A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Veterans Affairs relating to "Reproductive Health Services".

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, I feel like, in fact, I have been here on a weekly basis to talk about this issue. And the reason I feel that way is that I have been here on a weekly basis to talk about what is happening in the wake of the Dobbs decision, which stripped the American people of the first fundamental freedom, the first fundamental right, that we have lost since reconstruction.

This was a 50-year effort on the part of certain people in this country, with an ideological commitment to overturn Roe v. Wade, who used every single mechanism that they could of our democracy and, now, ultimately, our judiciary, to enforce a legal outcome that the vast majority of the American people have never supported and, today, don't support.

We find ourselves on the floor today, I dare say, facing a resolution by the Senator from Alabama, whom I have been out here arguing with for the last 6 weeks--a resolution that would be decried by, I would bet, 9 out of 10 Americans. I will be fair: 8 out of 10 Americans. This is an effort in the wake of the Dobbs decision, which stripped the American people of this fundamental freedom, this fundamental right that families have relied on for 50 years.

Millions of veterans now live in States where abortion is banned. I will come to that in a second.

In an attempt to deal with the catastrophe in the wake of Dobbs, the VA has promulgated some rules to make it allowable in the Veterans' Administration. When a veteran or their family member has been raped, is the victim of incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake, what the VA has said--because we are dealing with the overturning of Roe v. Wade--in those cases, those three limited cases, we are going to allow people to get access to care at the Veterans' Administration.

That has set off the Senator from Alabama, who is now trying to get the Senate to pass a resolution to ban that so that veterans and their families who are the victims of rape, who are the victims of incest, or where the life of the mother is at stake, cannot get medical care at the Veterans' Administration. In a State like his, which has banned abortion, that is what is at stake this week.

A month ago, we were on this floor because the same Senator from Alabama was putting a blanket hold on every single flag officer's promotion in the U.S. military. Think about that. That sounds impossible. That sounds like an exaggeration.

Madam President, the reason it sounds that way to you is because, first of all, you are a reasonable person, but, second of all, it has never happened in the history of this Senate before--that somebody has held up the promotion of every single flag officer, put a blanket hold on.

Now, that is not because of what the VA is doing. That is because of what the Department of Defense is doing, because the Department of Defense, again, in the wake of Dobbs--the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade--in the wake of that, DOD has said: If you are serving in a State where abortion is banned, we will pay for your travel from that State to another State. We will say that you don't need to use unpaid leave to get to that other State.

And we have said--DOD, not me, has said: If you want to take a little longer to talk to your commanding officer about one of the most personal decisions anybody could make, any family could make, any woman could make, we are going to give you a little bit of extra time to do that.

Those are the three things. I bet 80 percent of the American people support those things, and I guarantee you more than 80 percent of the American people

do not support the idea that we are going to hold up every single flag officer who is coming here for a promotion, at a moment when Putin has invaded Ukraine and China is rattling their saber over their idiosyncratic view of how the world ought to work.

I heard that somebody today said: Well, this veterans rule violates the Hyde amendment.

First of all, the Hyde amendment, as is well known, doesn't even apply to the VA. And, if it did--guess what--there are three exceptions to the Hyde amendment: rape, incest, and the health of the mother.

So they are even trying to turn back Hyde. That is what they are trying to do on the floor of this Senate, and they are messing with the readiness of the American Armed Forces to do it.

What brought us here?

What brought us here was the Dobbs decision. What brought us here was a Court packed--packed--with a wish list of people who, for 50 years, have been fighting for an originalist--so-called originalist; made up, made up--but an originalist conception of constitutional law, and they finally found a guy in the form of President Donald Trump who was willing to put these people on the Court.

And they gave the Court the majority they needed to eviscerate Roe v. Wade, to strip this fundamental right, to strip this fundamental freedom, and to do it with contempt; to not wrestle with the question of what is going to happen to people serving in the Armed Forces of the United States if they are unlucky enough to need an abortion and they live in a State like Alabama, for example, where, if you are a doctor and you perform an abortion, you can go to jail for 99 years--although, admittedly, admittedly, there is an exception in Alabama for the life of the mother.

