>> good morning, everyone.

it has been a year of unprecedented crises because of joe biden and the house democrats' failed leadership. the american people do not trust joe biden, and time after time he makes the problems facing american families worse, exacerbating all of these crises that ours constituents are forced to bear. and his thinking all numbers are -- sinking poll numbers are true to that. hard-working families are struggling under the skyrocketing cost of groceries and basic goods due to inflation

and empty shelves across stores across america. congestion is getting worse, which means not only gifts for family and friends are sitting on boats, but the backlog is hurting our small businesses trying to get products to market during the busiest season of a year. we call this joe biden holi-d elays. i see this impacting my district. another crisis that democrats continue to ignore is the crisis at our southern border. since joe biden became president, we have had over 1.6 million encounters at the southern border. with this surge at our border, there is an unthinkable amount of fentanyl and fen tanyl-substances pouring into our committees, and up to kill every american seven times over. think about that. i'm here to talk about what republicans are doing. i'm going to turn it over to my colleagues.

>> thank you all very much. the centers for disease control reported that in a period ending april 20 21, there were over 100,000 drug overdoses with two thirds of these caused by synthetic opioids. during the same period, there were over 585,000 drug overdose deaths in my home state of ohio. 5000 585 lives lost. it can be directly tribute to the isolation due to the pandemic. from october 2020, to september 2021 customs and border patrol seized 11,201 pounds of fentanyl. the important thing to remember is customs and border control were able to seize this, we

don't know how much got across the border. that is enough to kill the entire u.s. population seven times over. the cartels make small chemical modifications, making it harder to control. fentanyl is popular with illicit labs because it is cheaper and easier to manufacture than heroin, it is more addicting and fatal. it is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. if you go to the dea website, you can go to a picture of a penny, just a small little fleck of fentanyl is enough to kill you. it is being laced into all types of drugs. our prosecutors back in ohio, i am hearing from them, they are putting antonello into marijuana

and other types of drugs. it is making it much more stronger and dangerous. it is heartbreaking, i have two different large events, and when we listen to the parents that lost children because of these drugs, we have to act. kimberly, age nine, alexander, 14, haley, 20, zachary, 17, it is time to act. these are just some of the faces of the fentanyl crisis, and they deserve justice. and their families deserve justice. and that's why we got to act, and that is why we are working hard on our side of the aisle. at this time i'd like to turn things over to my good friend morgan griffith from virginia. >> in 2020, my state of virginia

in a tragic milestone. fatal drug overdoses in all-time high. fentanyl and its analogues caused or contributed to 71.8% of those deaths. statistics for this year indicate that 2021 may surpass that heartbreaking of overdose deaths. we know that fentanyl related substances contribute to overdosing deaths, but under current law their temporary placement into schedule one expires in february. our bill that we are introducing today would make that scheduling permanent. but our bill doesn't stop there, it streamlines fentanyl and logs --analog so we can better understand the substances. at a recent hearing on the hill, we heard testimony that there could be as many as 4800

fentanyl analogues. we have data with our labs on fewer than 30 of those analogues. in other words, pure than 1% of them. now our bill makes this permanent that they are schedule one. but it also has a component that i feel strongly about this as we are going to research and find out what we can so that we can then figure out whether there are some analogues that may be beneficial. the witness testified that they had examined a few others, and of those 25 there were a couple that were inert. there was one that had potential and needs more research because it blocks the mu opioid receptor in the brain. that means is if we do the research, we keep it in the schedule one until we find out something positive.

what that means is that particular analog might actually block the receptors in the brain, so if someone had gotten a hold of an analogue that can cause death, like narcan we could put that in and keep from dying. you might say, why do we need to worry about this? and the problem is, the mexicans and the chinese are cooking up these ingredients. weave medalist, i think you mentioned this earlier, if we make a list and you only have certain items, they are only going to find an analogue that is just as powerful and deadly as the one that is already out there. we have looked at about 30, there is 4800 of them. we need to make it clear that we are trying to protect lives in the united states. we need to make it clear that if you are bringing the stuff over and we catch you, you can't have the latest analog that you have all experimented with in your

labs in mexico and china and then bring that stuff in and think you are going to avoid the punishment of the american law. we need to do that. this is an extremely important bill, i'm really excited to be one of the leads on this because one, we are protecting americans, and two we are promoting research. one of the things we have done in the past is but things on schedule one and not researched it. it's got to be done in the way we have set it up so we have protections in there. but until we find something good, he needs to be legal. -- it needs to be illegal. i'm going to turn it over to the web, steve scalise. -- whip, steve scalise. >> thank you for your work on addressing the opioid crisis. it is a direct result of president biden's open borders.

