Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. PORTMAN. First, Madam President, I want to thank my colleague from Rhode Island who just spoke. We did work together for the past few years in putting together this legislation, and we did it, by the way, with the House of Representatives. So Senator Whitehouse and I took good ideas wherever we could find them, in whatever part of the country it came from, including ideas from the House of Representatives. We didn't ask who had the idea; we asked whether it was a good idea. We kept this entirely nonpartisan, not just bipartisan. Therefore, we built something that makes sense for our communities back home to deal with this epidemic of prescription drug and heroin addiction and overdoses.

I appreciate his partnership in this, and I appreciate the fact that he came to the floor today to talk about the importance of moving ahead with this legislation. After all, it is very rare around here to get a 94-to-1 vote on anything, and we did it on this bill. After 2\1/2\ weeks on the floor of the Senate talking about this heroin and prescription drug epidemic, every single Senator here realized this was a problem in their States, and 94 Senators stood up and agreed this legislation will help address it.

By the way, since we passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or CARA, as it is called, on March 10 in the Senate, 42 days have passed. That is more than a month. Every day, we lose about 120 Americans--120 Americans--to drug overdoses. That means in these 42 days we have lost over 5,000 fellow American citizens to drug overdoses. Think about that.

I do urge the House to act and act quickly. These numbers keep getting higher and higher. This is not getting better. Back in Ohio, this is getting worse, and I assume the same is true in your State, if you are a Senator or if you are a Member of the House of Representatives in your district.

Since 2007, we have looked at these numbers, and drug overdoses have killed more Ohioans than car accidents. It is now the No. 1 cause of accidental death in Ohio. It has tripled from 1999 to 2010. We are now told, by the way, that 200,000 Ohioans are addicted to opioids--opioids are prescription drugs--and heroin-- 200,000 Ohioans. That is the size of a significant city in any State represented here in this body or any district on the other side.

In fact, it is the same size as the city of Akron, OH, where I was on Monday of this week, meeting with their opioid task force. They are alarmed at what is happening, and they want to be sure we are making every possible effort we can on the prevention side, the education side, to get more people into treatment, to get them into longer term recovery, to provide police officers and other first responders with Narcan, the miracle drug they need to stop overdoses from turning into a death. They want our help. They support the CARA legislation. They need it, and they need it now.

The Cincinnati Enquirer had some really troubling news last week. They wrote a story about a new poll that is out. It is a group called Interact for Health. They do an annual Ohio health issues poll. They found in the poll in 2014 that 2 of every 10 Ohioans knew someone who was abusing prescription drugs. A year later, it is 3 in 10, so this is not getting better. This is getting worse. By the way, this is just prescription drugs. And by the way, of the 3 in 10 who knew somebody who is abusing prescription drugs, 4 in 10--4 in 10--knew somebody who had overdosed on those prescription drugs. So these percentages are increasing across the board--every age group, every education level, every income level. There is no demographic, no ZIP Code, no State, no city, and no county that is safe from this epidemic. It is spreading, and it is spreading everywhere.

This poll is another indication that we have a lot of work to do. This should be a motivation for us. This should get us to pass this legislation. And, yes, can we work on additional legislation? Of course, we can and should. I am encouraged that the House is taking up new bills and looking at this in different ways. That is good. But we know here in the Senate and over in the House that this CARA legislation will help and will help now.

By the way, there are over 120 cosponsors of the CARA legislation in the House. Not only did we work with them and introduce identical legislation in the House and the Senate, anticipating this day when we could pass it in one House, but we wanted to pass it quickly in the other House and get it to the President for his signature. There are over 120 cosponsors over there. It is bipartisan.

Think of the impact we could have on the community if we could get this passed. If we could turn around just one life, it matters, and we know this can save many lives and make many people begin to look at this issue differently--that this is a disease. Addiction is a disease and needs to be treated as such. Removing some of that stigma alone will bring a lot more people into treatment, and that is part of what is important about this legislation.

There is another issue that is not prescription drugs, and it is not heroin, but it is another issue related to it, and that is fentanyl. Fentanyl is being laced with heroin throughout the country. In Cleveland, OH, a couple of weeks ago, we lost 12 people--12 people--in 6 days to overdoses. That is one city. This was heroin, but it was laced with this even more dangerous toxic substance called fentanyl. By the way, it comes in the mail. The drug dealers are shipping it in the mail.

