(Daily360.com) – Republican, House Representative Michael McCaul of Texas has recently discovered that fentanyl deaths are a major threat and problem within the United States. The congressman says he came to this revelation after his children had a combined five friends die from overdose deaths related to the synthetic opioid. McCaul chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is trying to use his position to lend support to President Joe Biden regarding diplomacy with Mexico. Most fentanyl that enters the United States is brought trough the porous southern border.
McCaul believes that a level of diplomacy and bills passed through congress to thwart cartel activity will prove fruitful in curbing the amount of fentanyl reaching American citizens. Others in the GOP do not share McCaul’s position on the matter; they believe the blame for fentanyl entering the country lies squarely at the feet of Joe Biden and his border policies.
McCaul’s fellow Texas House Rep. Dan Crenshaw leads a task force set up by then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to look into combating the Mexican cartels operating at the border. Crenshaw is trying to get through a bill that would authorize the U.S. military to gain control of the border. Crenshaw says that the cartels have “operation control” of the southern border.
The problem for Crenshaw trying to get his military use bill though is that his task force comes under the authority of McCaul’s committee. As McCaul would prefer a diplomatic approach the Crenshaw bill has yet to be brought up to the committee. McCaul went so far as to call Crenshaw’s proposal a “political stunt.” Angered by the flippant remark, Crenshaw told Politico that McCaul should know better and not have said such a thing.
McCaul has served in Congress for two decades but can’t find much support with Democrats either regarding his border plan. Texas Democrat Rep. Joaquin Castro and California’s Sara Jacobs raised doubts about any legislation because a form of the drug can be used as a prescribed painkiller. McCaul is trying to overcome that objection by pointing out that his measures are aimed at the elements of fentanyl coming across the border not the approved painkiller. McCaul also noted that as long as the cartels are allowed to traffic their fentanyl elements up, there’s a risk that citizens could wind up exposed to it as has happened at legitimate Mexican pharmacies.
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