To my knowledge, this is the first time weve had a cabinet member address the drug caucus, and i think the circumstances of even the last few days, make this especially appropriate that we hear from the nations top diplomat on this important topic. Obviously the rising global narcotic epidemic is inflicting the highest rate of casualties. In america alone, more than 70,000 people died of drug overdoses im advised since 2006 mexico has seen 150,000 people murdered we are to when it comes to the International Drug trait. Reflecting on those numbers, it made me think about other National Efforts terrorism emanating from afghanistan, obviously the war in iraq, and the idea we would somehow lose 70,000 and not consider this mart of National Emergency is really staggers. We hope to turn that around. We want to take a holistic approach, as well as expand treatment from those suffering from substance abuse. Today well focus on supply to prevent them from reaching our borders. The current effects cannot be overstated. S in 2018, National Drug assessment reports that drug poisoning deaths remain the leading cause of injury and death in the United States. There currently as i said, the highest level ever recorded have outnumber deaths from fire affirms, motor vehicles, suicide and home side. In 2016, 174 americans died every day from crew overdoses. In my home state of texas, we remain severely impacted in terms of the volume of trafficking and all related mayhem that accompany that is illicit activity. In 20167r 17 approximately half of we related to opioids. Of course the emergence of fentanyl as a significant contributor has skyrocketed in prominence over the last few years, and been the subject of previous hearings of this caucus. I know of efforts, diplomatic efforts with china by the Trump Administration and by you, mr. Secretary, as these numbers indicate, illicit drugs, as well as the transnational and domestic criminal organization that traffic them continue to represent public threats to. While the most evident focus is on the caucus on International Narcotics control is to expand cooperation, those efforts do not occur in a vacuum. I believe we need a comprehensive National Strategy that will focus both on supply, which we are examining here today, and demand. That strategy must also take actions against traz National Criminal organizations that are running rampant and engaging in a broad range of criminal activities. The sinaloa cartel, the ha hisso new generation cartel, and many others may tain a presence also in my state of texas. They specialize in moving vast amounts of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other Illegal Drugs throughout the region. As we know, its not just drugs theyre carrying. As one phrased it recently, he said the commodity ago nottic. In other words theyll traffic in drugs, migrants, human beings for sex slavery, money launders, counterfeit, goods, you name it. The groups are becoming richer and are growing their influence in the United States. And without intervention, their power will only grow. Because we cannot win this fight alone. Our strategy needs to improve, our security with our International Partners, particularly members do. Finally it must invest in Economic Security and promote a stronger and mower stable Central America. Secretary pompeo and the experts on our second panel will shall ed light on the growing epidemic across the globe. I look forward to hearing their testimony and learning how ked with Work Together to find a comprehensive strategy that reduces the flow into the United States and helps could epps our citizens safe. With that, let me turn the microphone over to my cochairman, senator feinstein, for her opening comments. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and welcome, mr. Secretary. This is the first hearing of our caucus in this congress. I think its good news that youre hear, and i look forward to working with you as chairman, senator, and i also want to thank senator grassley for his tenure as chairman, and welcome snowstorm rosen and senator perdue. I think we all know the illicit drug trade in this country is really big business valued at anywhere from 426 to 652 billion. Its reach is global. Its distribution is growing. Its leadership is criminal. Like any business, it adapts to market changes. In this case, u. S. Demand and International Enforcement are the two things, and its motivation is power and profit at any cost. In my state, california, our largest state, the cost was nearly 5,000 lives in 2017. In the United States, our states, it was more than 70,000 lives. Globally the cost only increases. In 2015, the latest year for which data is available defense 450,000 lives. They estimates dont include the lives lost due to the violence associated. This year, 22 countries have been identified as major transit or source countries for illicit drugs. Profits obtained from narcotic production find dangerous cartels, transNational Criminal organizations in mexico, china and countries in central and south america. Their profit margin is only increasing. Last year, more than 133,000 pounds of heroin, cocaine, meth and now fentanyl, where two little grains is enough to kill an individual, were seized in the United States. To date this year, nearly 101,000 pounds of these substances have already been seesed, and were just halfway through the year. Narcotics production funds the insurgency . Afghanistan, the Worlds Largest supplier of illicit opium. The United States does not have a dedicated counternarcotics plan in this country, so i think youre right, mr. Chairman, weve