the hd of the agency ann milligram, testifying before a house subcommittee. left last year you said the only limit on how many fentanyl pills and powder the cartels can make

is how many chemicals they can buy. following the november 2023 summit president biden announced a verbal agreement which the communist -- list in exchange for counter narcotics cooperation. any form of cooperation was an empty gesture considering the chinese government is subsidizing export of fentanyl by according monetary grants openingly trafficking fentanyl materials. combating the fentanyl trade. you have made it your top priority. do you think this rhetoric from the biden administration remains hollow because there are no arrests and warranted targets of u.s. investigations? >> congressman, thanks for the opportunity. i think that this is one of the most important things we can be focused on and talking about.

the supply chain begins and ends in china. there is no way we can do the work we need to do without being focused on it. i personally went to beijing in january after the two presidents met and i had the opportunity to have a number of meetings with n.p.s. and senior leadership and law enforcement people in china. two things, my commitment to you, this committee, is that we are going to continue to do the investigative work we need to do around the cartels and supply chains. this is mightal to the united states. the last pieces we have had constructive meetings.

to date with n.p.s. what i would say to you is that it's too soon for us to know where this will end. my feeling is that because there is a limitless supply of chemicals, we need to do everything we can to stop that from happening. so we'll do everything we can investigating and also if we can partner, we will, but we are not going to stop the work we have to do. mr. cline: thank you, i yield back. >> mr. ruppersberger. mr. ruppersberger: thank you. i understand d.e.a. is recommending a reclassification of marijuana as a less drug drug. is that correct? the messenger: congressman, under the controlled substances act there is a formal rulemaking process for scheduling or rescheduling controlled substances. that process is ongoing. the next step in that process will be a notice of proposed rulemaking. and then an opportunity for public comment. because d.e.a. is involved very much in that scheduling process and the d.e.a. administrator is

personally involved in it, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on it at this time. mr. ruppersberger: i know the state of maryland allows adult cues of anna business to be bought and sold under a licensed regulatory framework. without fully descheduling cannabis from the controlled substance aact, there would be inherent conflicts between federal and state law. with whatever direction you recommend, i urge you to strike a balance between the exercising federal oversight and enforcement responsibilities while preserving each state's ability to determine for itself the best approach to cannabis. what's happening in maryland is working well. and we want to preserve each state's ability to determine for itself the best approach to cannabis. can you talk about the impact this recommendation will have? the messenger: thank you, congressman. i can't -- p ms. milgram: i appreciate your comments. thank you. mr. ruppersberger: at the beginning of the year d.e.a. had

a huge bust of pills laced with fentanyl here in the d.c. region. 639,000 pills, 2,000 pounds of drug in power form. almost 300% increase from the previous year. talk to us about the drug cartels -- how the drug cartels are working with local gangs. what tools and resources do you need to combat the cartels and gangs. what i'm interested in is technology like artificial intelligence and how it is used by the d.e.a. in operation overdrive. ms. milgram: thank you so much. let me just start with talking about seizures for a moment. last year as i noted we seized almost 79 million fake pills, 12,000 pounds of powder fentanyl. that's the most that d.e.a. has ever seized. every year since i have joined

d.e.a., year upon year we are seizing more deadly fentanyl. we are also seeing that the amount of purity in the fentanyl powder has gone up. and the number of pills that have a potentially deadly dose has gone up. in 2021 when i started, it was four out of 10, it's now seven out of 10 pills that have a potentially deadly dose. the work the men and women of d.e.a. are doing taking deadly fentanyl oft streets is saving lives. talking about gangs and local drug trafficking organizations, when we did operation last mile last year, that's the operation we did across the united states to identify people in local communities working with these two cartels to essentially cross that last night because the cartels need to get those pills into americans' hands. that's how they make money. and the way that we have seen this done, we have seen it it continues to be on the streets sometimes. but overwhelmingly we have seen a shift to the digital world.

to social media. we say all the time that the most dangerous place in the world right now is our homes because everyone has a smart phone. within two or three essential -- two or three clicks on a smart phone people are having pills delivered to their front doorstep like uber eats. like they get pizza delivered. we are losing 22 americans, teenagers, between the ages of 14 and 18 every single week right now. this is a national tragedy. i would suggest you first we need help on technology. we are committed to using the best technology we can. and my personal feeling is we cannot allow the speed of crime to move faster than the speed of government. we have to be agile. we have to be able to meet those moments. the work i have seen from our crypto currency tracking, illicit finance team in the last year is second to none. it's some of the best work i have ever seen in my career. we have a lot of data. we have a lot of technology.

we need to do more and need more, we are making progress, being able to track that money across the globe. the answer is yes, we'd like to do more. we really appreciate the support of this committee. i believe that we are setting ourselves up to be able to do this very effectively in the long term. >> mr. eplzy: my apologies to my colleagues. i'm cutting in line. administrator milligram, hard to see you again. hard to believe another year passed of this devastating issue we have in our country. 47,000 men died in vietnam. 33,000 in korea. over the course of 23 years. we equal that every year just in the loss of fentanyl. if you want to take fentanyl plus fentanyl poisonings, overdoses in one year it equals all the wars since world war ii

combined. that is a war. that's a proxy war being put on us by china. being administered by the cartels in mexico. if you crashed an airbus in one line across the country, do you think this body would act, do you think the international community would act. if you killed 200 people in every airplane, 365 days a year. we would be howling in this body, passing laws, grounding airplanes. that's what they are doing. this is china's way of ensuring we don't have a military down the road or workers or welders or plumbers or police officers or teachers. december 6, 1941 we were at war with japan. we hadn't declared it yet. right now we are at war with the cartels at least, that's -- you are at the frontline of that job. i want to thank you for what you and your team do every day and everybody who wears the badge. i'd also like to say that just yesterday in my state you worked

very closely with local law enforcement, georgetown, texas, the local sheriff, local police department. you got a guy who had two kilos of meth, one kilo of heroin, and 10 pounds of fentanyl. how many people would that kill? ms. milgram: congressman, i would have to do the math for you with our lab. i could tell you tens of thousands. mr. elsie: -- force mr. ellzey: i just want to say, do you a great job. i know that each and every one of you has on your shoulders the idea we are losing 70,000 americans just to fentanyl every year. you are the frontline of defense. that's got to weigh heavily on you. i abbreviate the sacrifice that each and every one of you make. the stops you are making. work you are doing with local law enforcement. i went to visit your station in dallas. right next to the f.b.i. it takes a partnership with

