GOP lawmakers skeptical about voting on border deal before Christmas as Dems threaten to delay break
A group of bipartisan negotiators are trying to strike a deal of adding stronger border security provisions to the billion-dollar national security supplemental request from the White House. However, even if a deal is reached, it is unlikely Congress will give it the stamp of approval before January. “I don’t know that we got enough time to process if the deal came together,” Sen. Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Wednesday. “You still got to write it… these are all concepts right now.” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., posted to X, saying that lawmakers still need to determine whether the bill will actually solve problems at the border, and whether it will have any momentum in the House. “The small group negotiating a ‘deal’ in secret may reach agreement among themselves, but then we will need time to review it and determine whether it will actually solve the problem and has any chance of passing in the House,” Rubio wrote Thursday morning. “Anyone who thinks we can do all that before the end of the year is delusional,” he said. REPUBLICANS SEE PROGRESS IN BORDER TALKS, BUT UNCLEAR IF DEAL WITHIN REACH AS CRISIS RAGES Talks have been ongoing with senators and Biden administration officials this week, as Republicans have refused to pass some $60 billion in additional aid to Ukraine unless it is tied to strict border security measures, such as immediate screenings for asylum processing and quicker expulsions for illegal entrants. The total amount of supplemental aid the White House first requested in October amounts to roughly $106 billion and includes $14 billion to assist Israel. Lawmakers in the upper chamber were expected to recess Thursday, but Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., filed cloture votes on several judicial nominees late Wednesday night to keep the Senate in session at least until Friday. An extra day is crucial for GOP lawmakers to continue negotiations if they want a chance to pass significant border reforms, as the crisis rages at the southern border. However, Schumer indicated that negotiations could continue even into next week. “To my Republican colleagues who have said action on the board was urgent, let’s keep working to find a solution instead of rushing for the exits,” Schumer said on the floor Thursday morning. “If Republicans are serious about getting something done, they should not be so eager to go home. This may be our last best chance to get this legislation done.” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla, one of the lead negotiators for the GOP, said Thursday they are “making progress,” but the White House still has not made an official offer in writing. MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS AGAIN TOP 10K IN SINGLE DAY AS LAWMAKERS EYE NEW BORDER LIMITS Lankford said earlier in the week to reporters that “there’s no paper at all, so that’s what we’ve been trying to move to, how we get some paper and other things finalized.” Meanwhile, progressives are urging the lead Democrat negotiator, Sen. Chris Murphy, not to agree to any Republican terms in the package. “It should be no surprise to anybody that there are a lot of Democrats who are not going to be happy about some things that are being discussed,” Murphy told reporters Wednesday. “We’re not there yet, but we continue to head in the right direction,” he said. “And I think it’s more reason for everybody to stay in town, get this done.” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also told reporters Thursday she was “hopeful” for a deal to be reached, and that some lawmakers are “looking to be back here next week to permit that.” The administration was reportedly open to a nationwide expansion of expedited removal, which allows for recently entered migrants to be quickly removed if they do not meet the initial asylum standard. Rapid expulsions are currently only being used near the border. CBS reported this week that the White House was willing to mandate the detention of certain migrants as their claims are considered, as well as a new Title 42-style authority. Title 42 was the COVID-era order that allowed for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the southern border until the Biden administration ended the policy in May. Even if a deal is reached, however, it is unclear if congressional leaders will have time to pass it before Christmas, especially if it does not include hardline conservative demands that would gain approval in the GOP-led House and put a serious halt on migrants entering the U.S. 5,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS RELEASED EVERY DAY INTO US, ADMIN OFFICIALS PRIVATELY TELL LAWMAKERS Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday “the last thing that we can do is allow Schumer in the White House to pass a bipartisan deal with the Senate that never becomes law.” “That’s what they want,” he said. “So their strategy is to pass something in the Senate that never becomes law, that hangs us out to dry, it hangs Speaker Johnson and my friends in the House out to dry. We as Republicans cannot move forward on a secure the border bill, unless it gets a majority of the majority of the Republican senators.” “I think from a negotiating standpoint, it’s time to tell them to go to hell and walk out,” he added. Meanwhile, Fox News reported that Tuesday saw another day in which overwhelmed officials at the border encountered more than 10,000 migrants in a single day. Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
