7-18-25 BOB LATTA - HALT FENTANYL LAW

Fifth District Congressman Bob Latta joined the program to discuss the new law which he co-sponsored. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're visiting now with fifth District Congressman Bob Lada. Of course,
this week he was standing beside the President as he
signed a bill in the law that Bob was a
co sponsor of, the Halt Fentanyl Bill, And Bob, I guess,
first of all, congratulations, some satisfaction. I'm sure on your part.
This was a long time coming, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, thanks very much. It certainly was Morgan Griffiths from
the state of Virginia, and I've been working on this
piece of legislation for over five years and it's really
really important because you know, we've just gone back with
the last five years, we've had over about three hundred
and twenty five thousand people die in this country because
of fentanyl. And fentanyl, as we know, has been flowing

(00:44):
across our southern border has been wide open, and it's
been getting into this country and comes from communist China,
and they mixed the drug mix the chemicals up in
Mexico and the cartels pressing into the pills and people
get him in this country thinking that online you're thinking
it's one thing or another and just two milligrams of

(01:05):
fentanyl will kill you. And so what this legislation does
it says that fentanyl related substances are now always going
to be a Schedule one drug. So that means that
those penalties for having that drug is a maximum, oh sorry,

(01:26):
a minimum maximum of ten years. So we want to
make sure that we're coming down on this because too
many Americans have died in such a short period of time.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Bob, besides the natural grist in the gears in Washington,
why in the world did a bill that seems so
common sense ole takes so long to get done? Is
there a lot of other things in this bill? What
was the hold up?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well? And part of it is is that the Democrats
don't like maximum and maximum minimums on their un sentencing.
And when I know on the floor when they were
saying they didn't like the bill and they didn't want
to go forward. But one of the things I pointed
out was this very simple fact, when you look at
the amount of fentanyl that will get you ten years,

(02:14):
it will kill fifty thousand people. And I said, you know,
if we can't say that something that possesses that amount
of fentanyl should not be imprisoned for ten years because
he could kill fifty thousand people with it. That was
part of the big problem that we had.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
As an other part of this, the fentanyl is sort
of new on the in the pantheon of hard drugs
and that so this isn't a classic old school thing, right,
this came on the scene more recently.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, you know, it's just like these like I said
that the drugs or the chemicals are coming in from
communist China. You know, President Trump, you know, you know,
put tariffs out there, especially on Mexico because you know
about what was happening on the southern border. But when
you look at the you know, when you have, especially
during the Biden administration, just a wide open border, what

(03:09):
the cartels would do. Of course, people pay them thousands
of dollars, in some cases ten thousands of dollars to
get them up to the border. Those cartels would run
about one hundred, one hundred and fifty people into one spot,
so of course all of the border patrol people would
have to go to that one spot. And at the
same time upriver they're running the drugs across. And that's

(03:34):
this has been a horrible situation we've had down there.
And so we you know, again by strengthening the border,
like the President's done. That gives the Border patrol the
ability to do what they want to do, patrol the
border and not just have people come up and say
ice surrender and come into the country illegally.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Bob, Clearly, this is something that we hope will save
lives and maybe dissuade some of the trafficking. But what
can be done on the other side of this, in
other words of keeping it out of the country or
seizing it or that sort of thing. What other things
might be in the works, Well.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
The big one is the border patrol. And again, you
know when I was you know, you and I have
talked in the past. I've been down the border for
on four different occasions. Really, now there's no reason to
go to the border because when you look at it's
almost become zero, as the President brought up yesterday with
asylum cases at the border, that is unbelievable. So, but

(04:36):
the big part of it is, again is now border
because a couple of things, you know, under the big
beautiful Bill, we're going to get more money for that
southern border to make sure they can keep working on
making sure we can complete that wall. Number two, give
the Border patrol more assets down there and so by
having these assets again, they did not want to be

(04:56):
just you know, sitting at a desk all day long
processing people coming streaming across the border because of the
Biden's open border policy. So now you know there is
a there was a time, and I know they they
said that. And when you know a couple hundred miles
stretch that one group of border patrol had, they were
only out patrolling about three miles of it every day.

(05:19):
So now they can really concentrate on doing what they
want to do is protect that border.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
That's what District Congressman Bob lad up. Bob, we appreciate
your time.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Well, thanks so much, and have a wonderful day.