local and federal law enforcement. your job never ends. other folks have some questions for you. i'd like to yield back. thank you for what you do. >> mr. morelle. mr. morelle: thank you, mr. chairman. administrator milgram, thank you. certainly for taking time to speak with us today, but also for your service to the country. and thanks to your entire agency, the agents who work tirelessly in my district, around the country, to keep our community safe. i wanted to, if i could, talk a little bit about operation overdrive. 2022 the d.e.a. initiated an operation driven by data to focus d.e.a. law enforcement resources on communities, including my own in rochester, new york, where criminal networks are causing the most harm. i want to thank you and your staff who are continuing to be in a position to competitively previous us -- comprehensively

brief us. can you give me an update on phase two of operation overdrive and what your team sow on the ground -- saw on the ground in the 357 operating low kaeug -- 57 operating locations. ms. milgram: we launched operation overdrive in 2021. we effectively launch it in 202t it's to go into local communities where we live and work and where every american is being impacted and focus on two things. violent crime and drug poisonings and deaths. we do that in partnership with our state and local law enforcement with the local prosecutors, with the u.s. attorneys. we have been in 86 locations across the united states. and we are very actively working on our next phase, which will be phase four. what we have seen from this work i would note a few things. one, just remarkable partnerships with our local law enforcement, police departments,

sheriffs. that's the work we need to be doing together to really effectively stop the next shooter in a community or stop the person who is going to sell the next pill. one of the things i was reading recently was a report on little rock, arkansas. we just finished work in little rock, arkansas, the team working together, again i want to give credit to the entire team, we geospatially mapped the community and what that means is we are able to provide to local law enforcement a map of where the crimes are happening, where the shootings are happening, where the drug poisonings are happen. that together lets us figure out how do we stop that harm. we saw significant reductions of both violence and drug poisonings. we are about to announce -- we are going to start moving on a rolling basis so we can keep moving in communities across the united states. we are also moving to do that kind of geospatial mapping work across the country wherever we are working. that allows us to provide local law enforcement with more insight into what we see in the community.

they are able to provide us with insight into what they see. together we can identify what are the greatest threats. who are the individuals causing the most harm, together we can pretty rapidly target those individuals to make sure they cannot commit harm. mr. morelle: are you confident that the requested budget amount will allow you to do what you need? ms. milgram: i'm confident we can do that. what i would like to be able to do is get to a point where the kind of geospatial work we are doing we are able to leave behind in communities. i don't think we are financially there yet. i would love to be able to help our local police departments. i was a state attorney general and had the privilege of overseeing more than 5 phupbd police departments -- 500 police departments for the great state of new jersey, i know how much they could use that kind of help to be able to have that kind of assistance with the geographic mapping of threats. then getting access to what we see as the threats. i'd like to evolve and get there. right now i'm absolutely confident we can do phase four. and that, again, what makes this

work is the partnership between the local and state law enforcement community. the prosecutors, and d.e.a. all of us together. often we have other federal partners. we have had a.t.f., marshals, f.b.i. i'm pleased with the work anti-partnerships -- and the partnerships. mr. morelle: last year you were kind enough to host myself, mr. cline, mr. ellzey. during that conversation you talked about illicit finances aiding the illegal drug trade which i thought was fascinating. to that end i understand your counter fentanyl threat targeting team is essential to combating money laundering organizations and influence in the mexican transnational organization. can you discuss more d.e.a.'s work to identify and mitigate the cartel's illicit finance networks pushing fentanyl into communities like mine? ms. milgram: we found the first two counter threat teams in 202t the idea is simple.

having people from across the agency, agents, analysts, targetters, data scientist, people with chemistry expertise working together, focused directly on what are the networks looking like? mapping the networks. identifying vulnerabilities we can tarring tote take down and defeat the cartels. we were doing so much work very quickly around illicit finance we realized last summer in 2023 we needed to create a third team. we have some of our finance experts across the united states and globe that have now come together. they are some of the most creative people i have ever seen. they were able to really figure out how to leverage every piece of d.e.a.'s financial data in order for us to understand the threat and start tracking it globally. we have a great number of money laundering, illicit finance case, investigations ongoing. the majority of which right now relate to chinese money laundering. you'll see in the coming months

a loft that work coming forward. mr. morelle: thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate you letting me go over. yield back. >> mr. aderholt. mr. aderholt: thank you for being here and for your work. i know you mentioned you don't want to speak about the process of going to the schedule one to three in marijuana, do i want to ask a different question. i hope you can answer that. i'll talk a little bit about that. there was a 2023 study by the national institute of health that referenced a rising influx of cases of reports of canaboynid syndrome i'm probably saying that incorrectly. it's c.h.s. states that typically individuals experiencing c.h.s. exhibit a distinctive pattern of cycling through nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and

other several things over several months prior to cannabis use. the c.d.c., said approximately three in 10 people who use marijuana have this disorder. can you speak to the adverse effects of marijuana use disorder? ms. milgram: congressman, because that is going to be a part of this regulatory process, it would be inappropriate for me to comment at this time. but i appreciate your mentioning that study. i'll read it. mr. aderholt: ok. my understanding is that this same study that n.i.h. referenced did numerous studies establishing a connection between marijuana use and elevated risk of psychotic conditions, including psychosis, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and substance use disorder. let me just -- i can speak to

it. let me just put my thoughts about it. i believe the united states is in the midst of a mental health crisis. with the adverse effects i have just mentioned such as psychosis, suppression, anxiety, schizophrenia, substance abuse disorder my concern is rescheduling marijuana would make the crisis worse. again i know you say you can't comment on t i do want to go on the record with that because i do think it's a real concern. i'm very, very concerned about this rescheduling and it's very disconcerting to hear this. i'm deeply concerned about the impact that it will have, especially on the population of young americans who are more susceptible to drug use for the first time and as they are forming lifetimes of addiction. with that let me say there is many of us in washington and in the congress, i'm sure not all,

but there is a lot of us concerned about that. we hope that this is something that is not done. i yield back. justice sotomayor: ms. meng -- >> ms. meng. ms. meng: thank you, mr. chairman. administrator milgram, i want to follow up on my colleague, mr. morelle's questions, and express my thank you as a representative of new york city, queens specifically, appreciation on the many ways that the d.e.a. partners with our state and new york city local law enforcement agencies to take guns off our streets and make our communities safer. i'm also proud of how the bipartisan safer communities act which president biden signed into law in 2022 has empowered law enforcement and the courts to hold firearms traffickers

