On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) said that Congress needs to make changes to the IEEPA statute and said that “the fentanyl manufacturing that is on the Mexican side of our border is still a very big problem.”
Stutzman said, “I do think that, we, as Congress, we should take a deep look at the IEEPA statute and say there is a point in time when I think the president does look at what the emergency is — and there are several of them that I think could be argued — that we do have a fiscal situation that’s an emergency, but also a trade situation, and along with the drug traffic that other countries have been using against us as Americans, for the president — whether it’s Republican or Democrat — to utilize if they deem so.”
He added, “I think this is where Congress does need to act and give the executive branch flexibility and ability. The border situation that we saw where we have drugs coming across the border, I was just in Arizona a couple of weeks ago, and the fentanyl manufacturing that is on the Mexican side of our border is still a very big problem. I think that it would be good for us as Congress to take a look at, not only the tariff flexibility for the executive branch, but define those emergencies a little better.”
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