WASHINGTON - At today's House Homeland Security Committee markup, Chairman Emeritus Michael McCaul (R-Texas) urged his colleagues to support the Measuring Illicit Fentanyl Trafficking Act, legislation he introduced with Congressman James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) to combat the fentanyl crisis by strengthening information sharing across the Department of Homeland Security and establishing clear metrics for detecting, deterring, and seizing fentanyl. The legislation passed the committee unanimously.

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Remarks as delivered:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank my friend from Virginia for introducing this important legislation. I also want to thank you for this bipartisan markup. In my 22 years [in Congress], chairing this committee and foreign affairs, [I've learned] that is the way it's supposed to be. That's us at our best.

Fentanyl is the number one killer of young Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. My children have witnessed five funerals. One [friend] took fentanyl on Christmas Eve [and] did not wake up on Christmas Day.

Every single day, moms and dads across Texas, and across this entire nation, are burying their children. This isn't just a law enforcement crisis. It's a generational crisis. It's a national security threat to our youth and a moral failure if we do not use every tool at our disposal to crush it.

I was proud to introduce the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which was signed into law, to target illicit supply chains and sanction the dangerous cartels. And it goes after the chemical suppliers in China and money launderers in Mexico.

But stopping the supply abroad is only half the battle. We must be just as coordinated within our own borders, which is why I'm proud to be a co-lead of this bill, the Measuring Illicit Fentanyl Trafficking Act. It's essential to strengthening information sharing across the department and establishing clear performance metrics within the Department of Homeland Security.

I believe that we owe [it] to every single American family that has been shattered by this epidemic to get this thing right. And I want to again thank my colleagues for their bipartisan support on this. And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.