responsible. as you know well, this act created the first federal criminal offense for firearms trafficking. i was glad to see the d.e.a. worked with nypd to dismantle a gun trafficking operation in brooklyn. the defendants pleaded guilty to the contribution of fentanyl and firearms trafficking. this case became one of the first cases in the country to use the provision of the bipartisan safer communities act that made trafficking a criminal offense in federal. law which makes a huge difference in a city like new york. where the overwhelming majority of crime guns were last sold from lanced dealer from another state. administrator, can you speak to how these provisions of this bill, this act, support the work that your agents are doing to take guns off our streets and

reduce violent crime? and how is the d.e.a. allocating resources to coordination efforts with local and state law enforcement to crack down on intrastate, interjurisdiction firearms trafficking? ms. milgram: thank you so much, congresswoman. d.e.a. we are focused relentlessly on drug trafficking anti-fentanyl threat. that said, we have been doing -- and the fentanyl threat. that said, we have been doing extensive work of violence in our communities because we know the intersection of drugs and violence are intertwined. we do work around operation overdrive as you heard earlier. we also seize an enormous amount of illegal firearms as part of our law enforcement work across the united states. last year i think we eased more than 8,200 firearms as part of our operations. we also partner very closely with all of the d.o.j. components, the f.b.i., a.t.f., marshals, and in new york city as you know the a.t.f. hosts a

daily meeting with nypd, with federal law enforcement, prosecutors are in that room, state and federal. they are talking about who are the individuals that are likely tonight next shooters. really focused on how do they stop the threat of violence on the streets. so d.e.a. has a regular presence. we are at that meeting every single day. we have deep partnerships across the united states with our state and local law enforcement counterparts. again, our main focus is on drugs, but we are absolutely working on violent crime in communities and very strongly working in partnership. one of the most important things i think is those partnerships, we call upon one another when we can be proactive in stopping the next crime from happening or when we need to investigate and prosecute something that has already happened. ms. meng: thank you. i yield back. >> mr. garcia. mr. garcia: thank you, mr. chairman.

administrator milgram, great to see you again. it dawned on me you probably have one of the most unenviable positions in the country right now. i don't envy you of your job. it's like being a goalie where your own coach is calling plays to support against you right now, it's got to be very frustrating. you don't have to comment on that. we do have a president right now that has an open border policy. you do work for an attorney general that has effectively relegated the d.e.a. to be in his words, the very end of the line with the public affairs mission, or campaign. this has to be very frustrating for you. what that inferences is your job is to focus on the demand side and not the supply side, which is literally the opposite of what the d.e.a. is supposed to do. your job descriptionings that the word enforcement in it. so we look forward as a subcommittee to giving you the tools to do your job, which is

the enforcement side, to make sure that we can catch the bad guys, stop the cartels and give you the resources, despite the leadership above you. by the way, a.g. garland gave himself an a in front of this committee a couple of weeks ago which was, in my opinion, offensive to the victims of fentanyl. i was going to ask you if we're winning or losing this war against fentanyl, but i think the metrics are self-evident. we're losing this war right now and i think it's ok for to you say you're not pleased. i think the chairman asked that several times because i don't think any of us are pleased with the number of deaths that we're seeing as a result of this poison coming across our borders. last year you responded to mr. cline's testimony, he asked if you would commit to calling china a major illicit drug trafficking or producing country. i'm assuming, and you answered in the negative in that questioning. i'm asouping now -- assuming now that the p.r.c. has been put on the major drug transit and illicit drug producing company list that you would say the p.r.c. is actually a country

that we should be targeting as such? ms. milgram: yes, congressman. the majors list was changed to include precursor chemicals and so congress, along with the state department, has listed china as a source of fentanyl production from those precursors. mr. garcia: we appreciate your support on the communication up the chain of command for that. we talked about the fact that some chinese companies have been charged to this date, you have a $500 million budget footprint for foreign international companies, going after those folks. can you talk about if that budget is fulfilled, what does that mission look like and how do we continue on that and i use the metaphor i think last year in this hearing, if we had a small or large ship, slow-moving ship crossing the pacific, full of v.x. gas coming from china, we would stop that ship before it got to the port of long beach or mexican port, inbound for the u.s. borders.

talk to us about the sort of t. t-frpt p.'s and the -- t.t.p. a's and the policies that this $500 will enable for us. ms. milgram: thank you. if i could start by saying one thing about demand as well. because i sit in a lot of rooms across the united states and across the world where people talk about demand and we very much understand substance use disorder. what we are seeing happening in the united states is not demand-driven and i want to be really clear that this is the cartels that are driving what we're seeing. that's why they're hiding fentanyl and other drugs. that's why they're pressing fentanyl into fake pills. that's why they're not selling fentanyl as though it were fentanyl. so i think it is a really important point. we do a lot of work -- we do do work around public awareness, one pill can kill, because the cartels are being so deceptive about how they're trying to get these drugs to americans. talking about your analogy of stopping the ship, i think, is a great way to think about the analogy. what we have done over the past two years is try to map these criminal networks so we can get

proactive and get in front of them. i believe that we will not be effective unless we are able to target these networks proactively. we cannot wait until the harm has happened or until there's a particular thing that happens to galvanize us. so what we do with the foreign work is vital to d.e.a., wherein more than 69 countries right now, more than 90 offices around the world. all of those offices, their number one focus is the united states of america. and the harm happening to the u.s. of course we assist our foreign partners with their local issues, but our prime work across the globe is how do we stop the fentanyl threat, how do we stop these two cartels. so having mapped and i see the map in the committee and i look at it and i think about the map that the teams have done showing 50 countries that the cartels are active. so we're working in multiple countries across the globe and with many foreign partners. mr. garcia: i just want to thank you because in l.a. we have a district attorney that won't

charge fentanyl dealers with murder if they deal known poison pills or corrupted pills. so we are able to raise those at the federal level under the d.e.a. and we really appreciate the ability to do that. and your comments that it is not demand-driven is not lost on us. this is policy-driven and education is key. but we appreciate everything that you and the agents in the field are doing to mitigate this as much as possible. i yield back. thank you, mr. chair. >> mr. cline. mr. cline: thank you, mr. chairman. administrator milgram, good to see you again today and thank you for coming to my office yesterday. ms. milgram: thank you. mr. cline: if you recall in last year's budget hearing you made a commitment to provide me and this committee certain information regarding the use of no-ed by contracts under your -- no-bid contracts under your tenure. specifically the total of no-bid or sole-source contracts administered during your tenure and the total dollar value of these contracts. my staff emailed your congressional affairs office eight different times over the last year, following up on this

commitment, may 24, june 8, june 23, july 5, july 14, etc., etc. and despite your staff promising that this request would be fulfilled soon, we never received a response. now, your staff wasn't the one who made the commitment, administrator. you made this commitment and in this very room. ms. milgram: yes, sir. mr. cline: i realize the department of justice inspector general is currently investigating your contract dealings but congress is also an investigateory body. when i was a young navy officer, my first act of duty -- active duty station was 161 and i had a commanding officer, commander gorthy, and he had three letters, three words printed in our hangar bag, three feet high so ebersoltary member of the squadron could see it. and those three words stuck with me my entire life. and those words were, performance, not excuses.

