Gosar Hosts Roundtable to Discuss the Fentanyl Crisis

RJ Hamster

2 years ago

Contact Me | Media Center | Our District

For Immediate Release

Contact: Jessica Lycos

Date: March 20, 2022

jessica.lycos@mail.house.gov

This Week With Gosar

WASHINGTON D.C. – Top stories…

Gosar Hosts Roundtable to Discuss the Fentanyl Crisis

Earlier this week, I hosted a round table in Goodyear, Arizona to discuss the deadly effects of fentanyl throughout the country, including right here in Arizona. I am incredibly grateful to the dozens of community leaders, law enforcement officials and families who lost loved ones from fentanyl who joined me for this important discussion.

Our open borders have allowed drug and sex traffickers free reign to inflict terror in our country. Fentanyl is destroying our communities and families. It is killing our children and loved ones. More than 105,000 people died last year from fentanyl. Many, if not most, have no idea that the drugs they’re taking contain fentanyl. The synthetic drug is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroine. Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death in America among 18 to 45 year-olds.

Disturbingly, most of the fentanyl in our communities finds its way there via our open southern border. Law enforcement officials along the border continue to seize record amounts of fentanyl, yet much still gets through as officials struggle to keep up with the drug smugglers along the U.S. – Mexico border.

Congress and Mr. Biden can immediately take action to stop the influx of fentanyl pouring into our country. Stopping the flow of fentanyl begins with sealing off our border to protect our communities from this deadly drug.

Fentanyl is manufactured in Chinese labs and sent to Mexico, where drug cartels make fake pills and other drugs, mix in fentanyl, and easily smuggle it across our southern border. China must be held accountable for directly contributing to this crisis in our communities.

Congress can also make permanent fentanyl’s Schedule 1 classification to ensure law enforcement has the tools they need to combat this threat and take swift action against traffickers of this deadly drug.

I’d like to thank everyone who attended and participated in this important round table. They included Sheriff Lamb, Sheriff Schuster, Police Chief Hall, Dawn Metz, Kari Lake, Thomas Sauer-CEO MacArthur Group, Rehab Facility, Larry Tracey- Executive Director Youth4Youth and several others. I greatly appreciate the families who have been impacted by fentanyl, including losing their loved ones, for sharing their heartbreaking stories.

Congress must also address the illegal role of Snapchat and other social media applications that are knowingly being used by drug dealers to kill our children and young adults.

I encourage you to read my entire statement about this important roundtable here.

February Illegal Border Crossings Shatter Previous Records

This week, the Biden administration released new data showing Nearly 165,000 illegal aliens crossed our open southern border in February. This represents a 280 percent increase from any previous February that Donald Trump was President.

This is also the twelfth straight month that 150,000 or more lawbreakers crossed into our country. Along with these lawbreakers came another 635 pounds of deadly fentanyl and 12,500 pounds of methamphetamine.

Joe Biden continues to push Far-Left open-border policies and mass amnesty, which have created the worst border crisis in history. Our southern border is a war zone as our Border Patrol Agents have been abandoned by the Biden administration and the border crisis grows worse every month.

If the federal government won’t take action to secure our border then the States must use all measures to protect their citizens and sovereignty under Article 4, section 4 of the Constitution.

Ever Feel Ripped Off by Hotel “Fees”?

This week I introduced the Resort Fee Transparency Act. I travel a lot and I have to stay in hotels nearly every week. To be frank, Arizona is blessed with beautiful hotels run by some of the nicest people you will ever meet. But whether you are a regular traveler or an occasional tourist, all of us deserve fairness and transparency.

My bill addresses what are called “resort fees” or “destination fees” or “mandatory parking fees” or in some cases “electricity fees.”

Whatever the fees are called, if they are not disclosed to you before you make your reservation and you learn about them when you check out, that is unfair and my bill seeks to force hotels to let you know when you make your reservation what mandatory fees they will force you to pay.

This is not a minor issue. It is entirely possible to pay $200 per night for a room, only to learn there was a $40 per night “resort fee” and $20 per night “parking fee” making your real rate $260.

I am not against hotels charging whatever fees they want. I just want consumers to know in advance. That’s all.

I am not addressing what constitutes a “resort.” There are hotels that have a tiny pool that most hotels have and they call that a “resort.” To me a resort should have something more. But that is a topic for another time. My bill just seeks openness and honesty in billing.

Bill A. from San Tan Valley, AZ had this to say about the Resort Fee Transparency Act:

I strongly support any legislation that costs nothing to taxpayers and provides greater transparency to travel (or other) costs regularly incurred by taxpayers. Although I like this legislation, I’d like it even more if it included the total price including taxes as I’ve stayed at hotels that hide fees as a “travelers tax” or something. In addition, if I’m visiting someplace like Kansas City and can stay in either state, if Missouri charges a significantly higher hotel tax than Kansas does or vice versa, I might prefer to stay in the state with the lower tax even if it costs a little more.

Robin S. from Lake Havasu City shared this:

Holiday Inn in William’s charges 15.00 for electricity and does not inform the guest at time of reservation or at check-in. Called management and calls were never returned. Needs to be a law against these hidden fees.

