It is refreshing to have an incoming President who takes this threat seriously. The Mexican drug cartels kill tens of thousands of Americans every year with fentanyl. They control vast amounts of territory on the border of the United States and use this control to facilitate the illegal immigration crisis. And I believe they represent the most present, near term, and geologically precarious threat to the United States. 

 

America cannot allow this threat to fester any longer. Joe Biden erased years of progress in combating the cartels by undoing President Trump’s policies enacted during his first term. Thankfully, President Trump is committed to not only re-implementing those policies but strengthening them through executive actions and laws like the ones I am putting forth in Congress. 

 

In order to give President Trump the legal authority to do what is necessary against the cartels, Congress must act. That’s why I am proposing a Select Committee to Combat the Mexican Drug Cartels. 

In a recent op-ed for Fox News, I outline my proposal to create a select committee to target the Mexican drug cartels. It will be the most effective way for Congress to pass the necessary policies to help President Trump carry out his mission against the cartels. 

 

As we have seen with slim majorities in Congress, it is difficult to get most policies to the floor for a vote let alone pass those policies. Too many committees with competing jurisdictions and conflicting priorities jam up Congress into a state of paralysis. We have a finite window of time to muscle meaningful legislation through Congress and to the president’s desk, and we cannot afford delay. 

 

A Select Committee to Combat the Mexican Drug Cartels would speed up the process. We have proven on the Cartel Task Force I chair that when there is a concerted and bipartisan group of lawmakers dedicated to the task of destroying the Mexican Drug Cartels, we can get our work done fairly efficiently. Our Task Force has produced serious policy solutions to combat the drug cartels in a short time period. The draw back of a Task Force is that we have no legislative authority or resources to turn these policy proposals into actual bills that get a vote on the floor. Just as the Select Committee on China passed serious legislation into law combating the Chinese Communist Party, the same will happen under a select committee on the cartels. 

 

I am pushing aggressively for this select committee to be organized at the beginning of this Congress so we can deliver the policy solutions President Trump will be eagerly awaiting the minute he sits down at the Resolute Desk. 

Dan Crenshaw