that's all i've gotten for the last year has been excuses. i believe you're one of the few agencies within the department of justice to actually get a budget increase last year. but yet i still do not have the information i have requested and so you can add to that list not just the number and dollar value of no-bid contracts but also list them individually by recipient so we can see who got them and with what dollar value was associated with each one. i mean, i guess i can add them up. you don't have to give me the total. but my question to you then is, when will you provide me with this information? ms. milgram: so -- mr. cline: what date? ms. milgram: let me start by apologizing for the delay on this. as i said to you yesterday, it is not acceptable and you have my commitment that it will not happen again. we do a weekly meeting where we track a number of things at d.e.a. we've been tracking letters back to members of congress, we have not been tracking q-fers until recently, we are now tracking

that. you have my solemn commitment on that. i have worked with and, again, i want to take responsibility for this, the answers went to the department of justice just last week and so we are working very actively with them to get them to you. i had hoped to get them to you by the end of the day yesterday. that did not happen. so i think it's imminent. i'd be happy to actually call your office, we can call your office every day and give you a status update. it's not in our hands right now. but i think it will be very, very soon. mr. cline: i would appreciate that. thank you. i will accept your offer. pleased to let us know on a daily basis -- no, a weekly basis will be just fine. let us know when you have that information. because we would like to follow up on it. in the f.y. 2023 budget there 0 min program increase for the information sharing center that your administration requested. was that for what's called mission -- the mission operating system or mission o.s. or was

that for another purpose? ms. milgram: i'm not sure, congressman. i'd have to look closer at that time. i do know that there was some funding that came for our internal data overhaul, our technology overhaul, mission o.s. would be a part of that. we continue to work on developing that. but i'm not sure about that specifically. mr. cline: what are you doing with the mission o.s.? ms. milgram: when i came in i found that we had a lot of technology that was over 20 years old. and as you know, and you'll see this when you look at our sole-source contracts which we've reduced by more than 1/3, but you'll see a lot of those relate to technology. our systems are so old that to have coders -- nobody codes in the same languages that our systems were built in a long time ago. all of that needs to be upgraded. at the same time we need to make changes so that another example, when i came in, we were only tracking one drug at a time.

obviously right now we live in a poly drug world so we cannot be effective unless our system lets us capture multiple drugs so we've already made a lot of those changes. but mission o.s. is basically the broader system we're creating that will allow, one, us to collect all the information we need collect digitally. and then, two, our systems to be able to talk to each other. so think about the hiring conversation earlier of how we track across systems, how we basically are able to make sure that -- and what our counterthreat teams are able to do is any agent working in des moines, iowa, can connect with the information from any agent in maine. so we're already able to do that. but that system is still developing and, again, my feeling is -- mr. cline: what's its current stat news is. ms. milgram: we've made a number of changes -- status? ms. milgram: we've made a number of changes but i would use mission o.s. to describe our overall sort of place we want to get to which is -- we're not there yet but we have made a number of system changes and we are already i think taking a lot of ground on it. mr. cline: i think my time is

expired. so i yield back, mr. chair. thank you. >> mr. gonzalez. mr. gonzalez: thank you, chairman, thank you, administrator. we always talk about the problem, we always put blame on somebody else. but yet our country continues to fall further and further behind and i'm very frustrated with that. i want to talk about solutions. i think back to my time in the military, you train the way you fight, you fight the way you train. your allies are your allies and your enemies are your enemies. let's line them up, let's go to war and, you know, may the strongest person win. when i look at allies, we need more allies. and i think the allies are the allies on the ground that are doing the work. the sheriffs, the police chiefs, the constable, the local law enforcement. so my question -- i fully support -- my question is this. i fully support state and local task forces, i continue to hear every day how critical they are for the ongoing criminal and counterdrug smuggling efforts. this is absolutely critical that we have a federal, state and

local nexus that tackles and wins and makes sure our communities are more safe. you reported in your budget that through the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023, that there were approximately 2800 special agents and 3,000 task force officers across 600 task forces dedicated to transnational crime. and drugs. is there any -- is there a need for additional special agents or task force officers? ms. milgram: so a couple of things, congressman. first is, as we stand up these trident teams, one is being stood up along the border, we're going to use our el paso office because we have great capacity there. and one is going to be set up in new york to start. these will be state, local, federal teams that also have the intelligence community and the defense community. so that's an example i think of evolving to the next step where we'll be able to use every piece of information that d.e.a. has to target this international threat. we serve in task forces across the united states every day.

we have remarkable partnerships. we lead many task forces and serve on many task forces. so this is one of the ways in which i think we do really important work across the country. one of my personal views is that we need to figure out how we can share more information with our state and local partners. again, i sat as a state attorney general and i know, you know, we're talking about tens of thousands of law enforcement professionals across the united states that are on the front line every single day and are incredible partners to us and can be very effective. and work with us on a daily basis with this threat. but how do we provide even more support and information on the cartels and on the threats to them to help them -- mr. gonzalez: the d.e.a. needs a win and america need needs a win. i'm tired of everyone placing a blame on the problem. we need a win and the win starts at the local level with these task forces. we need to go out and take it

block by block, street by street. i had the f.b.i., on friday i'm going to be in west texas and we're doing a round table with local, state and federal law enforcement to specifically talk about expanding some of these task forces that are out there. this is how you win. you don't talk about the problem, you solve the problem. you solve the problem by getting more good guys than bad guys and rolling them up one block at a time. blank checks aren't going to solve the problem. blaming china or someone else, that's all fun and tkapbdy, that doesn't keep our kids safe and it doesn't make sure people don't die. that's what this game is about. this is about life or death. it's a life or death game that we're playing and the d.e.a. used to be at the certainty of this game. they used to be a major chess piece in this game. and it feels as if now they're a smaller part of it. and that needs to change. right? that needs -- you have my commitment, but i need your commitment where we can work together on building out these task forces in a more robust manner and also when we do roll

