Providing for Consideration of H.R. Stop the Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogues Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Transitional Housing for Recovery in Viable Environments Demonstration Program Act; and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Securing the International Mail Against Opioids Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I oppose this rule. This week the House is considering dozens of bills to combat the opioid epidemic. These are small bipartisan bills that we all support, but they are simply not enough.

Our country is in the midst of the greatest public health emergency in decades. We have all heard the grim statistics, so I won't repeat them, yet none of the bills that we are considering this week provide the dedicated and sustained resources we need to combat this crisis.

President Trump's own Council of Economic Advisers found that the opioid crisis likely cost our Nation more than $500 billion in just 1 year. We cannot just nibble around the edges. We cannot just rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. We must treat the opioid epidemic like the true public health emergency that it is.

I offered an amendment that could have changed this, but the House is not being allowed to consider it. Earlier this year, I introduced the CARE Act, with Senator Elizabeth Warren, modeled directly on the highly successful Ryan White Act, which the Congress passed with bipartisan support in 1990 to address the AIDS crisis.

My amendment would invest in comprehensive, evidence-based treatment for opioid and substance use disorders by authorizing up to $100 billion over 10 years to help States, localities, nonprofits, the CDC, the NIH, and other public health entities working on the front lines of this epidemic to save so many lives.

The CARE Act has been endorsed by more than 30 organizations, including provider groups, local government associations, and public health organizations. My Republican colleagues blocked it from being considered.

They argue that we do not have the money to pay for it. My amendment would have been fully paid for by rolling back just a fraction of the tax giveaways that my Republican colleagues and President Trump handed out to drug companies and other wealthy corporations.

Mr. Speaker, do you know what the drug companies did with their massive tax cuts? They pocketed the money. Then they announced that they would spend tens of billions of dollars buying back their own stock to benefit their shareholders. So far, they have announced stock buybacks totaling $50 billion, and Pfizer and AbbVie, both companies that sell and market opioids, each announced buybacks of $10 billion.

Do we really believe it is more important to give drug companies tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks than it is to address the most deadly health crisis in three decades? Is that really where our priorities lie? I say we are better than that.

This crisis does not discriminate based on politics. People are dying in red States, blue States, and purple States. Our priorities should be saving the lives of our fellow Americans. They are counting on us to lead.

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Mr. CUMMINGS. Finally, I could not leave this podium without noting the staggering hypocrisy of those who claim that they want to help Americans struggling with substance use disorder while at the same time sabotaging the Affordable Care Act.

Right now, the Trump administration is threatening the health coverage of millions of Americans with preexisting health conditions, which include substance use disorders.

About 2.6 million people in my State of Maryland have preexisting conditions. We cannot go back to the bad old days when our family, friends, and neighbors were discriminated against because they got sick.

Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to oppose this rule.

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