Photos: South Korea island is a field of dreams for young baseball hopefuls
Dreaming of making it big in baseball, teenage brothers An Seung-han and An Seung-young travelled hundreds of kilometres away from home to remote Deokjeok Island, where the sport and their team are now the closest thing they have to a family. The boys are among a few dozen teenagers who have left the bright lights of some of South Korea’s biggest cities to join a specialised sports academy set up by Kim Hak-yong, former manager of the elite Dongguk University team, which has produced scores of players in the national KBO major league. “If I work hard here, I can be a main player, so I’m working even harder. If I keep doing well, I can also become a professional baseball player,” 16-year-old Seung-young, the younger brother, said during a training session. In addition to helping the boys achieve their dreams, the sports academy has breathed life into Deokjeok, which was struggling to retain and attract youngsters like many other rural areas in the world’s most rapidly ageing society. The island has a population of 1,800, the majority of them elderly. Last year, it was on the brink of losing its last school under a nationwide school board guideline that stipulates closures if the number of students falls below 60. That has now changed, thanks to Kim and his friend Chang Kwang-ho, manager of the Deokjeok High School baseball team. “The players who come here come with an amazing mindset. You don’t come here unless you’re willing to give up everything,” Chang said. Although the island is less than two hours away by ferry from the city of Incheon, it remains quite isolated from the mainland and is much less developed. Adblock test (Why?)
Analysis: Russia’s tiny, Pyrrhic advances in Ukraine’s east
Kyiv, Ukraine – Russian forces are close to rolling into a Ukrainian stronghold of immense strategic and symbolic importance. Troops have almost surrounded Avdiivka, a southeastern town which has been nearly razed to the ground after almost a decade of assaults by pro-Moscow separatist fighters. The town is strewn with craters from explosions, burned-out armoured vehicles and the uncollected bodies of Russian soldiers and separatists who doubled their efforts in October. Avdiivka is just 20km (12 miles) north of the separatist capital of Donetsk and is crucial to the Kremlin’s objective of seizing the entire southeastern Donbas region that has been partly controlled by rebels since 2014. The Kremlin shifted to this strategy a year ago after its blitzkrieg to conquer all of Ukraine failed and its forces withdrew from around Kyiv and most of Ukraine’s north. But Kyiv’s long-awaited summer counteroffensive to regain areas lost to Russia last year hasn’t yielded tangible results. Ukrainian forces lack air support and medium-range missiles to disrupt Russian supply lines and break through heavily fortified Russian defence installations along the crescent-shaped, 1,000km-long front line. Counterattacking Ukrainian forces largely consist of recently trained servicemen who replaced dead and wounded veterans. They lack battlefield cohesion and, because of their inexperience, had not expected to encounter thousands of kilometres of newly built Russian trenches and tunnels, some of which lie 30 metres (33 yards) underground. Moscow has also deployed hundreds of thousands of newly mobilised servicemen to man the defence lines and plant up to five landmines per single square metre of no-man’s land. As a result, Ukrainian forces have failed to achieve their goal of reaching the Sea of Azov and cutting off Russia’s “land bridge” to the annexed Crimean peninsula amid heavy, debilitating losses of manpower and weaponry, including Western-supplied armoured vehicles. Ukraine’s top military analyst warned that in the freezing winter months, the nation’s military will have to circle the wagons and focus on defence as they re-evaluate next year’s offence strategy with Western allies, increase domestic production of weaponry and mobilise tens of thousands more men. “These days, we are focusing on switching to defence, and, to boost its effectiveness, to equipping and mining the most threatening [front-line] areas and use this time to amass resources,” Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told Al Jazeera. He and other analysts blame Ukraine’s failures on delays in supplies of Western weaponry as well as Russia’s prowess in the large-scale use of unmanned aerial vehicles, especially the FPV (first-person view) kamikaze drones. These inexpensive camera-equipped drones carry tiny explosives and can get into manholes or open hatches of armoured vehicles – all while their pilots operate