up somebody, that the world knows about it. it can't justk in secret. ms. milgram: first of all, on national fentanyl awareness day, you know, you have my deepest commitment that i will never stop doing everything i can to stop this threat. i do believe we have a plan and we're making significant progress. but we have lost 107,941 american lives in 2022. so there is a lot more work to do. we're committed to doing it in partnership with you in texas and with this committee and with every american community. mr. gonzalez: i have limited time left. i'm very interested in the trident directorate and the direction of that -- that's going. intel is critical critical to solving the problem and being able to give that in an actionable way with boots on the ground, to be able to do that. i think is so critical and many times they want to be able to do it but they don't have the intelligence to be able to perform that. i'm very interested in that. would love to stay abreast of

that. thank you, chairman, and thank you, administrator, and i yield back. ms. milgram: thank you. >> the gentleman yields back. that concludes the fist round of questions. i assume that there is a desire for a second round. >> yes. >> by some members at least. so we will do just that. and that's consistent with your desire to be out of here by noon. and we will live up to that commitment. mr. rogers: i yield myself such time as i may consume. ma'am, you've previously testified before this subcommittee on the floor of fentanyl precursor chemicals from china to mexico. in november of 2023, president biden announced a partnership with china where they would help stem the flow of precursor

chemicals. i understand that china's new efforts are mainly civil enforcement matters with little to no actual criminal enforcement. has the d.e.a. observed any significant decrease in the amount of precursor chemicals flowing from china to latin america? ms. milgram: so, congressman, at this moment in time, and we work very closely with our partners at c.b.p. on the flow of precursor chemicals, at this point in time we continue to see precursor chemicals going to mexico for the production of fentanyl. again, we continue to see fentanyl being produced at historic and catastrophic rates. what i would say to you is that we, d.e.a. began our re-engagement with m.p.s. in january of this year. we had partnered with m.p.s. and in 2019 china had scheduled

finished fentanyl. so we began that reengagement of january of this year. and have had some constructive meetings. we are committed to working with any partner across the globe that we can work with to fight this threat. we also are continuing to do all the investigative work that d.e.a. does and has done over the last couple of years and, again, bringing the first criminal charges against chinese chemical companies and really focusing on the movement of those chemicals. so we're going to continue to do that work investigating. we would like to see our partners in china take similar actions and, again, we're a law enforcement agency and we always ask our law enforcement counterparts to engage in law enforcement activity. mr. rogers: so not only do we not see a decrease in precursors out of china, but we're seeing an increase? is that accurate? ms. milgram: i couldn't say that. i would have to bring in my

colleagues from c.b.p. to sort of point to the exact numbers. what i can tell you is that fentanyl has increased over the last three years in the united states and this partnership, this work has been constructive so far but i believe it's too early to know whether we'll have the results that we want to see. again, my commitment to you is that we are doing this work and we will continue to do this work. and as long as there's a global fentanyl threat, we're going to continue to investigate every part of that supply chain. mr. rogers: based on recent actions, how would you character characterize our relationship with china when it comes to the fight against fentanyl and what would you say to those who view -- who would like to view china as complicit with the cartels? ms. milgram: so, congressman, when i came in, we had no law enforcement cooperation or even communication really with m.p.s. which is the chinese law enforcement agency.

that changed starting last november when the two presidents, president biden and president xi met. and they agreed to resume counternarcotics cooperation. so there are a few things that we've done. one is asked for their help in prosecuting and shutting down chemical companies, stopping pill presses from going out of china. number two, being willing to stop global money laundering and cryptocurrency that is originating, we believe, in many instances from there, going into the capital flight issue which we could talk about if you'd like. then number three, scheduling additional chem calces -- chemicals. so one of the things china did effectively in 2019 was to schedule finished fentanyl. so there are many fentanyl chemicals, the precursor chemicals, that are the building blocks that we've now asked them to schedule. just to be clear also, what we know from our investigations is that there are people working at those chemical companies that are chemists, who are actively

assisting drug traffickers or people they believe to be drug traffickers with how to produce fentanyl. so they are essentially teaching them how to make fentanyl. so i want to be clear in saying what a grave threat i believe this is. and also that i believe if we could stop the flow of precursors from china, we could have a significant impact on the amount of fentanyl being made. mr. rogers: how are we supposed to reconcile the administration's november, 2023, announcement that china is a partner on the efforts to combat fentanyl with what our d.e.a. agents are actually seeing out in the field? ms. milgram: so, congressman, i think what i would say to you is that the meetings have been constructive but it's too early to tell what the results will be. so i'd be happy to come back to the committee as this goes on to let you know whether we're seeing results that we believe we need to see. mr. rogers: how would you rate

mexico's lack of action to get your piece into -- your people into mexico, in place, how would you characterize china's impact on that matter? ms. milgram: so, you know, i would sort of take the same position as to both countries. which is, number one, we stand ready and willing to work with any law enforcement partners that will work with us in this fight. that are committed to helping us stop american lives from being lost. second, we're going to keep doing the investigative work that we do and d.e.a. has incredible capabilities. i'm so proud of the men and women in the united states and across the globe that are working on this threat day in and day out, even in difficult circumstances. third, i do think we've seen some progress but, again, to sort of refer back to director wray, we need much more. and we've got to see sustained scaleable cooperation in order for us to be able to have the impact we know we need to have.

again, the threat is driven by two global criminal enterprises that are headquartered in mexico. mr. rogers: keep up the good work. ms. milgram: thank you, sir. krao*eut krao*eut thank you, mr. chairman -- mr. cartwright: thank you, mr. chairman. not to put too fine a point on it, i am interested in more questions about precursor chemicals. your written testimony includes the following stage. on june 23, 2023, indictments were announced against four chemical companies and eight individuals all based in the p.r.c., the people's republic of china, for knowingly providing customers in the united states and mexico with the precursor chemicals and scientific know-how to manufacture illicit fentanyl. mr. cline: these indictments were the first ever charged against fentanyl precursor chemical companies. is that correct? that was the first time? ms. milgram: yes, sir. mr. cline: how long has fentanyl

been hurting americans? ms. milgram: the threat really began around 2014. 2014 or so. and slowly increased year upon year. mr. cline: so there have been a few presidential administrations during the fentanyl crisis. but this administration is the first one to prosecute chinese companies, is that right? ms. milgram: yes, sir, the first charges were last year. mr. cline: and you intend to keep that up? ms. milgram: yes, sir. mr. cline: ok, good. i want to shift gears and talk about marijuana for a moment. last week the administration announced that they would be looking to reclassify marijuana from a schedule one narcotic, for example, heroin or l.s.d., to a schedule three narcotic, for example, steroids or tylenol with codeine. mr. cartwright: that will still need to go through a formal rulemaking process and you alluded to that in response to mr. aderholt's questions. you are restricted substantially