This end point--I hope it is an end point. This end point of that 50- year war on freedom, war on Roe v. Wade, war on a set of expectations that women, in particular, have in this country, but that families have in this country--that war was brought to a conclusion, in some sense, by a majority opinion written by Justice Scalia that, essentially--read it, read it--essentially came down to this: If it wasn't a right in 1868, it is not a right in 2023. If it wasn't a freedom in 1868, it is not a freedom today.

Forget that, at that time of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, Black people and women didn't even have the right to vote. They didn't even have the right to vote. But in the 21st century, when we are meant to compete in a global economy, in a society that, by any measure, is still profoundly unequal but far more equal than it was in those days, where women do have the right to vote, where Black people do have the right--thank God--in this country to vote, we are reading the language in 1868 and saying: Well, was it a right or a freedom then? That is how we are going to decide whether it is one today.

In the early 1990s, when I was in law school and when we knew that it was at the dawn of originalism--I mean, that was happening right then. It was part of the Reagan revolution. It was part of law and economics. It was part of making the shareholder the supreme being in the United States of America--part of that whole measure, that whole time period in the country's history. That is when some genius--and they were a genius--came up with the word ``originalism'' to describe a legal ideology that says: We are only going to look in the rearview mirror to figure out what our rights are today--as if they could divine the intent of the Founding Fathers on a question like abortion, who, by the way, had massive disagreements among themselves.

Anybody who has ever read even a signpost or a tourist--you know, some sort of signpost on the side of Independence Hall in Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia--knows how many disagreements the Founders had with themselves. The idea that somehow you are going to divine their one view about what the Constitution should say is preposterous. But here we are. Here we are.

And we were told when this happened: Don't worry about it. You know, this is just a matter of the Supreme Court sending this right, sending this fundamental freedom--this fundamental freedom--back to the States. That is all. It is just an exercise in federalism.

Well, since this happened, since Dobbs was passed, 18 States have banned abortion. I have one kid who is about the age of the pages now. Two others are older than the pages now. I am telling you, I was with my daughter Caroline the other day, riding through Colorado, looking at the billboards as we went by, and I said to her: Man, Caroline--she is now 23--if you had told me 20 years ago that in 2023 we would be living in a country that was legalizing marijuana and banning abortion, I would not have believed you. I would not have believed you.

She doesn't believe it either.

As my friend Jon Tester, my friend the farmer from Montana, says, his daughter is having to fight for rights that her mother never had to fight for because her grandmother won these rights. And now we are rolling it all back because the Supreme Court majority that Donald Trump made possible after all these years, after all this effort to strip the American people of this freedom, has decided, if it is not a right in 1868, it is not a right today.

So 18 States have banned abortion. Nine have no exceptions for rape or incest. There have been now restrictions on freedom to travel. Texas famously has put $10,000 bounties. It is like the Wild West, all of a sudden, where if you are a friend or a neighbor who is driving somebody to access abortion services and somebody catches you, says you shouldn't have been doing it, you can get a $10,000 bounty.

In Florida, in the Sunshine State--I think Florida is the third largest State in the country--one of them, the third largest State in the country--in broad daylight--actually, to be honest with you, it was at 11 o'clock at night--the Governor has now signed a 6-week ban on abortion.

One in three women don't even know that they are pregnant. A third of women don't even know that they are pregnant at 6 weeks.

I don't know whether the Governor of Florida knows that or doesn't know that, but it is an interesting question: Which would be worse, him knowing it or not knowing it?

And, now, all of a sudden, 9 million veterans and their families, including 2 million female veterans, live in States that have banned abortion or restricted it in ways that would have been unimaginable to my daughter Caroline, to families all over the country.

And, as I said, in some limited way of dealing with it, the VA announced these rules. But these narrow rules that have to do with rape and incest and the life of the mother, they are not enough for the Senator from Alabama, and, this afternoon, he is forcing a vote to strip away the VA policy and impose a position on every veteran in America that is more extreme than his own State.

Hyde doesn't apply to the VA, and, even if it did, there are exceptions for rape, for incest, for the life of the mother. That is not extreme enough for them. His resolution would ensure that veterans who have been raped, who are victims of incest, whose life is at risk, can't seek an abortion at the VA, along with their spouses and their dependents.

