[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 65 (Wednesday, April 19, 2023)] [Senate] [Pages S1227-S1236] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-19
Chamber: SENATE
Mr. DAINES: when most people talk about the fentanyl crisis crippling our communities today, they talk the numbers. And the numbers are very powerful. In 2022, synthetic opioids like deadly fentanyl claimed over 75,000 lives in our country. In fact, it is estimated that over 150 people die every day from overdoses related to the synthetic opioids, the most common one being fentanyl. But today, what I really want to tell you about is one person. I want to tell you about Reilly Schrapps from Butte, MT. Reilly was born November 6, 1997. We have four children. Our youngest of four was born in 1996. This all hits way too close to home. You see, Reilly loved his mother and his father, Tom. Incidentally, Tom was my guest at the State of the Union Address earlier this year. His stepmother, his brother, his stepsiblings, their family's two dogs, were all loved by Tom. In fact, according to those who knew him best, Reilly was an avid fisherman, he was a sportsman--so much like most Montanans--and he spent his free time enjoying the great outdoors in Montana with family and friends, floating the Big Hole, skiing Discovery, and camping Canyon Ferry. Reilly was also an artist. He enjoyed all these things and more until July 30 of 2022, the day Reilly died taking a pill laced with fentanyl. Reilly was in Montana when this happened. He was just 24 years old. Reilly lives on in the stories that families and friends tell about him. But that shouldn't be the case. Reilly should be alive today. Fentanyl overdoses quickly became the leading cause of death for 18- to 45-year-olds in our country. It is a fast-acting poison--50 times more powerful than heroin, 100 times more potent than morphine. And it is taking children away from their parents and spouses away from their partners. We lost over 75,000 people just last year. And I commend law enforcement in Montana and across our country for doing everything in their power, many times risking their own lives, to get fentanyl off our streets, but they can't do it alone. We must stop fentanyl from flooding our streets to begin with by securing our wide- open southern border. Since President Biden took office, there have been over 5 million illegal border crossings. Montana has just over 1 million total residents. We have had over 5 million illegal border crossings since the President took office. This includes gang members, drug dealers, suspected terrorists, as well as thousands of pounds of deadly, illegal fentanyl. This is the most in our Nation's history. You see, Mexican cartels are using chemicals that come from China sent to Mexico; and there in Mexico, they manufacture illicit fentanyl, which is pressed then into counterfeit pills, smuggled across the southern border, and sold as pills in powder form in our communities. These cartels are terrorist organizations. We need to call and treat them as such. The cartels are taking advantage of the wide-open and lawless southern border. So many of us have spent nights on the southern border, including myself, shoulder to shoulder with those brave men and women, with Border Patrol, trying to protect our country but vastly outnumbered, because they are not only flooding the southern border with illegals but also flooding the southern border with poison, including our Montana communities. Montana is a northern border State. But we have a southern border crisis. And the consequences of this crisis are most tragic. These are not just numbers and statistics. They are human lives--lives like Reilly's. Every single one is someone's child, somebody's parent, somebody's friend. And they are people that should still be here today. When Tom Schrapps joined me at the State of the Union Address earlier this year, he said that even though talking about what happened to Reilly is so painful, that if he could just save one person, one family, from the pain that he has gone through, the pain would be worth it. So I am here talking about this, urging--urging--the administration and my colleagues to secure the southern border, change the policies that once were working that this President rescinded. We need to do everything to prevent more families from feeling this pain.  The scourge of fentanyl on our communities is the single greatest threat to public safety today. When you look at the violent crime that we are seeing increasing across the State of Montana--you spend a little time; it doesn't take a lot of time--a little time with any law enforcement across the State of Montana, they will tell you it is the drugs that are causing the crime--every one of them. Fentanyl will continue to fuel the worst drug crisis in American history until we take serious action to address the open border crisis at our southern border. And there are solutions right here at our fingertips. If this administration and my colleagues across the aisle would join us, we can crack down on these Mexican drug cartels and those who supply them with the chemicals to produce illicit fentanyl.