in how much you can go into that but i think it's the administrative procedures act? ms. milgram: yes, sir. mr. cartwright: so i won't ask you to get into d.e.a.'s formal position on the decision to move forward with that rulemaking. but do i want to ask you to give us a sense for how that reclassification of marijuana might allow d.e.a. to allocate more resources to chasing fentanyl and other narcotics that are killing people. in other words, do we have agents that are working on marijuana investigations that could be freed up to go to work on cases tied to fentanyl? ms. milgram: congressman, because some of this will implicate decisions that become a part of that rulemaking process, i'm not going to be able to comment on that. what i can tell you very high-level is, yes, we do currently do work around marijuana across the united states, where it rises to the

federal level and, for example, we've done work in a number of states on current illicit marijuana grows that are led by chinese organizations, for example. so there is work we do. our top focus is obviously fentanyl. the drug that's killing the americans. but we do do work on it currently. mr. cartwright: ok. you have said or in fact you led off your testimony by saying flat out, there is no greater urgency than defeating the sin lowan -- six offer nal -- sinaloan cartel in fentanyl. can you walk us through the priorities for the 2025 budget request? ms. milgram: the two main pieces we've requested in this budget are additional funding, more than $18 million, for the counterthreat teams. this is allowing us to map the cartels and these criminal networks across the globe. who are members, who are facilitators, who are

associates, what countries are they operating in, and what are they doing, what are their roles in the organization. that allows us to look for vulnerabilities and to really target in a way that can defeat the cartels. we're then going to sort of expand this into the trident work i was describing. so a lot of the work is coming out of the counterthreat teams right now and i should -- sorry, step back and say, we've started counterthreat teams in the field. so each of our field divisions now has one. some are just getting up and running. but the idea with the funding would be to allow us to sort of establish the teams that we have at headquarters now, those three teams, in a permanent way, add staff to them, and then create broader teams in the field that will allow us in every single part of the united states to be able to know what's the specific threat there, is it sinaloa, what are they doing, who are the money launderers responsible? it's the evolution of that work and the expansion into trident.

the other request which is for $15 million is for body-worn cameras. the department of justice made a commitment to expand the use of body-worn cameras. as a matter of public accountability and transparency, that work continues. mr. cartwright: understood thank you. thank you for kwrour testimony. you've been a state prosecutor, a federal prosecutor, a federal law clerk, you've been a state attorney general. we are grateful for your service in the d.e.a. and this administration. i yield back, mr. chairman. mr. rogers: mr. garcia. mr. garcia: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you again to administrator for obliging us a second round. i ended the last line of questioning with the partnership between the local law enforcement and the d.e.a. at the federal level, specifically the federal charges being raised against dealers who are selling this stuff. we have text messages coming off

of phones of dead children, 16-year-olds, where the dealer admits that the batch that they gave them may be tainted and not made correctly because littlejohny died yesterday, so little susie, when you take this, make sure someone is with you with narcan to make sure that they can bring you back to life. this is self-evident in terms of an aggravating assault, a murder effectively. and we talked about in my county, north l.a. has the highest density of fentanyl poisonings in all of l.a. county. we had 08 just in my district -- 80 just in my district alone last year, in the 27th congressional district. we have a d.a. who is like the penguin of gotham city. he actually helps the criminals rather than helps the vick tins of the criminals -- victims of the criminals and it's very frustrating. so having this ability to go to the federal government, to prosecute with the aggravators

is key. i submitted a combating fentanyl poisoning act bill which allows for two grants. one to directly fund local law enforcement for the efforts of chasing down these dealers in cooperation with the d.e.a. and another for nonprofits to educate kids, parents, grandparents. by the way, i think that's not your job, your job is the enforcement side. our job as parents and grandparents and neighbors and teachers and friends is to educate kids on the fact that this is a very real threat, one pill, one kill is very real. so i guess my question is, what can we do to better sinner skwraoeuz so -- synerjize, so the federal government, law enforcement, how do we better synergize so one plus one equals three? that's the challenge. the policies are the problem.

the open border policy is the source of the problem. china is the source of the precursors. but how do we get to one plus one equals three on the enforcement side? ms. milgram: so this is a really importanter in of our work right now. we call it o.d. justice and a lot of the work we're doing across the u.s. is based on our original -- it's basically one of our operations that we now have in every single field division. a lot of that work is based on the work that the teams in l.a. have stood up. there's remarkable work that's been happening there i think for many years, between local law enforcement and the d.e.a. and we've used that and work in a couple of our other field divisions as a model for how we can do this partnership with state and local law enforcement. we now have this in every single field division across the united states. and i'm pleased that we've significantly increased the number of cases that we can do where we charge death resulting meaning that someone is given a pill or powder that contains fentanyl, they die, and we're able to bring federal

prosecutions holding them accountable. so we've also set up a special unit at our special operations division in virginia for local law enforcement. we have check lists for what they should look for when they get to the scene where somebody has been poisoned or overdosed. we have a check list, what do they do, who do they call and we have agents in the field to answer those questions and when we can, we adopt those as federal cases. so it's really important work and i think we've really significantly increased it and l.a. has been a model for the work that we've done. mr. garcia: we appreciate that. because seeing these parents grieve and frankly seeing the sheriffs' frustrations at the local level, they have clear cases where they have all these text messages and then the d.a. doesn't file charges. it's absurd. so that partnership is literally the only lifeline of hope being given to some of these victims' families right now and to the sheriffs who are out there trying to do god's work, enforce the law. they have a venue and a vehicle

now to bring federal charges and i applaud you and i thank you for allowing that and encouraging that. i'm glad that's spreading across other major cities and throughout the country as well. i think the technology piece is also very important. you have access to technologies that maybe some of the local law enforcement agencies edmonton. whether it's -- don't. whether it's srur visa lance or drones -- surveillance or drones, etc., where we stay within the limits of the constitution but also improve the probabilities of successful arrests and preventing this poison from getting on the streets. so thank you again for your service and regards to all of the agents in the field. thank you. ms. milgram: thank you. mr. rogers: mr. ruppersberger. mr. ruppersberger: i want to thank you for all of your experience. you bring a lot of experience to this job. i was years, and i mean, many years ago, a form investigative prosecutor and most of what you do, we worked federal, state and local together. and it was really effective. probably more effective than any other law enforcement that i've

seen. i think that the biggest problem that we have now i think is money. no question. but i think the d.e.a., based on my experience as a prosecutor, but more so just in this committee, that the d.e.a., people who work at d.e.a., especially agents, were you have unique. they work -- were very unique. they work in tough places that are very dangerous, where the f.b.i. and other areas don't have the backup and yet they're in a continual basis working in that regard. i just want to say that. and you seem to be involved and want to help them in any way you can and we appreciate that. now, can you talk more about the chinese money laundering and about fentanyl and what can the appropriations committee do to help you? i know there's not a lot. what staff resources do you need

