Fighting fentanyl and protecting Iowans

By Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks

Fentanyl is killing more Americans than any other drug in history. Under Joe Biden, this deadly drug was flooding across our open border, poisoning our communities, and taking lives at record pace. In 2023, more than 74,000 Americans died from synthetic opioid overdoses, many of them young, many of them unknowingly. In Iowa, overdose deaths involving fentanyl continue to rise, leaving heartbreak and devastation in their wake.

This crisis demands action, which is why I’ve made it my mission to fight back and protect Iowans.

Last week, President Trump signed the HALT Fentanyl Act into law, a bill I proudly helped introduce and champion in the House as an original cosponsor. This law gives law enforcement the authority they need to seize deadly fentanyl analogues and finally close the loopholes traffickers have been exploiting.

But stopping fentanyl on the streets is only one piece of the puzzle, we have to stop it online too. That’s why I reintroduced the Cooper Davis and Devin Norring Act, a bipartisan, bicameral bill to crack down on fentanyl sales on social media. Too many young Americans have died after unknowingly purchasing counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl from platforms like Snapchat. This bill requires social media and communication platforms to report illicit fentanyl activity to law enforcement. If a drug dealer is targeting kids online, platforms should not be turning a blind eye, they should be turning them in.

These bills are part of a broader mission to defeat this crisis. I was also proud to support President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which included the strongest border security funding in American history, because we can’t stop fentanyl if we don’t stop it at the border. The bill funds border security agents, surveillance, fencing, and the tools needed to keep this poison out of our communities.

Every parent deserves to know their child will come home safe. Every American deserves protection from a crisis that was unleashed by a reckless open-border agenda. As a physician, I’ve seen the toll of addiction. As your representative, I’m committed to stopping it.

We’re fighting back. We’re saving lives. And we’re just getting started.