Fentanyl is so toxic--10 to 30 to 40 times more toxic than heroin-- that it is dangerous even to open up the mail if you are an inspector, we are told. We had a hearing on this just this week. We talked to the Customs and Border Patrol people: Our question was, Why can't we stop this stuff from coming in? This, unfortunately, is something that is also increasing. Ohio, they say, is one of the top States in the country in terms of fentanyl overdoses. But I will tell those who have not dealt with this fentanyl issue yet that it creates even more issues because it is so deadly.

After 3 years of work on this CARA legislation, Senator Whitehouse and I and others, including Senators on both sides of the aisle--we did hold five forums, as he said, on various aspects of this debate. We consulted with the experts on treatment and recovery, the experts who are focused on how to keep kids and other people from making these bad decisions in the prevention and the education community. We met with the drug experts from the administration, such as the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. We brought in people from all over the country, including from my home State of Ohio.

This is the third time I have come to the floor. I have come once every week that we have been in session since we passed it to say to the House: Let's move on CARA. Let's get it done. It will help immediately.

The majority leader in the House has said he wants the House to take on the drug epidemic and pass legislation soon. I believe him. He is a good man. I appreciate that. But I would ask him again to please work on the other legislation. It is fine to take them through hearings and markups, but we cannot delay. We know CARA will work, and it will work now. It is sitting over there and ready for action. It can be taken to the floor immediately under suspension and can be passed. We are one vote away from having this go to the President and having it go to help in our communities.

The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Fred Upton, who is a good friend and a man with a big heart and cares about this issue, has said he would like the House to move quickly with, as he said, an ``all hands on deck effort.'' Good for him.

One of his subcommittees, the Health Subcommittee, recently marked up a dozen bills. This happened yesterday; they marked up 12 bills. Look at those bills. A number of them are actually a part of CARA already. They are in CARA. They are smaller bills. None of them is comprehensive, like CARA.

One reason we have to get CARA passed is this is a problem that has to be addressed from all angles, from all sectors, and that is why it has to be comprehensive. But of those 12 bills that were marked up yesterday, many of them are identical, and others are very similar to the CARA legislation. So this shouldn't slow us down. In fact, it is even more an indication that if these are the kinds of bills the House thinks are the right way to go, let's get CARA passed and then we can work on the other legislative ideas Members may have.

I respect my colleagues--Chairman Upton, the majority leader over there, and Chairman Pence, the chairman of the subcommittee and also a guy who cares a lot about this issue--but let's give CARA a vote. There are 125 cosponsors. That is the latest number I have as of this morning, and the number keeps growing. It is bipartisan, it is bicameral, and it is the right thing to do.

Again, I know there are other ideas out there, and that is fine. We need to take those up as well. But let's go ahead and get this passed. Put it under suspension, and take it to the floor. It will pass. We are one vote away from having this help our communities.

CARA is not just comprehensive; it does the right thing in terms of focusing on what is evidence based. In other words, we didn't just say ``Let's throw more money at this problem,'' we said ``Let's actually find out what is working and what is not working.''

I was in Dayton, OH, with a group called Project C.U.R.E. on Friday. I had the chance to visit with some of the administrators there, some of the recovery coaches, as they call themselves, many of whom, by the way, are recovering themselves. They are doing an amazing job. I talked to many of the patients who were there. They are people who are recovering addicts. Some have been clean for 2 weeks, some clean for 2 years. But I asked them the same question I ask all over our State: What works? What doesn't work? How did this happen?

Most of them, by the way, told me the same story you hear time and again: It started with prescription drugs. In fact, one story was from a man by the name of Anthony. He dropped out of high school at age 14, got into drugs, and made some mistakes in his life, which he readily acknowledges. He ended up in prison. He said he had eight convictions and was in and out of prison, in and out of the drug world. He decided to go straight. He made a decision. For him, a lot of it was faith based and a lot was being sure he was going to be able to take care of his family and be a contributing member of his community, so he gave back.

Anthony had a good job, had gotten married, and was on the right track. He was on his way to work one day, and he was in a car accident. For those experts who are listening to this today, you probably know happened. I don't even have to tell you. When he got in the car accident, he was injured. They sent him to the hospital. What did they give him at the hospital? Narcotic pain pills, Percocet, prescription drugs.

