Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. TILLIS. I thank the Presiding Officer.
Mr. President, I didn't have any intention to speak today, but one of the blessings of being a freshman Member is you get the opportunity to preside and hear the arguments that are going on in the Chamber and the discussion about the SCOTUS nomination. We are going to have to agree to disagree with our friends from across the aisle on the SCOTUS nomination.
Let's take a look at what is going on here.
In North Carolina, over the past 24 hours, some four people have died of a drug overdose. We had more deaths associated with drug overdoses than we had with car accidents last year.
So what is going on here? Back in 2008, there was an opioid epidemic. There was a supermajority in the U.S. Senate. There was a Democrat in the White House and a majority in the House of Representatives. No action. In 2010, the epidemic was growing. In places in New England, in the Midwest, down in the South, people were dying. Yet there was no action.
Now this Congress has taken action. I think it is time to move the CARA bill. To hold hostage the CARA bill and shift the discussion to a genuine disagreement we have with the minority on SCOTUS is literally costing lives.
For those who sit here and want to hold up the CARA bill for the purposes of discussing the SCOTUS nomination, we don't even have a nominee yet. There is going to be plenty of time in committee and plenty of time on the floor to debate this difference of opinion between the minority and the majority. But in the meantime, for people who would hold up passing the CARA bill over the SCOTUS nomination, what are you going to tell the two people--last week, two friends of mine, when they heard my speech on the Senate floor, came to me and said: Thank you for moving this bill. I lost my son a year and a half ago.
Two of my friends have told me: Thank you for helping us increase the visibility and get to a point to where we are saving these lives.
Those who would hold up the CARA bill, what are you going the tell the first responders who, if they had naloxone, could have potentially saved the life of somebody who has fallen on the floor and died? What are you going to tell them? What are you going to tell the law enforcement officers who are trying to help people live who have succumbed to addiction and opioid abuse? What are you going to tell them by holding up this bill? What are you going to tell the parents who are struggling, who need help with education, who need help with their incarcerated children who may have succumbed to addiction, who did a wrong thing and are in prison and now need help? They need to be rehabilitated. They need to be saved.
At some point, we need to recognize that we do need to do things separately. We need to recognize that it is disgraceful to hold up the CARA bill over a genuine disagreement we are going to have for months.
I am one of the Senators in the Judiciary Committee who signed the letter. I do not believe that until we hear the vote of the people, we should hear a SCOTUS nomination. But I am not here to talk about SCOTUS today. I am here to talk about saving lives. I am here to talk about addressing the addiction problem that is growing. I am here to talk about the sad, heartbreaking stories of families across this Nation who are starving for help.
This bill helps. This bill appropriates over $100 million that can be spent between now and the end of September to save lives. If I come to the floor tomorrow, I am going to be talking about four more lives that have been lost in North Carolina, some that could have been saved if we would just do our job. There is a lot of discussion about doing our job, right? Let's do our job and get CARA passed.
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Mr. TILLIS. I yield.
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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I actually was speaker of the house in North Carolina for 4 years. I like a good scrap. I don't have any problem with going to a committee hearing and explaining why I have taken the position I have on the judicial nomination. But that is not what I am talking about today. I am talking about over the next 24 hours, four more people are going to die from overdoses in North Carolina. I am trying to figure out what I say to that mother and that father to say, well, gosh, you know, things got gummed up here because we decided to connect two unrelated issues. One has to do with the Supreme Court nomination, and that is very important. It is critically important. I get that. But what is more important than saving lives of people who we know are going to die? The data is compelling.
Folks, we have to get to a point where we get Washington working again, and you don't do it by playing chess. I am not an attorney. I am not a constitutional scholar. But I am a father and somebody who spends a lot of time in my State. I think we have reached a point where we need to get serious with it. We are creating obstacles on CARA that don't exist. People are absolutely costing lives by failing to move on this bill.
Let's have a fight. Let's have a committee hearing. I like a good scrap. I am looking forward to having that debate. I am looking forward to the history of other positions that have been taken by my friends across the aisle on how to dispose of nominations from the President. I am happy to do that. But I want this bill passed. I want to be able to go back to the people in North Carolina and say: We are doing everything we possibly can to save lives. That is what CARA does. That is why we need to act.
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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, we were supposed to be here moving the bill forward. We need to make it clear that we were going to vote on amendments on CARA today to draw down the backlog and move the bill. The Presiding Officer decided to have the meeting off the floor so that we could move judicial nominations. We weren't going to take up legislation there.
I think what we need to do is get back to the work of disposing of amendments, making the bill better potentially, and getting it to the House and getting it to the President's desk. That is what I am talking about. This is the capacity. We have limited capacity in this Chamber. You all know the procedural games you can play around here. The limitations of time are numerous. We are just creating more of that. We are gumming up the works while people are dying. One person every 6 hours in the State of North Carolina is dying from a drug overdose. If we delay by 6 hours, we are responsible for a life in North Carolina. These are lives we can save. We need to dispose of the amendments on this bill and move it to the House.
Mr. President, I apologize if I am angry, but when lives are involved, when youth is involved, I think it is time for us to do our job. Our job is to dispose of amendments and move this bill to the House of Representatives.
Thank you.
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Mr. TILLIS. Yes, sir.
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Mr. TILLIS. I say to Senator Schumer, it is true.
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Mr. TILLIS. But I don't see its relevance to the task at hand. That is the problem----
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Mr. TILLIS. If I may completely answer the question, that is the problem with this process. I hear that. I see the Kabuki dances going on. What I want to do is dispose of the amendments on the CARA bill and do our job. Let's do our job. Our job is to pass legislation and in this case save lives. So I get that we need to do the other things, but let's get to the task at hand. Let's do our job. I am prepared to do the job. I will stay here all weekend long. I will work 24/7 until this bill gets passed. Why don't we focus on that and introduce a little humanity into the discussion? I get the procedural issues. We need to have the debates in Judiciary. I am perfectly happy to do that. I want this bill passed. I want Members to come down to this floor, pass amendments, draw down the queue, and send this bill to the President's desk.
Let's do our job. I am prepared to do my job today, tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, and through all of next week if that is what it takes to get this done. I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will be too.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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