GOP Rep Virginia Foxx Holds Opioid And Coal Stocks Amid NC Overdose Crisis And Hundreds Of Mine Safety Penalties

Republican North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx held opioid and coal company stocks amid the state’s overdose crisis and hundreds of mine safety penalties, according to records reviewed by the Daily Caller.

As of May 2025, Foxx held between $15,001 and $50,000 in AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) stock, according to her annual Personal Financial Disclosure (PFD) filed with the House Clerk. (RELATED: Fourth Grader Sends Letter To Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx. It Wasn’t Quite What You Would Expect)

AbbVie, a global biopharmaceutical company, acquired Allergan for $63 billion in 2020, assuming its opioid-related liabilities as part of the transaction.

NEW: Virginia Foxx, a multi-millionaire and one of Congress’s most active stock traders, was just appointed chair of the House labor committee, now renamed the "Education and Workforce" panel. Foxx will oversee an array of companies whose stocks she owns. https://t.co/mFwKPR4jqx

Allergan agreed to a $2.37 billion settlement in 2022 with North Carolina over allegations it contributed to the opioid crisis by “overstating the benefits of opioids, downplaying the risk of addiction, and failing to maintain effective controls to prevent opioid diversion,” according to the North Carolina Department of Justice press release. Under the agreement, Allergan was required to “stop selling opioids for the next 10 years.”

Over her career, Foxx has received more than $93,000 from the pharmaceutical and health products industry, including individual and PAC donations, according to OpenSecrets.

The opioid crisis has had a significant impact on children in North Carolina. The number of children in foster care custody in Western North Carolina increased by about 56 percent between 2010 and 2018, with social workers saying three in four cases were linked to opioid abuse. Former Buncombe County social services director Tammy Shook described the children affected, to the outlet, as a “lost generation,” according to an Asheville Citizen-Times report.

Foxx’s legislative record includes support for measures addressing the opioid epidemic, including the bipartisan Support for Patients and Communities Act in 2018 and the RETURN Act in 2022, which sought to facilitate the destruction of unused opioids. Neither measure specifically targeted pharmaceutical manufacturers or strengthened enforcement against companies over their role in the opioid crisis, and Foxx has not sponsored legislation identified by the Caller that specifically targeted opioid manufacturers.

Separately, Foxx has held significant investments in other industries facing regulatory scrutiny. Her 2023 financial disclosure reported between $50,001 and $100,000 in Alliance Resource Partners (ARLP) stock, along with up to $15,000 in partnership distributions. (RELATED: ‘Tougher Than A $2 Steak’: GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx Injured After Fall, Critical Vote On First Day Of Congress)

ARLP and its subsidiaries have accumulated more than 900 workplace safety penalties since 2000, according to Good Jobs First’s Violation Tracker.

According to Capitol Trades, she made 20 ARLP transactions totaling roughly $209,000, including 17 purchases.

At ARLP’s Mountain View Mine in West Virginia, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has issued 827 penalties since 2019, according to the West Virginia Gazette-Mail report.

Foxx chaired the House Education and Workforce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Department of Labor from 2017 to 2019 and again from January 2023 through January 2025.

A CDC report found that increased silica exposure has contributed to black lung as miners increasingly cut through rock to reach thinner coal seams.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s final silica rule is reckless and unworkable and was pushed through without proper stakeholder consideration. @virginiafoxx’s statement⤵️ https://t.co/e5YfJnJxEL

Foxx emphasized the silica rule’s compliance costs, citing a $162 million estimate from the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association, according to the House Education and Workforce Committee press release.

After the rule was finalized in April 2024, she called it “wrongheaded recklessness” and accused the Department of Labor of “economic illiteracy.”

Meanwhile, House Republicans on Foxx’s committee backed a provision that would block the Department of Labor from using federal funds to enforce the silica rule, drawing condemnation from the United Mine Workers of America and other mine-safety advocates, according to the Associated Press.

House Rules Chair @virginiafoxx tells 535 one proposed rule change for the next Congress had “a lot of support”: kicking the press out of the Speaker’s Lobby. “People are very irritated about the press being right off the floor.” https://t.co/NVPNEevbo2

Foxx’s criticism of the silica rule came while she held a disclosed financial interest in a coal company whose affiliated PAC contributed to her campaign. (RELATED: Colorado Threatens Its Largest Coal Mine With Sanctions As Green Groups Demand Harsher Penalties)

The Caller reached out to Foxx’s office for comment but did not receive a comment in time for publication.