Even in Alabama there is an exception for the life of the mother, and they have one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

I am going to come to an end because my colleague is here from Nevada. I have two colleagues here from Nevada. So I am confused. I said I am going to finish, but I will take a couple of minutes and then finish, but by saying that it is tragic that we have to have this vote in 2023. It is.

This is a tragedy. It is a tragedy. It is a spectacle. It is an embarrassment. But at least people will have the opportunity to know where every Member of the Senate stands, and they are going to understand what a 50-year political effort to strip America of this freedom looks like.

You know, there was a survey in a poll last month in Florida, and my colleague won't be surprised to know this: 75 percent of Florida opposes a 6-week ban; 61 percent of the GOP in Florida opposes a 6-week ban. Let that sink in.

I don't know. I am not a great politician, unlike some people. But, maybe, that is why he was signing it at 11 o'clock at night. Maybe that is why, when the Governor of Florida signed it,

he sent out a tweet that didn't say he had signed a 6-week ban on abortion in Florida, because 75 percent of the people there oppose it, just like the majority of Americans.

And so I think we should defeat this resolution. I think the American people should take note of every single vote that is cast here by these Senators.

But, really, as important as that, we need to understand what has happened to our politics, what has happened to our Supreme Court through this 50-year war on American freedom and this 50-year war on a woman's right to choose.

And we need to come together as a country and codify a woman's right to choose so the next generation of Americans has the benefit that the last 50 years of Americans have had.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, it is a pleasure to be on the floor today with the chair of our EPW Committee and with my friend from Arkansas, Senator Boozman.

I am going to speak again about another example of the bipartisan work of our EPW Committee, where we have had accomplishments that are real, practical, and positive and result in good change for our country. On the EPW Committee, we have a history of working together, of crafting legislation together, and of getting good policy going. Sometimes it is not easy, but we have been able to do it.

The cornerstone of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which made needed investments in our Nation's core infrastructure, was written and passed out of EPW. With the Water Resources Development Act, it was the same thing. It supports the work of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on projects across this country. It was passed out of our EPW Committee unanimously, and it eventually became law.

Today, Chairman Carper, Senator Boozman, and I are reintroducing two pieces of legislation that had been previously approved by EPW and the Senate unanimously--both the committee and the full Senate--to tackle another issue in a bipartisan way, which is access to recycling in America.

Not only is recycling something that we have found people really want to do, but it is great for the environment, and it is good for business. It supports over 1 million jobs and generates billions of dollars in economic output every year. But in order to grow these numbers, we need to ensure people who want to participate really can, particularly those in rural and underserved areas, such as areas of my State, so that they can do so.

Mr. President, the first bill we are reintroducing today, the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act, addresses challenges when it comes to recycling for many of our smaller cities and towns.

In the one I live in, we have sort of stopped and started on recycling. Recycling services, including curbside recycling, are just simply not available. These rural areas share common barriers to accessibility: location and proximity to material recovery facilities and the size and density of the population. This is just not available. This has led to low processing yields and high costs in collection and transportation costs, making it difficult for material recovery facilities to operate at a profit.

Our legislation would establish a pilot recycling program to ensure places like West Virginia, Arkansas, Wyoming, or Alaska aren't being left behind. The pilot program would award grants on a competitive basis to eligible entities for improving recycling accessibility in a community or communities within the same geographic area.

Along with improving access to recycling, it is important to fix important data gaps, as the chairman spoke about, when it comes to recycling in America. That is the intent of the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act, which is the other piece of legislation we are introducing today. It would improve data collection on our Nation's recycling systems and explore the potential of a national composting strategy. Not only would this give us a better idea of how well States are doing through recycling and composting rates, but it would also help us identify those areas that may be struggling to sustain and grow proper recycling programs.

These are simple steps we can take, supported by both Republicans and Democrats, to improve and expand recycling in this country. Americans in every community--rural and urban, on the coasts or in the heartland--share a desire to protect our environment. These pieces of legislation will help make it easier for them to recycle, to contribute to a healthier planet, and to create jobs along the way.

With Earth Day coming up, it is fitting that we continue our efforts to expand recycling by reintroducing these bills today, alongside Chairman Carper and Senator Boozman, and I thank them both for their work.

