01.16.20

McConnell Celebrates Passage of Landmark Trade Deal and Legislation to Fight Illegal Drugs

‘The Senate passed the USMCA, President Trump’s historic new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, by an overwhelming vote of 89 to 10… We also passed another important bill that will keep analogues of the dangerous drug fentanyl designated as Schedule I narcotics. It will keep them appropriately listed among the most dangerous illegal drugs and keep this important tool in the hands of law enforcement.’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding legislative business:

‘The Senate has remained in session this afternoon following the first meeting of our impeachment trial.

‘History will not only remember today for the first steps of the trial. Today was a day of tremendous bipartisan legislative accomplishment for the American people.

‘The Senate passed the USMCA, President Trump’s historic new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, 89 to 10.

‘Now this landmark deal, which experts estimate will add tens of billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and create 176,000 new jobs, is on its way to the White House to be signed into law by the President.

‘This was a major priority for farmers, ranchers, manufacturers, small businesses, and working families across the entire country. Today, the Senate got it done.

‘We also passed another important bill that will keep analogues of the dangerous drug fentanyl designated as Schedule I narcotics. It will keep them appropriately listed among the most dangerous illegal drugs and keep this important tool in the hands of law enforcement.

‘The legislation also preserves mandatory minimum sentences for the criminals who unleash these dangerous poisons on our streets.

‘Law enforcement officials from Kentucky and across the nation had been pleading with Congress for months to keep these tools in place. But our Democratic colleagues had resisted Republican efforts to make these temporary measures permanent.

‘Finally, this week, thanks to Chairman Graham of the Judiciary Committee, we were at least able to get an agreement to prevent these measures from expiring for now.

‘There is a lot more work to do. Fentanyl and these analogues are a plague. They kill more Kentuckians than any other illegal drug – nearly 800 overdose deaths in 2018 alone, just in our state. And the problem is nationwide.

‘So we’re going to stay in this fight and keep working. But today’s victory was an important step.

‘The Senate will next convene on Tuesday.

‘As I discussed this morning, an impeachment trial is just about the most serious business in which the United States Senate can engage.

‘But the founding fathers gave us this task for a reason. They had confidence in the Senate for a reason. They knew this institution could do what was right for our nation.

‘I am confident that we can prove the framers right in the days that lie ahead.’

Related Issues: Law Enforcement, Jobs, USMCA