got to get cracking and build one that works. The drug trade fuels staggering levels of violence and crutches. In mexico its estimated that one third to one half of the 33,000 murders committed in 2018 were related to Drug Trafficking. Only 21 of the cases went to trial. The former head of venezuelas military intelligence was recently arrested in spain on Drug Trafficking charges, on a warrant issued by the United States. The global narcotics trade rememberses to address both our own demand issue as well as foreign supply. The state department plays a Critical Role in all of that. So theres much to be done. Im going to stop here. Ill put my full remarks in the record. Thank you so much for coming to the hill to advise us and hopefully to work with this caucus. Thank you, senator feinstein. Mr. Secretary, were grateful, as senator feinstein said, and you may proceed with any Opening Statement you would like to make. Thanks for the opportunity to be here. Im really happy to be here. When you think of the state of department, its not the first thing that comes to the top of ones mind, but within the organization its a true priority for us. Thats why i was so happy to be invited. Ill be brief, because i want a good conversation today. You should aknow, like many of you, this is personal for me. I know many people have been impacted by this set of issues. Just last month there were seven kansans who died, from a single dose of cocaine laced with fentanyl. We all know human lives that have been touched in families that have been ripped apart by this. You know, the state department has a role here, many u. S. Government agencies do. Most of the opioids sold in the United States are manufactured and trafficked into this country from abroad. Thats where our talents and skills and the team comes to bear. We have a clear role here. I want to talk for just a minute about what were doing in a couple aerials. First, weve really focus odd china because of the increase in fentanyl in the last 2 1 2 years in this administration. Purchased online often, and delivered directly to users and dealers through the mail, often shipped through mexico as well. The Justice Department and our interagency departments have been working closely with china. Ive had numerous conversations with them. On may 1st, china fulfilled i pledge to President Trump to develop an enforcement plan for each of them. We need to work closely to foul up on they encouraging signs. There should be new criminal penalties. Im convinced this will shut down labs inside of china and will save lives here in the United States. You know, in latin america the problem is a bit different in nature. Americas do remains a production hub for methamphetamines and other drugs. As recently as last week as part of our conversations about migration, we talked deeply on how we can Work Together. A good deal of the conversation was to your point, senator cornyn, about the traffickers desire to move whatever product will bring a market price that causes them to have an incentive to continue to do the things that disrupt so many lives here in the United States. We will try to take down the enterprises between all of the limits of the United States government. Weve donated equipment to the Mexican Security forces. Weve trained them to eradicate poppies, we provided them sniffing dogs, yet you can see from the data today, many challenges remain. Just hemisphere. I met with president duke multiple occasions. Continued to pledge his strong support to stop Drug Trafficking and reduce coke appeals. There is a lot of work left to do. We are working to get the direction, the magnitude of that problem to turn the corner, to begin to decrease production inside of colombia. We have quadrupled the number of civilian eradicators. While the payoff has not demonstrated the effect we would like, fair to say that colombia has destroyed more cocoa this year than in the same four months of last year. Look, theres a host of other countries, but ive gone on too long. Im happy to take your questions and talk about other things and ill submit the full statement for the record with your permission, senator. Thank you, mr. Secretary. It will be made part of the record without objection. Well start with sixminute rounds and i know the secretary has been very gracious with his time, but we want to make sure that we get him out of here in due course, and we also have a second round of witnesses and we have votes this afternoon. So were going to be kind of busy. Let me just start with this general question that we talked about a little bit in the anteroom. As i think about u. S. Government strategies and plans to deal with everything from narco traffickers to instability in south america in the sense that i think of a planned colombia. And that was the one success story, i believe, even though, as you point out, your conversations with president duque to deal with the eradication issue is very important, and we obviously need to see a reversal of the continued proliferation of coka in colombia. Are there things you think we can learn from colombia we could apply to a broader regional strategy . I know having a Strong Partner like we had with president uribe and also having a bipartisan congressional support, so it did not lapse with each president ial election. Share with us just some of your general thoughts about that, please. Senator core donden, those a important things. The first is to find the right partners. It needs to come from the most senior levels. You talked about president uribe. We have that in many countries weve described. And