them from safe hideouts. This year, Russia began the massive industrial production of FPV drones, while Ukraine still largely relies on the output of makeshift workshops, the numbers of which have mushroomed around the nation and where volunteers retrofit Chinese-made models. “This year, [Russians] managed to catch up with us and go ahead of us, and to produce large quantities of unmanned aerial vehicles,” Romanenko said. However, some analysts claim the advantages of FPV drones are somewhat exaggerated. “They’re cheaper and more simple, but also less effective in comparison with high-precision means of destruction, including advanced kinds of loitering munitions,” Pavel Luzin, a visiting scholar at Boston’s Tufts University, told Al Jazeera. Ukrainian soldiers walk through the crater-ridden town of Avdiivka, which is now almost surrounded by Russian forces, on December 7, 2023 [Kostya Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images] Taking The Chemist To take over Avdiivka, Russian forces have to seize The Chemist, a district named after a nearby plant, according to Rybar, a pro-Russian Telegram channel. “This will let them bisect the Ukrainian grouping in Avdiivka, to break the unified system of defence and to significantly simplify the storming of the entire defence site,” Rybar, a primary source of news on the Russian offensive, posted on Monday. Moscow needs to take Avdiivka for publicity purposes. Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that he will run in the 2024 election and needs a victory that the Kremlin-controlled media can trumpet. “Putin needs such a victory ahead of the vote considering that the situation on the front lines is in a limbo for both sides,” Kyiv-based analyst Igar Tyshkevich told Al Jazeera. The Kremlin and its top brass largely ignore the plight of their servicemen who reach the front lines after no or next-to-no training and have been dying in droves. “To trudge two kilometres across the forest only to jump a machine gun and die within two seconds is the real-life story of a Russian stormtrooper,” a Ukrainian serviceman wrote on Telegram in August. This has led to catastrophic losses. Some 315,000 Russian servicemen have been killed or wounded since the war began in February 2022, amounting to 87 percent of Moscow’s active-duty ground troops, according to a declassified US military assessment released on Tuesday. Apart from the incessant storming of Avdiivka, Russian forces also intend to advance on other key areas of the eastern front – the towns of Kupiansk, Lyman and Bakhmut. The latter was taken over in May, mostly by Wagner mercenaries leading thousands of Russian prisoners who signed up for military service in exchange for a presidential pardon in what became known as “meat marches”. Over the following months, Ukraine retook key positions around Bakhmut – and Russians are dying in a bid to take them back. But real military triumphs are just not on the cards for Moscow, another analyst said. “One should not expect any breakthroughs for Russian forces. They hit in various directions, just a little. Spend the ammo they amassed, as well as contract soldiers and [recruited] inmates,” Nikolay Mitrokhin of Germany’s Bremen University told Al Jazeera. Russian forces may manage to seize Avdiivka, are likely to restore their positions around Bakhmut and improve their logistics by crossing the Zherebets river near Lyman, he said. “Russia will consider [these steps] the winter campaign’s
What’s an impeachment inquiry and what’s next for President Joe Biden?
The Republican-led United States House of Representatives has voted to formally authorise its impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Up until this point, the House had not had enough votes to legitimise the ongoing inquiry, but on Wednesday, lawmakers voted 221-212 in favour, with every Republican voting for it and every member of Biden’s Democratic Party against. The decision to hold a vote came as Republican Speaker Mike Johnson and his team faced growing pressure to demonstrate progress in what has become a nearly yearlong probe into the business dealings of Biden’s family members. The vote took place hours after his son Hunter Biden defied a congressional subpoena by failing to appear for a private deposition at the House of Representatives. He refused to testify behind closed doors, saying he would testify only in public because he feared his words would otherwise be misrepresented. Here is what you need to know: What is an impeachment inquiry? An impeachment inquiry is a formal investigation into possible wrongdoing by a federal official, such as the president, cabinet officials or judges. The process is written into the US Constitution and is the most powerful check that Congress has on the executive branch. It is a first step towards a potential impeachment, which means essentially that charges are brought against an official. The US founders included impeachment in the constitution as an option for the removal of presidents, vice presidents and civil officers. Under the constitution, they can be removed from office for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours”. While