Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments of 2007 -- Resumed

Floor Speech

INDIAN HEALTH CARE IMPROVEMENT ACT AMENDMENTS OF 2007--Resumed -- (Senate - February 13, 2008)

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise in support of the amendment and of the Senator from Montana in this effort. We are using a pretty devastating word here--scourge--but that is what we are talking about when we talk about methamphetamine use as it has come into this country and, more particularly, how it has devastated the American Indian and the Alaska native populations. What more can we be doing? What else can we do to shine the spotlight, to activate those who need to be activated in how do we make a difference? Some would suggest a sense of the Senate that encourages this action entering into a memorandum of understanding between agencies, they should be doing that anyway. They should be. They should be doing it. They should be working to streamline. They should be working to better coordinate. They should be making that difference. Let's encourage them even further by a statement such as the Senator from Montana has suggested. We need to do far more when it comes to meth use and abuse. We need to do far more when it comes to drug abuse in general. I appreciate the focus and attention to this particularly deadly scourge, that of methamphetamine. I will stand with the Senator from Montana and support the amendment.

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