to investigate tracking and stopping all of this that's going on? and you know what treasury's doing about all of this. ms. milgram: so we work very closely with treasury and, again, they often will bring sanctions when we've done an investigation. so we have a very close partnership with them. they have folks that are stationed with us at our headquarters and we've invited them to join the counterthreat team. we think they can be very, very helpful on the finance work along with us. in terms of what we're seeing on illicit finance, to explain it just a little bit. in 2016 china passed a law limiting the amount of money that chinese nationals can take out of the country. and so that has created a space where individuals in china who would like to get money out of china, above that amount, it's about $50,000 u.s., the equivalent, so somebody who wants to get that money in the u.s. needs to use a money broker and those money brokers are now essentially becoming the engine

of global -- at least in the united states -- fentanyl money laundering. because the people in the united states that have cash, that have cash that's available for individuals who want cash in the united states, are the cartels. they obviously -- drug trafficking, we believe that the cartels are making each fake pill for around 10 cents a pill and they're selling it in the u.s. for between $5 and $30. so we're tracking billions of dollars globally. a lot of the reason i think it has shifted to chinese money laundering organizations is this desire to get money out of china. we are seeing across the united states that these chinese money laundering organizations are almost essentially the bank for the cartels where they can put their dirty money, launder it and eventually that money gets back to the cartels. mr. ruppersberger: do you know someone by the name of -- [indiscernible] -- ms. milgram: yes, she's amazing. mr. ruppersberger: she was trained by me.

ms. milgram: yes. thank you. thank you. she's an incredible part of our team. thank you for letting her come to us. mr. cline: thank you, chairman. administrator milgram, according to a letter dated december 19, 2023, from the d.e.a.'s office of congressional affairs, the d.e.a. has the final authority to schedule, reschedule or deschedule a drug under the controlled substances act. do you tkraoe with that no -- do you agree with that? ms. milgram: yes, sir. mr. cline: so you're the final? you're it? ms. milgram: there's a regulation, yes. mr. cline: in your statement you've mentioned it's been publicly reported and confirmed by the d.o.j. that a notice of proposed rule making to reschedule manger marijuana from -- marijuana from schedule i to schedule iii and it's currently being considered by the office of management and budget, mr. chair, i ask unanimous consent to enter into the record this particular article.

mr. clyde: it's usda will -- u.s. d.e.a. will reclassify marijuana restrictions from april 30, 2024, sir. thank you, sir. it says the proposal which still must be reviewed by the white house office of management and budget, it says also today the attorney general circulated the proposal to reclassify marijuana from schedule i to schedule iii, so is the decision to reschedule marijuana being initiated or encouraged predominantly by the white house office of management and budget, the attorney general's office or the d.e.a.? ms. milgram: there will be a notice of proposed rulemaking that's released. unfortunately i'm not going to be able to get into this conversation right now. mr. clyde: so you have said multiple times that it would be inappropriate for you to talk about this. ok. inappropriate or illegal? violation of law or just inappropriate? ms. milgram: inappropriate

according to our counsel that i should not be engaged in a conversation about it. and just to sort of explain a little bit of that. since d.e.a. is ultimately the decider of scheduling and rescheduling, and the d.e.a. administrator's in that role, it would be inappropriate for me to make comments about this process or parts of that process. mr. clyde: we're the united states congress. you wouldn't have authority if we didn't give it to you. ok? i mean, we make the law. you execute the law. we give you the authority. we're asking the questions. so, i mean, it's like, you're an extension of us when we create the law. so i'm asking you the question. where's it coming from? is it it coming from the d.e.a., is it coming from the attorney general, is it coming from the white house office of o.m.b.? where is it coming from? ms. milgram: as you know, under the administrative procedures act, which congress has made into law, there is a formal rulemaking process that goes on. that leads to the issuance of an nprm. then the opportunity for public

comment. and then the process plays out beyond that with an ultimate decision being made at d.e.a. as to the scheduling or rescheduling of a substance. so, again, as the agency that will be the ultimate decider, i'm not going to engage in conversations about issues that could be part of this conversation. mr. clyde: marijuana's a very, very dangerous drug. not as dangerous as some of the others we've talked about here but it certainly is much more dangerous than what you see regularly that people partake of, like alcohol, etc. you have a significant increase in traffic accidents that we have seen that have sent people to the emergency rooms, simply because they have been partaking of marijuana. you have had any outreach from the white house or the vice

president's office regarding the rescheduling of marijuana? ms. milgram: again, i'm not going to be able to get into any of the process. that take place or has taken place on this. mr. clyde: ok. are you aware of any instance in which a rulemaking that schedules, reschedules or descheduling a drug under the controlled substances act is not signed by the administrator of the d.e.a.? ms. milgram: just again, stepping out of marijuana and talking about this generally, i am not. mr. clyde: all right. ms. milgram: i'll look and confirm that's accurate. but at least in my experience, i'll confirm that with your office but i'm not aware personally. mr. clyde: ok, all right. all right. that's all i have. thank you, mr. chair, and i yield back. mr. morelle: yes, thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you again, administrator. i wanted to, first of all i was going to ask about the trident directorate. mr. cartwright asked the

questions, i appreciate your response to that. one of the things i'm interested and you could perhaps help expand on this, is i always assume that the cartels' interest was in creating sort of dependency, addiction, you have a market that you continue to supply because there's a demand. i understand that that's changed. part of which has resulted in your one pill can kill project to educate the american public. so it's really no longer in the interests of the cartels per se to make sure that people stay alive so they can continue to feed that addiction. the model's changed pretty dramatically. i wonder if you can help the american people understand what we're dealing with right now and sort of the new mode of operation, if you can just walk through that and then why the one pill can kill campaign is so important to that. ms. milgram: so you just asked the question that i think we get asked more than any other, including when we go to schools, wherever we are people always ask the same question. why would a drug dealer kill

their customer? and it's sort of the right way to think about it in the older model of drug trafficking. when i was coming up in the manhattan d.a.'s office, we strongly believed that drug traffickers did not kill their clients and in part it was based on some relationship, even relationship is a strange thing to say, but drug traffickers knew their clients, clients knew who to go to to purchase drugs from. we now live in a largely digital world where more than 200 million americans are on social media and the cartels can operate largely unanimously. without ever knowing their client and the clients don't know their traffickers. and so this has completely changed what we see. we're also in a world where, again, the cartels are actively trying to deceive people, they are not selling fentanyl as fentanyl. they're selling it as fake pills that look identical to real oxycodone, to real xanax, to real adderall or they're hiding it in other drugs that they sell