working through their agencies, not only on the United States side is this response often fragmented, but often fragmented on the trafficking countryside, as well. We could be dealing with immigration authorities, their local and state and federal Law Enforcement officials. And so there has to be a coordination mechanism so that while theres no Silver Bullet, you have all the elements of power, both on the u. S. Side and on the other countrys side, working alongside of each other. I think those are the Building Blocks that allow you to deliver. And then what we were successful in colombia as well was developing a plan that had duration to it. And you talked about needing bipartisan support. Thats important, because we have elections here every couple years. And we change president s from time to time. And these problems elongate far past any particular administration or any particular congress. And so it does take a level of commitment, consistent resources, consistent priorities inside of the u. S. Bureaucracy, inside the United States government. So that the efforts that are put in place arent ripped out, turned 180 degrees each time there is a change in leadership or a change in congress. Mr. Secretary, thats very helpful. Obviously, in terms of our relationship with mexico, i can i also think about the metera initiative, which i know well hear more about from the other witnesses. Some people will say, well, we need to send more money to Central America. Well, to me, thats sort of putting the cart in front of the horse. We need to actually have a plan and be able to tell the American People that, yes, we are sendi assistance to these countries, but its targeted. We have a good way to follow the money and make sure its not being stolen and its being used for the intended purposes. And yes, we have a plan in place, and metrics we can use to measure the success. One of the things that has been discussed is the possibility of a special envoy for this region. Can you tell us within the context of the state department and your experience with the sheri executive branch of government. Do you think Something Like a special envoy for this region would be something we should consider and continue our discussions about . Senator, when you say that, you mean with respect to this set of issues . Yes. Special envoy tasked to handle the broadside of issues, sort of like a planned colombia but more broadly for the region. Is that what youre thinking of . Yes. You know, id have to think it through. I do think, and youve seen the state department where we had particular problems that we prioritized, identify someone to pin the rose on, so to speak. Someone who had both the authority and the responsibility and the accountability connected to bringing all the elements of power together. So that might make sense here. Each of the elements of the United States government has a delivery a deliverable associated with the metrics you describe we need to lay out. Need to be on board with that. Couldnt just be a state Department Special envoy. Someone who had the scope and capacity to command all of the resources connected to this problem set. If we could achieve that, it might well make sense. Well, i hope we can continue the conversation with you and other members of the administration about how to how to accomplish that. The best way to deal with that. I wonder, even though your negotiations yours and the Vice President with the Mexican Foreign minister here recently, conversations that youve had with the president have been mainly focused on the migration issue. Ive been struck as somebody obviously shares a 1,200 border with mexico. Ive followed mexico through my entire career, and i have never seen mexican officials appear to step up and engage as it looks like they are doing now on this Central American migration issue. And i wonder if you could just comment on that, because i think if that is real, and if its enduring, that could be transformational in terms of our relationship not only with mexico, but dealing with all of these issues in mexico and Central America. So could you give us just offer some of your general thoughts about whats changed and how did we get here. And how do we get more of that kind of cooperation. Yeah. So ive been at this for twoandahalf years in my previous role, had connection to working on the tcos. But in this role, have been involved in the migration issue, at least at the diplomatic level, working between the two countries to set up policies or lots of other elements of the United States government that have an important and indeed dispositive roles. You know, when the president raised the specter of the tariff, we made more progress in the course of a couple days than we had been able to make over the course of the proceeding goodness, i guess ive been secretary of state for almost a year and three months now. I think it focused the attention, and of all of us. And made us more willing to set up true metrics, deliverables and a set of policies that i am hopeful will deliver on the outcome that i am convinced president observe dor wants and President Trump wants. To stem the flow of migration, which reduces the ability for traffickers to move drugs. Something the president made clear to me and his team in the course of, goodness, what, twoandahalf days of discussions we had. They were serious about allowing us to do some things they wouldnt let us do before with are respect to the mpp, the migration protocols. Now the task is to deliver that. The task is for both governments to Work Together. I spoke with my foreign secretary cou