House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) will bring a local coroner from Louisiana as his guest to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in an attempt to highlight the rise in fentanyl deaths nationwide.
Scalise will bring Dr. Gerald Cvitanovich to the joint session of Congress, hoping to bring attention to the rise in fentanyl smuggling at the southern border, the Louisiana Republican announced Tuesday. Cvitanovich was elected in 2012 as the coroner for Jefferson Parish in southern Louisiana, which is home to about 433,000 people, including Scalise.
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“Dr. Cvitanovich has seen firsthand the disastrous results of the Biden Administration’s open-border immigration policy,” Scalise said in a statement. “Until President Biden takes action, every state is now a border state because he gave control of our southern border to drug cartels and human trafficking organizations.”
Fentanyl overdoses are the leading cause of unnatural deaths in Jefferson Parish, according to Scalise, killing roughly 500 people in 2021 and 2022 — a stark increase from only two deaths in the city from drug overdoses just a decade ago.
Drug overdose deaths have been on the rise nationwide over the last several years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 70,600 people died from a fentanyl overdose in the United States in 2021, which is roughly a 25% increase from the year before.
Federal officials seized more than 50.6 million fentanyl-laced pills and more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder at the southern border in 2022, averaging out to more than 379 million potentially fatal doses, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Republicans have long called on the Biden administration to address the state of security at the southern border, including the smuggling of fentanyl.
Cvitanovich’s attendance at the State of the Union comes as House Republicans are slated to hold hearings on the southern border this week, kick-starting GOP-led investigations into the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Those hearings are expected to feature testimony from a number of witnesses, including local officials from border towns.
Biden is expected to address the fentanyl crisis during his address on Tuesday as part of the four-part “Unity Agenda” that he unveiled during his first State of the Union last year. Biden will highlight his administration’s efforts to stifle the smuggling of fentanyl across the southern border, pointing to a decrease in overdose deaths over the last five months.
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Biden will announce a slate of new actions the administration will take to address the drug smuggling, such as increasing inspection capacity at the southern border as well as working with Congress to implement tougher penalties for fentanyl suppliers. The Biden administration will also seek to expand access to prevention and recovery programs.
Biden is scheduled to give his State of the Union address at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, addressing the joint session of Congress for the first time since Republicans took control of the House in January.
