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- New Hampshire lawmakers on Friday permitted a request by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu to deploy 15 National Guard volunteers to the Mexican border in Texas.
- The transfer comes after the governor named fentanyl because the Granite State’s most urgent well being disaster.
- “There is no bigger health crisis in the state right now than losing 400-500 people a year, every year for the past 10 years,” Sununu mentioned of the epidemic, noting that New Hampshire has “put a lot of money and a lot of effort into it.”
New Hampshire lawmakers permitted Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s request Friday to send 15 National Guard volunteers to the Texas border with Mexico after he referred to as fentanyl the state’s most critical well being disaster.
Along with a dozen different Republican governors, he traveled to Eagle Pass, Texas, earlier this month to assist Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been in a standoff with the Biden administration since Texas started denying entry to U.S. Border Patrol brokers at a park alongside the Rio Grande. The governors of Montana and Georgia additionally introduced they will assist Texas management unlawful crossings by sending National Guard members, a pattern that started in 2021.
“There is no bigger health crisis in the state right now than losing 400-500 people a year, every year for the past 10 years,” Sununu informed the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Committee. “We’ve put a lot of money and a lot of effort into it. This is less than a million dollars to do something that should’ve been done by somebody else, but they’re unwilling to do it.”
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That “somebody” is President Joe Biden, mentioned Sununu, who mentioned states should step up and assist Texas. “The states are going to do what we do best, we’re going to stand up and protect our citizens.”
Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu waves within the leadup to his ultimate State of the State deal with on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Concord, New Hampshire. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Democrats on the committee blamed Republicans for torpedoing a bipartisan border safety plan in Congress.
“The real issue is the Congress funding what they should be funding to protect the southern border,” mentioned Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, a Democrat from Manchester. “Our 15 guys aren’t going to make a great deal of difference. But indeed … your ability as a high ranking public official and a member of the Republican party, I think that effort should be spent getting the Republicans in Congress to come up with the money.”
Rep. Peter Leishman, whose son died of a fentanyl overdose, argued that the cash could be higher spent on regulation enforcement or habit prevention and remedy applications in New Hampshire.
“No respect to the Guard, but 15? What kind of difference is that going to make on thousands of miles of border where people are just flowing across unchecked?” he mentioned. “The $850,000 would be better spent here in New Hampshire.”
But Republicans outnumber Democrats 6-4 on the committee, they usually agreed with Sununu.
Senate President Jeb Bradley mentioned it is fully acceptable for Sununu to search the cash beneath the state’s civil emergency regulation.
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“If 400 deaths from fentanyl per year since 2015 is not a civil emergency, I don’t know what is,” he mentioned.
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