National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act of 2004
NATIONAL ALL SCHEDULES PRESCRIPTION ELECTRONIC REPORTING ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - October 05, 2004)
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The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) each will control 20 minutes.
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The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Texas?
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Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding me this time.
We are excited today to have on the floor this legislation relating to prescription drug abuse in the United States, which has reached epidemic proportions. Recent statistics show that 6.2 million Americans abuse prescription drugs. To help combat this problem, many States, such as my own State of Kentucky and about 20 others, have adopted prescription drug monitoring programs to assist physicians and law enforcement officials stop the abuse and prosecute those individuals who are breaking the law.
The cornerstone of most existing drug-monitoring programs is that they allow physicians access to the information before writing a prescription for a controlled substance. Physicians tell us that it is an invaluable tool in treating their patients. However, there is one glaring problem, and that is that these programs operate only intra-state. And as the gentleman from Texas (Chairman BARTON) mentioned, it is essential that we have an inter-state program.
To that end, I have been pleased to work with the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland), my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, on legislation to address this issue. This legislation, H.R. 3015, the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act, creates a grant program housed at the Department of Health and Human Services which will fund the establishment and operation of State-run prescription drug monitoring programs. It establishes standards for reporting data and governs who has access to such information and under what circumstances because of the privacy issues. From the beginning our goal has been to give physicians the tool they need to treat patients, which also provides a better mechanism to prosecute individuals who are allegedly using illegal controlled substances.
I believe this is a good bill, a balanced bill, and one that will provide States with an important tool to curb prescription drug abuse.
I would like at this time to thank all of the cosponsors and give particular thanks to the gentleman from Texas (Chairman BARTON) and the gentleman from Florida (Chairman BILIRAKIS); the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), ranking member; and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown), without all of whom we would not have been successful without their efforts to get this legislation through the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
I would also like to recognize the hard work of our committee staff, particularly Chuck Clapton and Ryan Long and John Halliwell on my staff; and, of course, we could not have done it without the Democratic committee staff, and I would also like to thank them.
I would urge all Members to vote for this important legislation.