Share Your Experience With Me

Have you ever been overcharged or shocked by such fees?

Will you please let me know your experience and send me an email to my District Director at penny.pew@mail.house.gov.

Why Is Gas So Expensive?

It’s not Putin. It’s not Trump. It’s not “greedy” oil companies. If you have heard those excuses you were listening to Jen Psaki or CNN, both known liars and spreaders of disinformation.

Here is the truth: In February 2020, Joe Biden said this during a democrat presidential debate with Bernie Sanders: “No more subsidies for fossil fuel energy, no more drilling on federal lands, no more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill. Period.”

True to his debate statement, on January 21, 2021, former Vice-President Biden issued an executive order banning fracking, oil drilling in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, and stopping two oil pipelines among other lunatic actions. He caused the supply shortage and we went from a net oil exporter to the world under President Donald Trump to Mr. Biden begging OPEC to produce more oil. And OPEC told Biden to pound sand… desert sand that is. Compounding that humiliation, Saudi Arabia refused to return Biden’s calls and messages and pleas. In one year, Joe Biden and the Democrats have turned our country into a global laughingstock.

Tired of Wearing Useless Masks in Airports?

The Center for Disease Control issued a mandate extending the order for all people on planes, federal trains (Amtrak) and in airports to wear masks. This was done without congressional approval. It was also done without a medical or factual basis. Even Dr. Fauci admitted in 2020 that masks are useless against the COVID virus.

In response to this foolishness, I joined my colleagues Reps. Massie, Biggs, Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene and other known America First patriots to challenge the legality of the CDC.

You can read the complaint here.

What’s Up Yuma?

I filed a bill this week to extend the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area Reauthorization Act to 2036. It was set to expire next year.

This heritage area provides a unique respite and ecological preserve along the Colorado River and is an important part of the Yuma culture and economy.

Is This Really What We Should Be Focused On?

Joe Biden has brought the world to the brink of war, created massive inflation that lowers our standard of living, causes shelves to be empty in stores and opened our southern borders to an invasion force of three million illegals aliens, some of whom brought fentanyl that killed 105,000 Americans last year.

Our country faces serious problems. The good days of the Trump presidency are gone …for now.

So what are the Democrats in Congress working on? You might want to sit down for this.

At the end of this legislative week the Democrats put to vote H.R. 2116, called the CROWN Act. And what urgent national problem does this bill address you may ask?

Hair styles! You read that right. Democrats think that your hair style is an oppressed civil right and they seek to add that to the list of protected categories for jobs and housing.

Congress has sunk to a new low. There is no national problem involving hair styles for anyone. There is no evidence of rampant discrimination that requires urgent federal action, especially as the world sits on the edge of war.

Many in congress are out of touch with what matters: Family. God. Prosperity. I pray for better days.

Final Thoughts

I found this thought-nugget while reading and felt I should share with my faithful Gosar Newsletter readers: in the latest federal budget, Congress allocated $14 billion dollars for Ukraine. During the first six months of COVID, an estimated 100,000 U.S. restaurants went out of business because of government lockdowns. Instead of sending money to Ukraine, Congress could have given each of those small, American businesses $140,000 to help them survive. But Congress cares more about their geopolitical power 5,000 miles away than they care about you and your small business.

Gab of the Week

@DrPaulGosar: Why the hell was the Biden administration funding secretive biolabs in Ukraine, labs that are conducting experiments on highly dangerous pathogens, right next to Russia’s border? Why are we only hearing about this now?

See post here.

Gab Number 2

@DrPaulGosar: To be clear, the “Don’t say gay bill” prohibits instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity between kindergarten and 3rd grade, when students are roughly between five and nine years old. Anyone who has an issue with this should be investigated by the police.

See post here.

Tweet of the Week

Paul Gosar @DrPaulGosar: Infanticide is immoral. “Infanticide became forbidden in Europe during the 1st millennium. Christianity forbade infanticide from its earliest times …The practice ceased in Arabia in the 7th century after the founding of Islam, since the Quran prohibits infanticide.”

See Tweet here.

Tweet 2

Paul Gosar @DrPaulGosar: Don Young was a lion and a man in full. It was an honor to serve with him. America mourns and prays for his family.

See Tweet here.

Picture of the Week

Fireworks From The Sky, Donald Hiatt

This photo was taken and submitted by Donald Hiatt. It features a lightning storm over Phoenix in 1975.

More about this photo from Don: “The thunderstorm began raining down a lot of lightning bolts so I took a time exposure of about three minutes and captured “Fireworks From The Sky”.

I entered this photo in a contest held by the Arizona Republic newspaper. I didn’t win the contest but they published this photo with that title on the Sunday magazine in July of 1976, the year of the bi-centennial celebration.”

Thank you, Donald!

Now, who is next!?

Do you have photography skills? Do you want the chance for your photograph to be featured as our “Picture of the Week?” Send your best shots of our great State to jessica.lycos@mail.house.gov. We have a beautiful State, let’s show her off!