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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, we all want safety, security, health and well-being for all of our fellow Americans. But it sometimes seems impossible for us to agree on how best to achieve them. So when Congress comes together to find solutions to an urgent crisis facing the country, we should pause briefly, mark that achievement, and consider how we got there.
That is what I hope will happen this week when the Senate votes on the conference report for S. 524, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or CARA.
CARA addresses the opioid crisis in a comprehensive way, by authorizing almost $900 million over 5 years for prevention, education, treatment, recovery, and law enforcement efforts. Last week, the House of Representatives passed the report by an astounding margin of 407 to 5.
We have all heard the statistics about the epidemic of addiction to heroin and prescription opioids that is gripping our country. I won't belabor them today. When 129 Americans a day die from drug overdoses, we don't need statistics on a page to tell us about this catastrophe. We only need to listen to our constituents. I hear from Iowans all the time about real-life examples of how this epidemic is hitting home.
A few years ago, I heard the story of Kim Brown, a nurse from Davenport. In 2011, she lost her son Andy Lamp to an accidental heroin overdose. He was only 33. She now speaks out around my State about the need for expanded treatment options for those with substance abuse disorders. She also advocates for increased access to naloxone, an anti-overdose drug that can save lives.
I heard Kim Brown's plea--and the conference report helps fill these and other critical gaps. I urge the entire Senate to demonstrate that it has heard her, and thousands like her, by passing the conference report, and sending it to the President for his signature before we return home.
The Senate's vote this week will be the culmination of a process marked by hard work, bipartisanship, and a commitment to addressing this crisis in an all-encompassing way.
I convened a hearing on attacking the opioid epidemic in the Senate Judiciary Committee in January. The Committee heard from Federal and State officials in the law enforcement and public health communities. We also heard from a courageous young woman who lost her daughter to a heroin overdose and subsequently started a support group to assist those in recovery.
The hearing continued for well over 3 three hours. Senators who aren't even members of the Committee stopped in to listen, and learn. By that time, a bipartisan group of four Senators had already introduced CARA. Soon after the hearing, I sat down with Senators Whitehouse, Portman, Klobuchar, and Ayotte--two Democrats and two Republicans--to build on their outstanding work. The leadership of those four Senators on this issue has been indispensable.
We agreed on some changes to CARA that facilitated its movement through the Judiciary Committee. In particular, I worked to include my accountability provisions, which help prevent waste, fraud, and abuse of grant funds, and ensure that resources go to those who need them most.
I also helped make sure that a fixed portion of the funds for first responder access to naloxone is set aside for rural areas, like much of Iowa, where access to emergency healthcare can be limited.
And finally, because methamphetamine remains such a problem in Iowa, I made sure that the community-based coalition enhancement grants created by the bill would also be available for communities suffering from high rates of meth abuse, in addition to opioid abuse. In fact, these enhancement grants are intended to supplement grants made to community coalitions under the Drug Free Communities Act of 1997. I am proud to have been the lead sponsor of that legislation in the Senate.
The CARA Grassley substitute, with these changes, passed the Judiciary Committee unanimously by voice vote in February. I then managed the bill on the Senate floor, where it was approved 94 to-1 in March. Tackling important problems in a bipartisan way is important to me. That is why, as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I have moved eight bills through the Committee, CARA among them, for which the lead sponsor was a member of the Democratic minority. By way of comparison, last Congress the Committee didn't report a single bill for which the lead sponsor was a Republican in the minority. And every one of the 27 bills I have moved through the Committee this Congress has had bipartisan support. That isn't just talking the talk on bipartisanship, it is walking the walk.
After the Senate acted on CARA, the House of Representatives passed its own package of bills by a vote of 400 to 5 in May. And so the task fell to a bicameral, bipartisan committee to develop a conference report that would blend the best of the two approaches together. I led the Senate delegation that negotiated the report, along with Senator Alexander, Chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. We concluded weeks of hard work and negotiations with a conference committee meeting on July 6. I voted for a number of improvements to the report during the meeting, offered by both Republicans and Democrats.