Drug Crisis

Mr. President, I informed the Senator from Arkansas, but I need to inform Senator Carper that I am having back-to-back speeches, so I am going to totally change the topic here real quick before Senator Boozman talks about recycling. Thank you for letting me move ahead here.

Mr. President, I rise today to talk about an issue that is impacting every State in our Nation, an issue that has the potential to impact every community, every family, and every person in the Chamber today, and that is the drug and substance abuse crisis.

My home State of West Virginia knows all too well about the scars that this crisis has created and the devastating toll that it takes. West Virginia, unfortunately, continues to lead the Nation in overdose deaths per capita. It is a sad statistic for us, and although these deaths have been declining, every single overdose death is one too many.

In 2020, we lost 1,197 West Virginians to overdoses. Data from our State health department indicates that over 80 percent of these deaths included an opioid.

Our State's EMS teams responded to over 9,000 suspected overdose calls, and there were 6,916 emergency room visits related to overdoses. These numbers are just staggering and clearly show the continued and urgent need to address this crisis and the many forms that it comes in.

This is certainly an issue that requires immediate attention from every level of government and deserves more than just four mentions in the President's most recent budget proposal.

While I feel the President and his administration lack that sense of urgency, ending the addiction crisis and taking action to save countless lives remains one of my top priorities.

Each time I meet with our northern or our southern U.S. attorneys in West Virginia, the drug crisis is by far the largest topic of discussion. Their offices see firsthand the amount of illicit drugs that are entering our State and work around the clock to remove the threat that these substances create in our communities.

Like I have said in this Chamber before, last October our U.S. Attorney's Office of the Northern District of West Virginia recovered approximately 75 pounds of cocaine, 19 pounds of methamphetamine, and nearly 5 pounds of fentanyl in Wheeling, WV, on one bust.

Investigators found that traffickers had these drugs shipped from the U.S.-Mexican border to Ohio via tractor-trailer and used cash payments to people who flew from California to Pittsburgh to move the cash back and forth. The connection between the crisis at our southern border and the drug epidemic we are seeing at home does not get any clearer than that.

In December of last year, the DEA announced nationwide seizures of over 50.6 million fentanyl pills and more than 10,500 pounds of fentanyl powder. The DEA estimates that these seizures could represent 379 million potentially deadly overdoses of fentanyl. That is enough fentanyl to kill every single American. And these are just the drugs that they found.

With the Border Patrol stretched unfathomably thin, there is no telling the amount of drugs that are getting through undetected. We know that these drugs are entering our country through the southern border, making their way into each and every State and wreaking havoc.

If President Biden would get a little more serious about stopping this, I think he has to get serious about border security. In a crisis this urgent, it is time to act.

I have spoken with the DEA administrator about the support they need and the challenges that they are facing. I have introduced legislation, led letters, and pushed for initiatives that informed the public of the dangers of fentanyl getting in the hands of our youth, that strengthen our investigations on fentanyl trafficking, and that

prevent fentanyl and synthetic drug shipments from being smuggled into the United States through the mail.

Currently, we are working on efforts to crack down on and schedule the illicit drug xylazine, which I understand is also known as ``tranq.'' If you didn't know by now, xylazine is an easily accessible veterinarian tranquilizer that is being mixed with opioids, including fentanyl, increasing the number of fatal overdoses nationwide.

This crisis is ever-changing, which means our approach needs to be multifaceted as well.

I encourage the President, his administration, and all of our colleagues right here in the Congress to stay on this effort and stop the latest modifications before it is too late.

Even in the midst of devastating losses in our State, I have always been inspired, encouraged, and moved by the efforts of people in West Virginia to end the drug crisis and help those in our State during the times when they need it the most. West Virginians continue to be responsible for the most innovative recovery solutions and prevention efforts that we have seen.

The opioid crisis has made a personal targeted impact on communities all across our State, and in turn we have seen success through these community-based solutions.

I have seen in Martinsburg, WV, with a program that is a police- school-community-health-and-education partnership working to prevent substance use disorders from ever happening to our youth. By building strong families and empowering the community, we build resiliency in children and families to help them overcome this horrible addiction.

