October 6, 2025 Dear Mrs. Westfall, Thank you for writing to share your concerns regarding the opioid crisis. I appreciate hearing from you. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared the national opioid crisis a public health emergency, and since then, tens of thousands of Americans have died from a drug overdose. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, synthetic opioids, including illicitly manufactured fentanyl or fentanyl analogs, were involved in more than two-thirds of these deaths. Federal law enforcement agents at our borders are critical to helping reduce fentanyl-related overdose deaths by intercepting illicit drugs before they enter our communities. That is why I was proud to cosponsor the “Prevent Exposure to Narcotics and Toxins (PREVENT) Act of 2022” (S. 5114), introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and signed into law as part of the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (NDAA, Public Law 117-263). This law provides border patrol agents and other Department of Homeland Security personnel with drug containment devices, a critical tool in safely storing illicit narcotics, to help disrupt and reduce the supply of illicit fentanyl and synthetic opioids entering into the United States. Please know that I appreciate hearing your perspective on this issue, and I will continue working with my colleagues to help end this crisis. Once again, thank you for writing to my office. Should you have any other questions or comments, please call my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3553 or visit my website at padilla.senate.gov. You can also follow me on Facebook, and Twitter, and you can sign up for my email newsletter at padilla.senate.gov/newsletter. Sincerely, Alex Padilla United States Senator