To watch Senator Capito’s questions, click here or the image above.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Related Agencies (CJS), questioned U.S. Attorney General (AG) Merrick Garland on the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) budget request for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025.

During her questions, Senator Capito asked AG Garland about issues at Federal Corrections Complex (FCC) Hazelton in Bruceton Mills, W.Va. Senator Capito also asked about portions of the agency’s budget request that deal with the DOJ’s ability to catch deadly fentanyl and prosecute drug dealers. Specifically, Senator Capito referenced a bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Delegation (CODEL) trip to Mexico she took last year that included a meeting with Mexican President López Obrador and members of his administration about stemming the flow of fentanyl at the southern border.

HIGHLIGHTS:

ON RESOURCE AND STAFF SHORTAGES AT FCC HAZELTON:

SEN. CAPITO: “We wrote a letter to you, a bipartisan letter, Senator Manchin and I. We have quite a few employees at the Hazelton prison that has over 3,000 inmates. A whistleblower came forward with pretty graphic details of mismanagement, abuse, and worse, and it's a chronic problem there because I think lack of workforce and lack of ability to staff up properly. I don't know if you have any reaction to what's going on at Hazelton specifically, or do I need to follow up with you?”

AG GARLAND: “We’ll follow up, but this has come to our attention obviously, not only from the letter and, I believe, the actions were taken over the last couple of weeks, but we have more information to you. I think you're right on the problem of recruitment. It's a difficult- it's not only Hazelton, therefore it's difficult to recruit correctional officers. It's a very dangerous job in facilities that have- you know, there has not been the capital investment over the last decades, that’s required, and sometimes state and local facilities not too far away, are offering more money, in terms of salary. So, we have asked for money for our retention and hiring more than the normal salary that we would otherwise be able to pay. That's what the director thinks is going to be necessary to recruit the number of officers necessary to provide safety in our prisons.”

ON RESOURCES FOR FENTANYL INTERDICTION:

SEN. CAPITO: “We have the most, really, drug related deaths per capita than any other state and most of it is tied to fentanyl. Do you think that the $2.7 billion is an adequate budget for the DEA and how could our resources be better prioritized to reduce, and one day, eliminate the amount of deaths we experienced from fentanyl? Obviously, to stop the flow of fentanyl would be number one, but how would you respond to that?”

AG GARLAND: “We would always like more money, but we're obviously trying to live within the caps that were agreed to. I think the budget that we've asked for is a 6% increase over the enacted [bill] for [Fiscal Year] 24, it includes the addition of 40 agents, which will be very helpful. This also includes money for diversion control, which was part of the problem in quite a number of states, with respect to opioids. And then there's the money that we have available in grants with respect to, of course, state and local opioid addiction treatment and protections, so that’s the more than $490 million in counter-drug related [Office of Justice Programs] grants and through the CARE grants and the new grants.”

ON COOPERATION WITH MEXICO TO STEM THE FLOW OF FENTANYL AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER:

SEN. CAPITO: “We sat in and listened to the President of Mexico basically tell us that ‘you have a demand problem in the United States,’ and we've heard him say this publicly and that because we were imploring him to stop the flow of the chemicals that are coming in from China and then having the development, and production in Mexico, and then flowing into the United States. What is the current state of that disruption or that needed disruption between the Mexican border and the United States in terms of getting the Mexican government to cooperate with our government law enforcement to be able to shut these things down?”

AG GARLAND: “Senator, I've sat through that same discussion three times by the President of Mexico, so I'm familiar with your frustration. I would say cooperation was improving, but much, much more is required. They have increased the number of precursor chemicals on their on the list of- are going to have to be registered to come in. They have, at our request, expedited a number of the people who we've indicted: the heads of the Sinaloa Cartel, the ‘Chapitos,’ the sons of El Chapo, they have destroyed labs and, I will say in connection, for example, with the- their arrest of Ovidio, the son of El Chapo, a number of their Mexican Marines lost their lives. They are, you know, they are facing an organization, which, in many ways, has more heavy weaponry than some small countries. So, it's dangerous for them, but it is not sufficient, and that's why I keep going. That's why my Deputy Attorney General keeps going. And that's why law enforcement agencies at all the operational levels keep going, to try to get more cooperation.”

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