I have seen this in Kearneysville, WV, where they are building a recovery village so that individuals who are struggling with addiction receive access to family and community they definitely need.

The detailed focus is on housing and workforce development, aspects of recovery that are absolutely critical.

I have seen drug court programs all across our State, where West Virginians are building each other up, holding each other accountable, and giving those who struggle with addiction the chance for a life of recovery.

You know, West Virginians take care of West Virginians, and there is no other issue that requires each and every one of us to work together quite like this one.

So, President Biden, the drug crisis has created a dire situation in communities not just across my State but across the country. We have no time to waste. Every day of inaction results in turmoil and devastation for so many families and loved ones.

We need to secure the southern border; we need to crack down on illicit drug trafficking and new tactics that criminals are implementing; and we need to deliver the tools our communities need to implement Federal programs and develop those community-based solutions that we know work best. We must do this together. We must do it now. Countless lives depend on us.

With that, I yield the floor to my colleague from Arkansas, my fellow recycler, Senator Boozman.

Recycling

Mr. President, happy Earth Week.

I rise today, along with a couple of my colleagues--one from West Virginia and another from Arkansas--to speak on the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act of 2023 and on the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act, which is bipartisan legislation that would improve our Nation's recycling and composting systems.

As a number of our colleagues know, my wife and I are both avid recyclers and composters and have been for some time. I have long believed in environmental stewardship. That is the way my parents raised my sister and me, and I suspect it is the way a lot of parents of Members of this body raised their sons and daughters. They raised us to leave behind a cleaner, healthier planet for future generations, and that is a belief I know is shared not just by elected officials here in Washington but by many people across this country.

I am also a strong believer that bipartisan solutions are lasting solutions. Whenever possible, we ought to work to find common ground and put forward bipartisan solutions that can stand the test of time. To that end, I am pleased to have found great partners--not just good partners but great partners--in developing these bipartisan recycling bills: Senator Capito, our ranking member on the Environment and Public Works Committee, with whom I am privileged to serve and to chair, along with Senator John Boozman, cochair of the Senate's Recycling Caucus, our colleague from Arkansas. All three of us recognize that we have to do our part to continue to improve our Nation's recycling and composting efforts. In doing so, it not only benefits our environment but also creates economic opportunity and jobs--a lot of jobs.

The legislation we are here to discuss today would address several of the challenges that America's recycling efforts currently face and what we might do about them. One of these challenges is the availability of good data.

In November of 2021, with input from many stakeholders, the Environmental Protection Agency released its first-ever national recycling strategy. When that strategy was released, I was delighted to learn that many of the comments I had submitted to the EPA on behalf of our committee had been incorporated into the final version. It was a happy day when we learned that. This document offered a transformative vision for strengthening our Nation's waste management efforts. It also highlighted the need for greater standardization around data collection.

To address this challenge around data collection, Senator Boozman and I, along with our staffs, developed the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act. Our bill would improve the EPA's ability to gather data on our Nation's recycling systems and explore opportunities for implementing a national composting strategy.

The EPA has also set a goal of increasing the U.S. recycling rate to 50 percent by 2030. With a current recycling rate of only 32 percent, it is clear we have a long way to go. That is why we must also focus on increasing access to recycling opportunities throughout our Nation--not just in urban areas or suburban areas but in rural areas as well. Many Americans in disadvantaged communities want to recycle and compost, too, but they are unable to do so because they, in many cases, live in communities that lack curbside pickup, that lack bottle return, and that lack other necessary recycling infrastructure.

Senator Capito's Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act of 2023 would address this challenge by creating a pilot program with EPA to help expand recycling services in underserved areas. The Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act that she has written would bring many communities, including those in rural areas, into the recycling world while also better protecting our environment.

I commend Senator Capito for her work and her leadership in developing this legislation. I also want to continue working with her to ensure that her bill helps to jump-start recycling in communities with the greatest need, especially in disadvantaged and historically underserved communities.

Both of the bills that I have referred to from members of our committee are a result of a true collaboration, and they reflect a substantial amount of bipartisan effort dedicated to exploring and addressing our Nation's recycling and composting challenges.

