Several GOP representatives are criticizing the Biden Administration and Department of the Treasury’s efforts to curb the opioid crisis.
Yellen wrote an op-ed in June for Fox News stating that the fentanyl overdose decline is partly due to the Biden Administration’s negotiations with China. She seemingly brushed aside, however, the role that an unsecured border plays in the opioid trade. Multiple Republicans on the congressional Fentanyl Policy Working Group (FPWG) sounded the alarm on border security and increased opioid seizures, highlighting the misleading nature of Yellen’s claims.
“If President Biden were actually taking the problem of fentanyl trafficking seriously, he would have already shut down the border and with it, points of entry for drug smuggling,” Republican California Rep. Michelle Steel told The Daily Caller. “The Biden Administration’s border crisis has been a key catalyst in the explosion of fentanyl into the U.S.”
“We know fentanyl is pouring across the border, and this administration has done nothing to mitigate it,” Republican Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse told Caller.
Cracking down on illicit fentanyl trafficking is a top priority for @POTUS. At his direction, @USTreasury is using every tool at our disposal to combat the opioid epidemic and save lives.
— Secretary Janet Yellen (@SecYellen) June 20, 2024
Secretary Yellen has seemingly refused to admit that the open border is a source for increased drug trafficking. Instead, she claims the Biden Administration is focused on eliminating fentanyl production abroad through economic sanctions and cooperation with China, according to her column. (Related: DAVID BLACKMON: Biden Treasury Could End Up Vaporizing Billions Of Dollars With Activist-Driven Rule)
“The CCP is subsidizing the production and distribution of these chemicals,” Newhouse told The Caller. The Select Committee has also informed Biden of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) involvement with drug trafficking, the congressman’s office said.
The Department of the Treasury continues to negotiate with Xi Jinping to “target the financial infrastructure” necessary for drug trade, according to Secretary Yellen. (Related: Feds Spent Over $300 Million On Failed Study To Stop Opioid Deaths)
The CCP, however, are the ones who are “actively driving” the fentanyl crisis, Republican Michigan Rep. John Moolenaar, Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, wrote in a letter to The New York Times.
The Chinese government funds opioid exports by providing federal subsidies to state owned enterprises that enable the illicit trade of narcotics into the U.S., according to Moolenaar. The Chinese government is also failing to properly prosecute manufacturers of Fentanyl and its precursor chemicals, according to an April bipartisan report published by The Select Committee on the CCP. (Related: Xi Jinping Revives Decades-Old Playbook To Supercharge China’s Surveillance State)
Government agency reports show that Yellen’s talks with China aren’t working. Fentanyl seizures for the first six months of 2024 surpassed those reported in 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“In Orange County alone, seizures of fentanyl powder increased 676% from President Biden taking office through 2023, while seizures of fentanyl pills increased nearly 4,000%,” Steel told The Daily Caller, citing the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Similarly to opioid seizures, opioid-related deaths are also reportedly projected to come close to 2023’s record high numbers. Currently in San Francisco alone, there have been 327 actual accidental overdose deaths, with an additional 458 estimated to occur by the end of 2024, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. There were 810 in 2023.
Opioid overdoses nationwide are still near an all time high. Almost 77 thousand opioid overdose deaths were reported in January 2024, which is roughly six thousand less than January 2023’s numbers, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The data for January 2024 could potentially be higher, due to a disclaimer of underreporting by the CDC.
“The best solutions for cracking down on international drug trafficking involve securing the border, increasing the tracking and combating of international money laundering, and toughening penalties on fentanyl traffickers,” Steel told The Daily Caller.
