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Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) held a press conference in advance of the Senate voting on the bipartisan Border Act and urged their colleagues to join them in passing this legislation to crack down on drug trafficking at the southern border. Specifically, this bipartisan bill would increase funding for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to dismantle cartels responsible for trafficking fentanyl across the border and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to stop the flow of deadly fentanyl at our ports of entry. Cortez Masto also called for the passage of her bipartisan Combating Illicit Xylazine Act to crack down on and schedule the highly dangerous sedative causing fatal overdoses nationwide.
“I’ve heard directly from our law enforcement officers at the border about how overwhelmed and understaffed they are,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “It’s time for my Republican colleagues to stop playing politics and pass this bipartisan legislation to give Border Patrol and CBP the support they need to crack down on the cartels trafficking fentanyl across our border. And, we need to pass my bipartisan legislation to combat the illicit use of xylazine—which is being mixed with dangerous opioids and spreading in our communities.”
Senator Cortez Masto has been working to crack down on illicit drugs since she was first elected Attorney General, when she worked with Nevada’s Republican governor, law enforcement, and Mexican officials to combat the rise of methamphetamine manufacturing and cross-border drug trafficking. In the Senate, she has authored legislation to combat drug trafficking online that was signed into law, and passed critical legislation to address the opioid epidemic. She is leading bipartisan legislation to combat and schedule illicit xylazine, a highly dangerous sedative causing fatal overdoses nationwide.
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