a lot of drug epidemics over the years, but this one is different, and it requires a different, more focused approach from this Congress. Today, we're going to have the opportunity for a detailed discussion with officials from the Department of Homeland Security who play a critical role in interrupting the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

“Specifically, we're going to be talking about the cartels and the gangs that deal in death and the trafficking of humans, firearms, and drugs. These cartels bring in chemicals mostly from China, produce fentanyl or products laced with fentanyl—this largely happens in Mexico—and then transport those pills into the United States and sell them here.

“I think this subcommittee and the Appropriations Committee writ large has the opportunity this year to make a major investment in the capacities that you are going to talk about here today. And let me just pose a few suggestions. I released a set of suggestions yesterday that I hope we'll talk about today.

“First, there is no reason that we can't detect and seize more fentanyl at the ports of entry and international mail facilities. The more funding we provide, the more drugs get taken off the market, the higher the price gets, the harder it becomes for the cartels and the sellers to do their business. Today, [DHS is funded to inspect] 40% of the vehicles that enter the United States. There’s just no reason why we can't jump that number to 60, 65, 70% in the next fiscal year.

“Second, we've got these HSI task forces like FAST in San Diego, we'll talk about them today. They're bringing together effectively state, local, federal partners to go after these cartels, go after this trade. We should fund more of them.

“Third, we've got to understand this is a two way street. Drugs come into this country, but cash and guns, they cross into Mexico. The United States rightly complains to Mexico they're not doing enough to stop the drugs from coming into the United States. But Mexico rightly complains to us that we're not doing enough to stop the guns and the cash, the profits that move back into Mexico. And so we have the ability to increase the amount of outbound inspections that we are doing to make sure that we're catching more of those illicit profits and firearms before they make their way into the hands of the cartels.

“And then lastly, we could allocate more resources to help Mexico stop the precursor chemicals from getting to Mexico in the first place. A bipartisan group of us went to meet with President López Obrador last month. He committed to us to partner with us in that work.

“The last two things to say are these, and I'll turn it over Senator Britt for opening comments. All of this investment in stopping fentanyl from getting to the United States would be impossible under last week's House Republican vote. Under their plan, FY24 funding for the Department of Homeland Security would be cut by 22%. We're not talking about a single expansion of our fight against fentanyl. The budget proposal from the House would drastically cut funding at the border, would drastically cut funding for the very capacities that right now are trying to fight fentanyl from coming into the United States.

“And the final thing to say is this. If you watch some folks on cable news, you come to the conclusion that every immigrant in United States, every asylum seeker is potentially a risk. And while there is certainly an amount of fentanyl that's coming into the United States in between our ports of entry, 90 to 95% of it is coming in through the ports of entry. And so we need to have a conversation about how we comprehensively reform our immigration system, and I think that involves tough conversation about asylum reform and about putting more resources at the border. That's absolutely an element of this conversation. But the fact of the matter is, it is by and large not the individuals who are sneaking in in between the ports of entry or presenting themselves for asylum in between the ports of entry that are bringing in the fentanyl. It is actually vehicles and individuals that are crossing at the ports of entry. We can do a much better job of stopping that traffic.

“So, again, grateful to have a pretty full committee attendance today. I think that's a signal of how interested we are as a body on both sides of the aisle on having this conversation with you.”

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