the House of Representatives wields the power to impeach an official, only the Senate has the ability to convict and remove an individual from office. This played out recently when former President Donald Trump was impeached twice by the House but acquitted in the Senate. To date, no president has ever been forced out of the White House through impeachment, but Joe Biden is the eighth president to face an impeachment inquiry. Only three other presidents have been impeached after an inquiry: Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Trump. From left, former US Presidents Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson [File: AP] Why is this happening now? The House of Representatives started an impeachment inquiry in September, but the process has now been formalised. In November, a top White House attorney claimed the investigation was illegitimate because the House had not yet formalised the impeachment inquiry through a vote. The White House questioned the legal and constitutional basis for the Republican lawmakers’ requests for information. The constitution does not require a vote to start an impeachment inquiry, and neither do the rules governing the House, but authorising resolutions have been passed in previous presidential impeachments. Most of the Republicans who were initially reluctant to back the impeachment push due to the lack of concrete evidence against the president have also been swayed by their leadership’s more recent argument that authorising the inquiry will give them better legal standing and would convince the White House to cooperate fully in the investigation by providing more information. “This vote is not a vote to impeach President Biden,” Johnson said at a news conference on Tuesday. “This is a vote to continue the inquiry of impeachment. … I believe we’ll get every vote that we have.” Congressional investigators have already obtained nearly 40,000 pages of subpoenaed bank records and dozens of hours of testimony from key witnesses, including from several high-ranking Department of Justice officials currently tasked with investigating Hunter Biden. Is there enough evidence against Joe Biden? Republicans have accused the president and his family of profiting from his time as vice president from 2009 to 2017 and have zeroed in on his son’s business activities. Conservatives accuse Hunter Biden of “influence peddling”, effectively trading on the family name in “pay-to-play” schemes in his business dealings in Ukraine and China. They have pointed to an FBI document from 2020 in which an informant claims the head of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm that included Hunter Biden on its board of directors, said: “It cost 5 (million) to pay one Biden, and 5 (million) to another Biden.” This bribery claim relates to the Republican allegation that President Biden pressured Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor to stop an investigation into Burisma. Democrats have reiterated that the Justice Department investigated the Burisma claim when Trump was president and closed the matter after eight months, finding “insufficient evidence” to pursue it further. The head of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, has said nobody from the company had any contact with Joe Biden or his staff and that the elder Biden “did not help the firm”. Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, speaks at a news conference outside the US Capitol on December 13, 2023 [Reuters] Devon Archer, a business associate of Hunter Biden, told the House Oversight Committee in July that the younger Biden had sought to create “an illusion of access to his father” and put his father on the phone with foreign associates “maybe 20 times” over the course of about 10 years. Archer said those conversations did not involve any business dealings, however, and he was not aware of any wrongdoing by President Biden. Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, arrives for a deposition before the House Oversight Committee in Washington [File: Kevin Wurm/Reuters] Hunter Biden faces an array of legal woes. In September, prosecutors with US Special Counsel David Weiss’s office charged him with making false statements about illegal drug use while buying a firearm. And last week, a grand jury indicted Hunter Biden for tax offences. He has pleaded not guilty to the three federal gun charges, and his lawyer says he has paid his taxes in full. “There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business because it did not happen,” Hunter Biden told reporters outside the US Capitol on Wednesday. After he defied their subpoena, members of the House Oversight
Ramaswamy to unveil trucking policy at Iowa 80, the ‘World’s Largest Truckstop’