The adoption of these bills this week is fitting and timely, as Saturday marks the 53rd anniversary of the very first Earth Day. This day is personal to me. Some 53 years ago this Saturday, I stood side by side with tens of thousands of people in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. I was a naval flight officer. I had completed my training and was about to deploy out of Moffett Field, CA, to head for Southeast Asia, but I had an opportunity to join tens of thousands of people in Golden Gate Park that day to celebrate our country's first-ever Earth Day.

That same year, Democrats and Republicans worked together with then- President Richard Nixon to create a Federal Agency dedicated to protecting our environment. The name of that Agency? The Environmental Protection Agency.

Decades later, I can still vividly remember--I can; I can close my eyes and remember it now--that first Earth Day and the urgency we felt to save our planet. Today, a younger generation also shares that sense of urgency.

While I believe we ought to live every day like it is Earth Day, on April 22 of each year, I especially welcome the opportunity to reflect and give thanks for all of the incredible natural resources and natural beauty that God has given us on this planet of ours.

Earth Day is also a time for all of us to reflect on our actions individually and as a whole, to think about what more we can do and should be doing to protect our planet and its inhabitants. Like many people, I try to live my life by the golden rule of always treating people the way I want to be treated. I also believe that principle extends to the way we treat and care for our planet and those with whom we share it.

A couple of years ago--and some of my colleagues may remember--we had a visitor on the other side of the Capitol, in the House Chamber. He was a fellow from France named Macron, the Prime Minister of France. He came to address a joint session of Congress that day, and he did a great job. He was very well received, I think, by everybody.

On that day, he spoke of the importance of protecting our environment from the threats of climate change, hazardous waste, and toxic pollution. At the end of his speech, he said something I will never forget. He was talking about our planet, and these were his words:

There is no planet B. There is no planet B. This is the

only one we are going to have.

I sat there that day, thinking, boy, he has gotten it right; there is no planet B. That means we only have one chance to get it right when it comes to protecting and caring for this planet of ours.

As I said earlier, I am committed to leaving behind a cleaner, healthier planet for future generations. I welcome all of our colleagues to join Senator Capito and myself in that effort. Fortunately, we have made remarkable progress over the past five decades following that very first Earth Day. From enacting comprehensive laws to protect our environment and support good-paying, clean energy jobs to ratifying the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol and phasing down the use of superpolluting chemicals like HFCs, which are 1,000 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, there is much to be proud of. Still, our work is not finished. We have a long way to go. I think it was Robert Frost who said we have miles to go before we sleep--miles to go before we sleep.

So, today, we celebrate the opportunity to build on this progress and leave behind a livable planet with our

bipartisan recycling legislation. We also acknowledge that there is more to be done. In the spirit of Earth Day, I am prepared to roll up my sleeves and keep marching forward in my effort to do the right thing by our planet and the people who call it home just as I did some 53 years ago this Saturday. I invite Americans from all walks of life to join the Senator from West Virginia, Senator Capito; Senator Boozman from Arkansas; and myself in this effort. It is the right thing to do, and it will make you feel good all over. I promise.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I would like to talk about fentanyl. It is cheap, it is highly addictive, and it is deadly. It is responsible for more overdose deaths in America than any other drug. Last year alone, 110,000 Americans died from fentanyl poisoning in America.

I recently joined a U.S. delegation to Mexico focused on stopping illicit drug trafficking, curbing illegal immigration at the U.S.- Mexico border, and addressing China's role in providing precursor chemicals for fentanyl production and laundering money for the cartels.

I can say that the drug crisis spilling into our country is apparent to anyone willing to travel to the border and witness it for themselves. It is becoming more and more apparent every day. In fact, it is becoming more apparent even within Mexico.

During my recent visit with President Lopez Obrador in Mexico, I heard him talk about the fact that, although in many instances, with many other drugs, drug production in Mexico has often been sending drugs just to the United States, at least far more than it has to Mexico, but with fentanyl, we are seeing something different. We are seeing that fentanyl is now spilling into the Mexican market, and many Mexican citizens are starting to die from fentanyl poisoning.