as though it were cocaine when it's actually cocaine laced with fentanyl. so this whole model has changed. and we think about this a lot as cartels want to sell more drugs, fentanyl is the most addictive substance we've ever seen. 350 times more -- 50 times more powerful than heroin. so they're using it to get people to come again and again and as long as people survive they believe that they will have more customers. and if they die, to the cartels, that's the cost of doing business. and they're going to go back on social media and they're going to find someone else. and so -- >> it's interesting, in a sense you can become addicted clearly. one pill can kill but it may not so you're building essentially market of repeat customers. mr. morelle: but to the degree they might die, it's just the cost of doing business. because of the addictive nature of this, and because of the deception in their practices. so it's not only that you need to get hooked on this, they don't even care about that, it's if you needed legitimately an

opioid for a medical condition or you're buying what you think is through a prescription and you're not, that's really part of the additional danger now to americans. ms. milgram: any american, and i always like to emphasize this, anyone who gets a prescription from your doctor and fills it at their pharmacy, you have nothing to worry about. those painkillers or other drugs are absolutely fine. mr. morelle: buzz they're highly regulated. ms. milgram: yes. what the cartels have done is buy pill presses from china along with dyes and molds so they can make a pill that looks identical to an oxy, identical to a xanax, identical to aned aer ol. they -- adderall. they then advertise them on sale as though they are real oxy. mr. morelle: so i'm a patient who may be dealing with some knee issue, some issue that requires this prescription, i get the prescription from the doc but instead of going to my local pharmacy i go online and think i can get it cheaper this way? is that essentially how it works

then? ms. milgram: what we see a lot is that people are looking for, where it's an oxy, adderall, xanax, some of those people have had prior prescriptions, some have not. some are young people who are looking for a painkiller for anxiety or some other issue. we should be really clear in saying, you cannot buy a legitimate prescription drug on social kpwhraoed. at all -- media. at all. that is not for sale. so anything any young person finds on social media, we can tell you it's going to be most likely fentanyl. and again, that's killing people. and so we want to be really careful. we're also seeing this, this goes across the united states, all ages. mr. morelle: i'm sorry to interrupt you. i want to ask one quick follow-up. you have been in consultation with the major platforms about advertising those on social media? ms. milgram: we are pushing social media very hard to do more. i don't think we would get to

107,941 deaths if not for the scale and scope of social media. and again, we are asking them to take a zero tolerance policy, to raise public awareness. there are a host of things we're pushing them to do. mr. morelle: thank you for your service. mr. chairman, thank you so much. i yield back. mr. rogers: the d.e.a.'s budget request outlines a substantial increase, substantial increase for counterthreat teams to combat fentanyl. while you're having so much trouble operating abroad, and don't appear to be receiving the necessary support from the administration, how can we be assured that we're making a smart investment in the agency at this time? ms. milgram: we did talk about it being difficult to work in some parts of the world but we

have incredible foreign partners. i've met with dozens of foreign partners over the last year and we have incredible cooperation as the united states of america. i was at the law enforcement meeting just last week here in washington and our relationships and our partnerships are very strong and the work we're doing together is very effective. so on the counterthreat teams, the reason this is a top priority for us is that this lets us pull together every single piece of information from across d.e.a., from every investigation, every seizure, and it allows us to do it at a strategic level, to do, if you think about targeting the entire network, which is the switch we've made, we need all that information to be pulled together so we can identify the key vulnerabilities and now take this next step forward to share that information with the intelligence community and get to a point where we together can figure out what is the right way to dismantle these organizations. mr. rogers: how is the agency planning to measure the success of these new intelligence-driven

initiatives? and what progress have we seen so far? ms. milgram: so we measure success in a number of ways. we -- as i said, we have a weekly meeting where we hold ourselves accountable because you can have the best plan but if you're not executing on that plan, you're not going to get something done. we're actively looking at a number of things. first, of course, as i said earlier, the one number that matters and the one number we care about above all is american lives. in terms of our internal work, we measure a number of things, including how many active investigations we have. we right now have more than 2,000 against the two cartels. how we're able to identify how many members of those cartels -- we're able to identify, where leads are being sent, where prosecutions are being done, and as we work across the entire network, we're tracking this in each part of the network. and that lets us say, ok, how many operations do we have going on precursor chemicals? do we have enough? are there other ways we can

bring them? so we're using the metrics really to drive us to work in a strategic way. and then again, we always measure, for example, the amount of fentanyl we've seized every single deadly dose off the street we spwhraoefb a potential -- we believe is a potential life saved. we take that seriously as well. mr. rogers: i understand you're conducting a review of your foreign operations. that could lead to possible closures or relocations of certain foreign officers. is that correct? ms. milgram: we had a foreign review report that came out about a year ago and had 17 different recommendations. we've taken on a number of those recommendations, including running a foreign footprint review. so for the first time in many years we've asked the question, you know, where should d.e.a. be? what is the threat posed to the united states from drugs coming from or through those countrys? what is the risk of operating in that region? and how much operational capability do we have?

so that's ongoing and we will make hard decisions at the end because we need to be in the countries that will allow us to be most effective to combat this threat. mr. rogers: this concludes today's hearing. we thank you for your service to the country. ms. milgram: thank you. mr. rogers: and the fight that you're making and one of the most important developments in our nation's history, that is the fentanyl action that we talked about today. so thank you for your service and thank you for doing a great job as the d.e.a. administrator. tough chore. ms. milgram: thank you, sir. mr. rogers: mr. cartwright, do you have anything to add? mr. cartwright: no further questions, mr. chairman. thank you. wrongs ropblgs thank you for coming. and -- mr. rogers: thank you for coming. without objection, all member will have seven days to submit additional questions for the witness or additional materials

for the record. with that, the hear something adjourned -- hearing is adjourned. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024]

>> the.s. house is back at noon eastern today to start work on four bills, including one that would add aitizenship question to the census beginning in030. and another measure changing efficiency standards for home appliances. later, lawmakers will vote on overriding president biden's veto of a billepealing joint employer standards used in collective bargaining. also today, representati managerry taylor greene is scheduled -- marjorie taylor greene ischeduled to have another meeting with speaker mike johnson. she plans to offer a tion in week to remove -- this week to remove speaker johnson from his position. as always, live coverage of the u.s. house on spao*ep. -- on c-span. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we're funded by these television companies and more. including cox.

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