(The Center Square) – Wrought with emotion by his brother’s fentanyl poisoning, a 31-year-old freshman congressman from North Carolina on Thursday implored colleagues to fight the deadliest of drugs at America’s borders.
Rep. Addison McDowell’s first time speaking on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives had added meaning. McDowell lost his sibling to fentanyl poisoning in 2016, when Joe Biden was vice president in the Obama administration – a hierarchy with policies he says contributed to the fatality.
McDowell saw progress as the day grew late. House passage was 312-108 sending the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, or HALT Fentanyl Act, to the Senate. The only North Carolinians against were Democratic Reps. Alma Adams and Valerie Foushee. One Republican and 107 Democrats were against it; 98 Democrats were in favor, including North Carolina’s Don Davis and Deborah Ross.
The legislation will be received in a Senate with 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents caucusing with the minority party. President Donald Trump, including within tariff threats, has singled out the danger of fentanyl and pledged to use all means to stop it.
McDowell said it was one pill, manufactured in China, smuggled through an open border.
“In 2017, we lost my little brother Luke to fentanyl poisoning,” McDowell said. “He was only 20 years old. It changed everything for our family. And there’s not a day that goes by that we don’t feel the pain of that loss.”
Passage in the chamber was a day before what would have been his 29th birthday. McDowell – 30 when he took his oath, a birthday celebrant Jan. 21 – said his family’s pain is not unique.
“Tens of thousands of Americans are being shattered, and their families are being shattered by this crisis each year,” he said. “Today, fentanyl is the leading cause of death among young adults. Enough is enough, Mr. Speaker. Enough is enough!”
The legislation would take care of a sunset on an emergency order expiring at the end of next month, keeping fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances a Schedule 1 drug. Without that classification, lawmen can’t seize many of the deadly drugs, McDowell said.
“It means drug traffickers will be empowered to push deadlier drugs on our streets, and it means that our Border Patrol officials will lose the authority to seize these drugs coming across our border,” said the representative of the state’s 6th Congressional District. “We have before us the opportunity to save many lives. We lost my little brother to fentanyl. And I will not stop until we ensure that others don’t lose theirs.”
Offenses involving 100 grams or more trigger a 10-year mandatory prison term, according to the bill language authored by Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va.
McDowell campaigned on the drug war, turning back Rev. Mark Walker in a close primary that qualified for a runoff. Walker declined, instead joining the campaign team of eventual winner Trump.
Prior to Kamala Harris campaigning for President Joe Biden in Greensboro on July 11, McDowell and Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page took square aim saying she wouldn’t say anything about the border and fentanyl.
“Joe Biden’s open border – and his border czar Kamala Harris – could stop this border crisis today if they wanted to. But they won’t,” McDowell said in the summer. “They opened the border on Day 1 and they’ve endangered every family in North Carolina.”
Trump’s policies of his first three weeks are changing the border activity. And McDowell added something to the fight for his brother Luke.
This article was originally published at www.thecentersquare.com
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