So he, too, is concerned about it and is looking for ways he can make sure that China keeps closer track of the precursor chemicals and that the Government of Mexico is notified when those shipments of large- scale containers of these precursor chemicals arrive in Mexico, presumably for the production of fentanyl inside of Mexico.

Yet, notwithstanding all these developments and 110,000 Americans dying in the last year alone from fentanyl, the Biden administration has utterly failed to stop this massive influx of fentanyl flowing across our southern border. In fact, fentanyl is one of the only commodities to see a price decrease since Biden took office. We have seen rampant inflation everywhere else but not with fentanyl. So despite this historic inflation that we have been experiencing ever since January 21, 2021, street prices for this deadly drug have fallen, indicating supply is meeting demand without significant impediment,

bringing down the price. For example, in Arizona, users were paying $20 per pill in early 2021, but by early 2022, the price had plummeted to $5. In Ohio, the cost of fentanyl went from $75,000 per kilogram in 2017 to $50,000 in 2019 and then to $36,000 in 2021.

This is the last of the places where we want to see the opposite of inflation. We wish that our consumer products at grocery stores and everywhere else were going down, not the price of illegal, deadly fentanyl.

To put these numbers in perspective, we have been talking about the price per kilo--$75,000 per kilo a few years ago; and then 50,000 in 2019; and then 36,000 in 2021. To put it in perspective, each of those kilos--just 1 kilo of fentanyl contains half a million lethal doses. That is to say, 1 kilogram could wipe out the entire city of Atlanta, GA; and 1 kilo could essentially wipe out the entire population of the State of Wyoming. And 2 kilos could kill the entire State of Delaware.

The DEA recently announced the seizure of more than 50 million fentanyl-laced pills and more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder, just in 2022 alone. These seizures--that no doubt just represent a fraction of all fentanyl that made its way into the United States without detection and seizure--represented a staggering 379 million lethal doses, far more than enough to kill every man, every woman, and every child in the United States.

Fentanyl is a killer. It is more powerful than morphine and has a potency that is measured in micrograms. Even a tiny amount can be lethal. Just 2 milligrams can kill an adult. That is why, when you measure this out, 2 milligrams--or 2,000 micrograms--going into a kilogram is going to get you to half a million lethal doses in 1 kilo.

It is just unconscionable for this administration to turn a blind eye to the problem of fentanyl trafficking across the border. In the face of such a lethal threat, we need to have bold and decisive action, not empty rhetoric, because the drug cartels really don't care about party politics. They only care about making money. And that money is coming from the pockets of our fellow Americans suffering from addiction.

This isn't just a problem for border States like Texas and Arizona. It is a threat to every community in America. It is sold on street corners in small towns and in big cities. It is killing our friends, our neighbors, and our loved ones.

We must secure our borders to disrupt the drug cartels. We cannot tacitly allow fentanyl and other deadly drugs to continue flowing into our communities and destroying the lives of our everyday citizens.

Now, yes, it is true, they are working to seize the stuff; and our law enforcement agents have seized a lot of it. But with millions of people crossing into our border--our southern border--over the last slightly more than 2 years--millions of people pouring in--it is making it worse, especially when you consider those same people are being trafficked into the United States, earning billions of dollars--the extortionate rates that they charge--to smuggle human traffic into the United States. It would be folly to assume, as the Secretary of Homeland Security recently suggested at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, that that doesn't play a very significant role in fentanyl making its way into the United States. He insisted that nearly all of the fentanyl comes in by way of vehicles--trucks and passenger vehicles--at points of entry. I don't know how he can possibly know that. In fact, it is impossible he could know that, because when you have 5 million people coming into the United States illegally through our southern border in slightly more than 2 years, it would be folly to assume that those people being trafficked by the drug traffickers wouldn't also be used to carry fentanyl.

In short, every pill of fentanyl is a potential killer. Every shipment of fentanyl is a ticking time bomb, if not a weapon of mass destruction. And every life lost to fentanyl is a tragedy.

We owe it to ourselves, our families, and our communities to tackle this problem and to do everything in our power to stamp out the scourge of this drug in American communities.

Mr. President, ever since Republicans succeeded in overturning Roe v. Wade and ripping abortion rights away from millions of women, they have been trying to hide how extreme their positions on abortion are and how devastating the fallout has been for families.