border crises have led to many other crises, but especially when we see this infusion of rugs drug --drugs coming across our open border. it has made every community in america a border town now, because the crisis at the border is affecting every community in america. there is not one of the 435 house members that have not been affected by deaths from opiates coming over the border. and when we talk about the devastating statistic that there are enough drugs to kill every american seven times, these are real people that are dying in our communities and present body to step up and secure our border, it is a national offense issue, it is a life-and-death issue that he is allowing an open border that is allowing all of these illegal drugs to come into our country and kill our young people at alarming numbers. i do want to point out something

important that happened last night, the passage of the national defense authorization act. maybe one of the rare moments were congress, republicans and democrats came together to make sure we are taking care of our men and women in uniform. i want to applaud mike rogers, a ranking member, or helping secure important wins, including a pay raise for troops that is much needed, especially in these days of high inflation, and there was a pay raise for troops included in that bill along with some other important victories. at get -- it gets lost sometimes, but we were able to come together last night for our men and women in uniform. i wish we were able to have some of those same bipartisan efforts on some of the other crises that are facing our country. unfortunately, speaker pelosi will not work with republicans to address the inflation crisis that is causing the cost of

goods to offer summary families -- for so many families. they are paying dramatically more when they go to the grocery store, 20% or more for the food they are buying. we all know the problem with the gasoline and energy crisis where you are paying 60% more for gasoline, and many families cannot afford to fill up their tank. president biden has created these crises and it is affecting hard-working families all across the country. congress needs to do with these and it is a shame speaker pelosi will not bring these to the floor to address those crises, in fact going in the opposite direction by continuing to bring bills to spend trillions more dollars as we saw with the bill last week to continue raising taxes and spending more money that is driving inflation even higher. with that, i will open it up to questions. >> there are republicans who are

concerned about handling the debt ceiling, the former president came down pretty hard on mitch mcconnell on this, did mitch mcconnell give up leverage ? >> let's keep in mind the debt ceiling is in a such devastating position because democrats have spent trillions already on things like, that $1.9 trillion spending bill that had nothing to do with covid but bailing out failed states and giving people money not to work. when donald trump was president, there were three different budget cap and spending and debt cap agreements that were reached between trump and speaker pelosi. you had a time when republicans

and democrats work together to determine whether the spending caps we should have to control spending in washington and deal with the debt that goes with it? that has happened at all this year, democrats have been on a reckless spending spree, and not once have they sat with republicans to do with the debt that they are wrecking up. families know this every day, because if they are maxing out their credit card, they do not just apply for more and send a bill to their kids, they figure out how to put a limit on spending. that hasn't happened in washington. whether you look at how the senate is going to handle it, the real problem is that democrats from joe biden to plessis to chuck schumer have not sat down with republicans to have those agreements on how to limit spending. they want to keep spending more money, which shows you that have not paid attention to what order set in states like virginia, but also in new york and new jersey.

they want to get control over, because families know it is driving inflation. >> did mitch mcconnell give up leverage here? >> you can talk about where the leverage is to fix it. the leverage would start by having democrats admitting there is a problem and being willing to work on it. they control everything right now, they have the senate and the white house, they created this debt crisis and they refuse to acknowledge let alone accent. -- fix it. >> representative skill ease, this is a question for you, if the republicans win back the house in 2022, would you be in favor of having former president trump? >> we are not measuring drapes

or figuring out who will have titles, we are working to save our country and limit the damage. we are working very aggressively to recruit candidates, raising money is a big part of that. we have a lot of those candidates in town today. we are working to win the house back. but anybody who starts trying to measure the drapes or figure out where they're going to put the trophy usually does not get it because they are not focused on the right and. -- things. >> we are working to earn authority from the american people. the past election, democrats are losing the support of the american people, including the overwhelming wins by republican candidates. and it has been an honor to work

with presented carthy and scully's cap -- representative mccarthy and scalise. >> d believe that the continents --do you believe that the comment by representative boebert artwork -- were wrong? >> she has apologized. i don't know if i have seen democrats apologized for their statements. lauren has apologized for what she said. the democrats don't even as their own members to apologize for things that were said, let alone go after the their members. they wanted to be a one-sided thing, and i think that hypocrisy is showing. let them call out what they see wrong as we do. but when a member apologizes, i think you ought to respect and

appreciate that and ultimately call for a higher standard. but it starts with the members themselves acknowledging they said something to come and apologize for it. >> do you think january 6 was a falsified -- false flag?