OSHKOSH – Last week, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led a roundtable on the crisis at our southern border to discuss the negative impacts of open border policies and bring awareness to the deadly effects of the unregulated fentanyl. Roundtable panelist Lauri Badura, mother of a fentanyl victim and founder of Saving Others For Archie, spoke extensively about her advocacy for national action in the opioid epidemic. On Sunday, Lauri appeared on Fox and Friends Weekend to bring awareness to the fentanyl crisis and urge the Biden administration to take action to prevent the flood of fentanyl through our southern border.

“I'm pleading with our administration to do something. We have to do something about this border. It's flooding. It's killing our families. We're losing our nation of young adults,” said Lauri Badura.

In an effort to combat the growing fentanyl crisis, Sen. Ron Johnson introduced the Stopping Overdoses of Fentanyl Analogues (SOFA) Act in 2017, 2019 and 2021 to give law enforcement enhanced tools to combat the opioid epidemic and close a loophole in current law that makes it difficult to prosecute crimes involving some synthetic opioids. The Trump Administration enacted SOFA through regulation in 2018, and Congress has extended the regulation multiple times since then. The current regulation is set to expire at the end of 2022.  Sen. Johnson continues to call on his colleagues in Congress to pass the SOFA Act to put these changes into law.   

Lauri’s full segment on Fox & Friends can be found here. Highlights are below.

On losing her son to fentanyl

“No mother wants to wake up and have to find the news that their child has been taken. This is something that is taking over America. This is the biggest crisis, I think, that we've ever faced as a nation. My son was 19 years old, and it was 2014. So this is really when fentanyl wasn't even talked about. It was a substance that was laced, and he had no idea that he was not going to wake up and that he was going to die. Archie was beautiful – blue eyes, kind-hearted and full of life. And our family is devastated. My husband Andy and my son Augie, we go every single day with our hearts broken, and we refuse to not tell others across America. My plea today is not just to parents. It is to the public. This is something that we need to do as a country. We need to. We have so much the DEA is bringing in – all of these drugs that they're stopping. But what about the drugs that they're not stopping? That's getting into all of our family members, and it could be your nephew, your cousin.

On advocating for fentanyl overdose awareness

“I tell you, I started this billboard campaign. It's in Times Square. I did it with Song for Charlie and Love, Logan – two other parents that lost their children along with 16 other faces. Just because of this day, it's in Manhattan. I'm asking people to please go and look at that billboard on the corner of Broadway and W 43rd St., and please, look up. I asked the mayor. I asked HHS. I didn't hear from anybody in New York, but we have to work together as a nation. And I'm pleading with our administration to do something. We have to do something about this border. It's flooding. It's killing our family. We're losing our nation of young adults.”

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