FIRST ON FOX: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will be unveiling his trucking policy next week at Iowa 80, famously dubbed the “World’s Largest Truckstop.” “Truckers are a crucial link in the American supply chain that power America’s economy. They’re not just haulers of goods — they’re the guardians of freedom on our highways. Last year, we watched as the ‘Freedom Convoy’ in Canada unmasked the perils of government overreach – speech was censored, peaceful protesters were arrested, and big banks froze personal funds,” Ramaswamy said in a press release first obtained by Fox News Digital. “Those Canadian truckers taught the world a valuable lesson about the power of civil protest against an out-of-control totalitarian government.” “On Thursday, Dec. 21, join me at Iowa 80, the World’s Largest Truckstop, where I will lay out my detailed plan for how we support our truckers and ensure freedom for all,” he said. RAMASWAMY SWIPES ‘GOP ESTABLISHMENT’ IN IOWA FOR SUPPORTING CO2 PIPELINES AS PART OF CLIMATE ‘HOAX’ Ramaswamy will be joined by officials from CDL (commercial driver’s license) Drivers Unlimited, the group representing roughly 4.7 million CDL drivers in the U.S., according to the campaign. In an outline of his trucking policy, Ramaswamy says he will direct his Department of Transportation (DOT) and its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to focus on “promoting driver retention” rather than driver recruitment for “economic efficency,” citing a 2019 study showing a whopping 91% turnover rate among CDL drivers including changes between carriers. Ramaswamy vows his administration will “promote driver safety through comprehensive mental health policies, truck parking safety, and common-sense hours of service regulation.” He also intends to combat efforts on a state level to “limit the freedom of CDL drivers as independent contractors and use investigatory power to crack down on broker fraud.” RAMASWAMY LAUNCHES $1 MILLION AD BUY IN EARLY PRIMARY STATES BLASTING POLITICIANS ‘LEADING US INTO WORLD WAR III’ Ramaswamy is hoping to defy expectations at the Iowa Caucus next month as he vies for the GOP nomination. The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows the biotech entrepreneur trailing at 5.3% behind former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at 15.7%, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 19.7% and former President Trump, who continues to dominate the field with a whopping 50% support among primary voters. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
House passes annual defense bill with extension of controversial surveillance tool
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved Congress’s annual defense policy bill just before leaving Washington for the holidays. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2024 passed 310 to 118, with a majority of Republicans and Democrats voting for it. In addition to laying out the next year’s Pentagon policy priorities, this year’s bill also includes an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) Section 702, a tool that allows the intelligence community to spy on foreign nationals outside the U.S. without a warrant, even if the person on the other side of their communications is an American citizen. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Just 1 in 4 Michigan Democrats enthusiastic about Biden being the nominee: poll
President Biden is experiencing a collapse in enthusiasm among Democratic voters in Michigan, according to a new poll. Just 27% of Democrats in the Great Lake State say there are “enthusiastic” for Biden as their party’s presidential nominee, according to the Washington Post-Monmouth poll. Approximately 51% of Democratic voters in the state say they would be “satisfied” with Biden as the Democratic nominee, and 19% say they would be “dissatisfied” or “upset.” HUNTER BIDEN FACES BACKLASH AFTER DEFYING SUBPOENA WITH PRESS CONFERENCE ‘STUNT’: ‘HOLD HIM IN CONTEMPT’ By contrast, approximately 45% of Michigan Republicans report being “enthusiastic” about former President Trump as their party’s nominee. Approximately 31% of GOP voters in the state say they would be “satisfied” to have Trump as the Republican presidential nominee in 2024. About 21% of Michigan Republicans say they would be “unsatisfied” or “upset” with Trump leading the party into the election. SUPPORT FOR BIDEN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY GROWS WITH A NOTABLE LEVEL OF DEMOCRAT BACKING: POLL The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that Americans are increasingly unsatisfied with the prospect of a Biden-Trump rematch in 2024. Approximately 56% of U.S. adults report they would feel “very” or “somewhat” dissatisfied with Biden as the Democratic nominee. Meanwhile, about 58% of U.S. adults say they would feel dissatisfied with Trump representing the GOP. Approximately 42% of respondents said they view Biden favorably, compared to 36% for Trump. The Post-Monmouth poll surveyed 1,066 potential voters in Michigan between Dec. 7 and Dec. 11. Its reported margin of error is +/-4.4%. The Associated Press-NORC poll surveyed 1,074 US adults selected via the NORC’s AmeriSpeak Panel. It was conducted between Nov. 30 and Dec. 4 and reports a margin of error of +/-4%.
Suspension of democracy: Congress slams centre over suspension of opposition MPs
Congress on Thursday termed as a “murder of democracy” the suspension of opposition MPs and alleged that the BJP government has reduced Parliament to a “rubber stamp”.