In particular, I was proud to support Senator Murray's amendment that will create an Office of Patient Advocacy at the Department of Veterans Affairs to help ensure our veterans receive the care they deserve.
I am also pleased that the CARA conference report includes a bill that I introduced with Senator Klobuchar, the Kingpin Designation Improvement Act. This bill strengthens the ability of the Federal Government to freeze the assets of foreign drug kingpins, who traffic opioids, methamphetamine and other illegal narcotics into the United States.
There are other parts of CARA that I feel passionately about as well. Many people who abuse prescription drugs get them from friends or relatives. CARA authorizes an expansion of the Federal initiative that allows patients to safely dispose of old or unused medications, so that these drugs don't fall into the hands of young people, potentially leading to addiction. I am proud to have helped start these ``take back'' programs by working with Senators Klobuchar and Cornyn in 2010 to pass the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act. It has been a highly successful effort. Since 2010, over 2,700 tons of drugs have been collected from medicine cabinets and disposed of safely. Iowa also has a similar ``take back'' program that is expanding rapidly. Anything we can to do to encourage these programs is worthwhile.
CARA also authorizes funds for other valuable programs: those that encourage the use of medication assisted treatment, provide community- based support for those in recovery, and address the unique needs of pregnant and post-partum women who are addicted to opioids.
It is no wonder that the CARA conference report has been met with such widespread praise and support. The Addiction Policy Forum called it a ``monumental step forward.'' Almost 250 advocacy organizations have written to Congress in support of the report, concluding that ``this bill is the critical response we need.'' These organizations include many influential national ones, such as the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, the National Criminal Justice Association, and the National District Attorneys Association.
Iowa community organizations are well-represented in that group as well, including the Partnership for a Drug Free Iowa, Kossuth Connections, Siouxland Cares, the Iowa Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, Community Resources United to Stop Heroin of Eastern Iowa-- Dubuque Chapter, Quad Cities Harm Reduction, which Kim Brown leads, and many more.
The National Fraternal Order of Police wrote in support of the conference report as well. The FOP explained that:
Law enforcement officers are almost always the first on the scene--even before the paramedics arrive. In these life and death situations, our officers are not looking to make an arrest, but to save a life. Many States and jurisdictions have successfully equipped their officers with [naloxone], trained them to recognize the symptoms of an overdose, and administer it on the scene. We believe that the final conference report on S. 524 will help expand the use of naloxone and give us one more tool to reduce the deaths from this epidemic.
It isn't every day we can say that legislation we pass could help save lives. But this is one of those times. I want to thank the Republican leader for moving this legislation on the floor, and providing the Senate the opportunity to pass it this week.
Indeed, heroin deaths spiked dramatically from 2010 through 2014, more than tripling, from 3,036 to 10,574. But sadly, during this entire time, the Democratic leader didn't make it a priority to move comprehensive, bipartisan legislation on the floor to address this epidemic.
Now, some of my colleagues have expressed concern that the conference report, an authorization bill, doesn't also appropriate money for this epidemic as well. But thankfully, under Republican leadership, the appropriations committees have been doing just that. The current Senate appropriations bills increase funding for this epidemic by 57 percent over fiscal year 2016 enacted levels, and by 115 percent over fiscal year 2015 enacted levels. So funding for this crisis is poised to more than double since Republicans took control of the Senate. As this funding continues to increase, the CARA conference report will be the blueprint for where this money is most effectively spent.
This bill is just the latest example of the productive, bipartisan work we have been doing on the Judiciary Committee this Congress. I want to thank all of the Members for their hard work and for our achievements together.
So I urge my colleagues to vote to send CARA to the President this week. And when we come back in September, let's roll up our sleeves and continue to build on this bipartisan success.
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