Even as each new day brings another horror driven by Republican extremists, like the dystopian bill put forward in South Carolina which proposed the death penalty for women who get an abortion, one of my colleagues even recently said that as President, he would ``literally sign the most conservative pro-life legislation.''

Let's not forget the terrifying lawsuit in Texas that is hanging over the entire country, where Republican extremists want to overrule the FDA's experts, undermine its authority to review and approve all manner of drugs, from chemotherapy to insulin, and take the abortion pill mifepristone away from patients all across the country, even in States like mine where abortion is still legal and even though we have 20 years of data showing this drug is safe and effective.

Yet, when the district judge issued a dangerous ruling that would rip this drug off the shelf, 69 congressional Republicans filed a brief calling for that ruling to go into effect and deny women in every single State access to this FDA-approved medication. The Supreme Court has stayed the decision for the time being, but this threat to women's ability to get this drug is as real as ever, and now 147 congressional Republicans--many Republicans who are in leadership, Republicans with oversight authority over the FDA--have filed a brief opposing our efforts to protect access to mifepristone and protect the FDA's authority.

And this extreme lawsuit is far from the only dangerous anti-abortion policy some congressional Republicans are pushing, as is the bill we are about to vote on today.

It has been incredibly infuriating for women to be told by Republicans that we are overreacting, fearmongering, even as we are being told by patients and providers about the nightmares they are now living in, about the impossible decisions they have had to make, and about the decisions--the deeply personal decisions--they have not been allowed to make that Republican politicians are, instead, now making for them.

It strains belief that Republicans actually think victims of rape or incest are not being affected by their policies and that women whose health--whose very lives--are in danger are not facing any barriers or are being denied the care they need, especially when we see news stories reported every day showing that that is not the case--stories that show women are being put in horrific, unthinkable situations, forced to travel absurd distances for care after they are raped, forced to wait and bleed and get sicker and sicker before they can get the care they desperately need.

But even if Republicans are ignoring the devastation State abortion bans are causing and are ignoring women who are speaking out every single day, what we are talking about today in this Senate is a bill congressional Republicans wrote themselves. It really puts an end, once and for all, to some Republicans' empty claims that they are being moderate in any way here. Victims of rape or women with medical complications are not being heard, because this bill, which Republicans wrote, which Republicans are coming to the floor advocating for, would cut veterans and their families off from care when their lives are in danger and would cut them off from care after rape or incest.

Make no mistake, that is what this debate is about today. That is what they are voting for. In arguing for this bill, they are also showing they know full well how extreme State bans actually are. After all, they cannot pretend that, on the one hand, State abortion bans have meaningful exemptions for women with life-threatening complications and for people who have been raped, including children, while also arguing, on the other hand, that this proposal defies State laws to allow the VA to provide care in those heartbreaking situations. Those arguments contradict each other. More importantly, those claims contradict the real, heartbreaking stories we are already hearing from women and doctors about how these bans are putting lives at risk.

Extreme abortion bans are causing healthcare crises all across the country, along with so many personal crises for families in facing incredibly difficult situations, which is why the VA care rule that President Biden put forward is so important and why the Democrats are standing so firm to keep it intact. Despite the rhetoric from my Republican colleagues, this rule that they are trying to overturn is a meaningful, modest step to protect our veterans. It simply allows the VA to provide abortion care to make sure that none of our veterans or their eligible dependents go without medical treatment when their lives are in danger or are forced to stay pregnant after rape or incest.

That is it. That is what Republicans are so upset about. They are upset that this administration has taken action to make sure women who have served our country in uniform can get the basic reproductive care they need when

their health is at risk or in cases of rape or incest. Those veterans fought to protect our rights, and now Republicans want to roll back theirs. These veterans put their lives on the line for us, and now Republicans who support this resolution want to tell them that when their lives are in danger, tough luck. Politics comes first. No one--no one--deserves that.

So I urge all of my colleagues to stand with our veterans, to stand with their families, and vote against this unthinkably cruel bill that seeks to force women veterans to stay pregnant even when their lives are at risk, even after rape or incest.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senators Tuberville and Schumer be permitted to complete their remarks prior to the rollcall vote.