Immediately--immediately--Anthony became addicted again. He is now struggling, but he is back at the treatment center. He is getting his life back together again. But in the meantime he has lost his family because the drugs became everything. He lost his job because the drugs became everything.

We talk a lot about the overdoses, and they are horrible--120 Americans a day. We don't talk enough about those who aren't overdosing but who have lost their ability to achieve their own God-given purpose in life because the drugs are everything. So they have lost their families--torn apart. They have lost their jobs. They have lost their ability to be contributing members of our society. And those people who get into treatment and longer term recovery, as Anthony is doing, can turn their lives around. There is hope. It can work.

Anthony is back for a second chance. Having talked to him, I believe he is not just on the right track but he will work through this. This legislation is needed to help him.

When I do meet with recovering addicts, I ask them to look at the legislation, look at the summaries, and tell me what they think. What they tell me is they like it because they are convinced it would help others to have the access to treatment they have. Probably only 1 out of 10 of those people who are addicted are getting treatment. That is the best number I have. Maybe it is a little higher than that in your State or congressional district, but this is an issue where, if we provide more resources for treatment and begin to remove that stigma around treatment and get more people into a system where they can begin to get their lives back together with treatment, we know that works.

Our legislation supports veterans task forces and veterans courts because we know this will help with our veterans who are coming back with PTSD, 20 percent of whom have this addiction. People say it is self-medicating. They have self-medicated to the point that they are now addicts. We need to put them not into a prison cell but into a treatment program. That is what these veterans courts do, and they surround these veterans with other veterans. They do an awesome job. I have been to them in Ohio. You have them probably in your State. If you don't, this legislation will help because it creates more veterans courts.

We have talked on the floor before about the fact that there has been a huge increase--a 750 percent increase in the State of Ohio--in babies born with addiction. That is just in the last 12 years in Ohio. Go to any neonatal unit in your State or congressional district, and you will see these babies. They are being lovingly cared for by doctors and nurses. They are taking these addicted babies you could hold in the palm of your hand, and they are literally taking them through withdrawal. They have to because these babies are addicted and showing the symptoms you might see in an adult of addiction.

We don't know what the long-term consequences are. We are having a hearing on this tomorrow in Cleveland, OH, at one of our great hospitals--University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital. It is one of the best children's hospitals in the country. Their neonatal unit is doing awesome work. I have been there and seen it. We are going to talk to the experts about this and how we can do even better to help these babies. But wouldn't it be great if we didn't have so many babies born with addiction because mothers, knowing the consequences, dealt with their addiction problem to avoid it through prevention and education efforts? Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have this 750-percent increase in children whose futures are uncertain because of being born with this addiction?

Again, there is hope. I have been to a women's recovery center in Cleveland and Columbus and also in Eastern Ohio and Athens, OH, where I have met with women in long-term recovery with drug addiction. They are there with their kids. There is hope.

With this legislation, we do have the ability to give people more hope. Getting rid of that stigma, not judging people, is part of beating this epidemic, and CARA will do that by treating addiction like a disease.

There is an opportunity for us to move, and move quickly, to address this growing crisis we have in our States and our communities; that is, to pass this CARA legislation. Is it all we should do? No. Of course we should do more. I know the House of Representatives will have some great ideas. I know there are some great ideas in this body. The HELP Committee is working on additional ideas on how to get more medicine into this area of addiction, science, and treatment. They are working on ways to ensure that we can provide more help to people. That is great, and we should continue to work on that.

Meanwhile, we know this legislation will help. We know that if it is sitting on the desk in the House of Representatives, having passed the Senate by a 94-to-1 vote, it is not going to help. But we know if it can get off the desk and onto the floor for a vote, we are one vote away from getting it to our communities to begin to help, to keep people from making the wrong decision--but then if they get into a drug addiction, it can help them to be able to turn their lives around and to achieve their potential in life, their God-given potential.

That is what this argument is about. It is not about the fact that the Senate has all the answers. By the way, we wrote this legislation with the House. They were engaged from the start. We introduced identical bills and they had 125 cosponsors. All we are saying is, let's let this one piece of legislation go, let's allow it to begin to help right away, and then let's continue to work on other ideas.

Again, we have lost nearly 5,000 Americans to drug overdoses since the Senate passed CARA with a 94-to-1 vote. To begin to reverse this tide--this trend of addiction, of overdoses--we can and should act now. It is urgent. There is a crisis. There is no time to waste.

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