Lesley Wolf, prosecutor accused of working to ‘limit’ questions about ‘big guy’ in Hunter probe, out at DOJ
The assistant U.S. attorney who was accused of limiting questions related to President Biden during the federal investigation into Hunter Biden is no longer employed by the Justice Department, Fox News has learned. Lesley Wolf, who served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware, is no longer with the DOJ, according to a source familiar with the situation. The source said Wolf had longstanding plans to leave the Department of Justice and did so weeks ago. Wolf, who IRS whistleblowers claimed slow-walked the Hunter Biden investigation, is expected to be deposed at the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning. Specifically, IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley alleged that Wolf worked to “limit” questioning related to President Biden and apparent references to Biden as “dad” or “the big guy.” This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Senate report sounds alarm on surge in fentanyl deaths among older Americans: ‘Silent epidemic’
FIRST ON FOX: A new Senate report is sounding the alarm about a surge in deaths from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl among older Americans – as the U.S. continues to grapple with the danger of the drug, which is primarily smuggled in across the southern border. The report, “The Silent Epidemic: Fentanyl and Older Americans,” is authored by Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., the ranking member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging, and looks at the increase in overdose deaths among older Americans. “Among Americans 65 and older, overdose deaths quadrupled across the last two decades, and there’s increasing evidence that synthetic drugs like fentanyl are adding to these fatalities,” the report says. DHS WARNS MEXICAN-PRODUCED DRUGS LIKE FENTANYL LIKELY TO KILL MORE AMERICANS THAN ANY OTHER THREAT The report cites statistics showing that overdose deaths from synthetic opioids increased by 53% in a single year. Over 79,000 Americans 55 and older died from an opioid overdose between 1999 and 2019, with the rate of overdose deaths increasing from 3 per 100,000 in 2002 to 12 per 100,000 in 2021. Fentanyl deaths have been plaguing the U.S. for years, with tens of thousands of deaths a year. Of the over 107,000 overdose deaths in 2021, 75% involved an opioid, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC.) Illicit fentanyl is predominantly made in Mexico using Chinese precursors and then smuggled across the southern border, both through the ports of entry and between them. Seizures of the drug by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have skyrocketed in recent years, which the Biden administration has said is due to better screening and technology that it has installed at ports of entry. But Republicans have said it is due to an increase in attempts as a result of the border crisis – meaning more of the drug could be getting through. Overdose deaths come primarily from Americans unknowingly taking pills or drugs laced with fentanyl, which can be fatal in tiny doses and is 50 times stronger than heroin. “Older Americans susceptible to overdoses on synthetics are often long-term, stable users whose drugs become infected by synthetics or people who turn to black-market prescription drugs due to cost or to supplement their demand for medication after being cut off from legal channels,” the report says. BORDER PATROL SEIZED ENOUGH FENTANYL TO KILL ENTIRE US POPULATION THIS FISCAL YEAR It found that Black men 55 and older have an opioid overdose rate four times larger than the same overall same-age rate, and that in Washington, D.C., between 2017 and 2022, 72% of opioid overdose deaths were among older Americans. The study says that information, research and data on substance use among older Americans is limiting, in turn affecting policy responses. “This has led to prevention messaging for older adults that still reflects traditional concerns about prescription opioid misuse but does not focus on synthetics like fentanyl increasingly infecting drugs taken by older Americans,” it says. WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL $450 MILLION IN FUNDING TO FIGHT OPIOID EPIDEMIC “There is a pressing need to rethink how and why older Americans are impacted by substance use, reduce stigma, and raise awareness about growing substance use among older populations,” it says. “There is also a pressing need to address the fentanyl crisis at its source.” The report recommends encouraging greater awareness among seniors, including making them aware that synthetics are extremely lethal and increasingly found in drugs like Oxycodone, Xanax and Adderall. It also says there should be more research and data to understand the scale of the impact on older Americans, including greater coordination between state and federal governments. Braun, who has also authored legislation to impose penalties, including the death penalty, on drug traffickers, also criticized what he called a “minimalist border security policy” by the Biden administration. “We often talk about fentanyl becoming the number one killer of young people, but it’s killing at every age. The silent epidemic of fentanyl flowing from our southern border is robbing our seniors of their golden years,” Braun said in a statement to Fox News Digital. The report’s publication comes ahead of a committee hearing on the matter on Thursday morning, which will see testimony from experts and officials. The Biden administration has touted its own efforts in cracking down on the fentanyl crisis, including investments in technology, recovery, prevention and greater cooperation with other countries to stop smuggling.