Opioid and Heroin Abuse Crisis Investment Act of 2017

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I thank the gentleman for yielding the customary 30 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule that provides for consideration of H.R. 2851, H.R. 5735, and H.R. 5788. We could have done so much better. I am going to get into some of the great ideas that we talked about and amendments were submitted but didn't make it through.

This week is supposed to be about bringing bills to the floor that actually do something about the opioid crisis that is having devastating consequences on families and entire communities, including in my home State of Colorado.

Legislation to address opioid abuse and save lives is long overdue. But I am sad to say that the bills that are being brought forth make, at the most, incremental changes and will not substantially affect the plague that is affecting our country of opioid addiction, abuse, and death.

As you know, this is a crisis that cuts across State lines. It affects every congressional district in our country. I certainly know people directly affected in my constituents. I am sure every Member of Congress does.

In Colorado the rate of drug overdoses since 2000 has more than doubled. This is not a partisan issue, and I

wish we could come together around a more significant response that actually did something to combat opioid abuse.

If Republicans were serious about dealing with opioids, they would drop their assault on Medicaid. Medicaid is a critical service to help individuals battling opioid addiction, including supporting inpatient treatment centers and case managers to help get people the help they need.

Frankly, we should have a discussion about how to achieve universal healthcare. There are people today who are unable to get coverage or support to recover from the substance abuse that holds them hostage. While Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act have dramatically improved and expanded access to health coverage, including drug treatment, there are too many Americans today--in fact, over millions--who do not have health insurance.

There is no single solution to the opioid crisis. Instead, policymakers should use a multipronged approach, universal healthcare, substance abuse, and mental health treatment being one. Another prong is identifying alternative treatments, instead of highly addictive opioid compounds for pain management. That is one of the things that I am so disappointed is not being advanced to the floor.

Many States have medical marijuana available to patients with a variety of health issues, including chronic pain. Doctors across the country have prescribed medical marijuana as a legitimate treatment option for pain management. In cases where it works, it provides a less harmful alternative, a less harmful and less addictive alternative to opioids.

Opioids have a role in pain management. But if a first-line therapy like medical marijuana, acupuncture, or acupressure can work, you can prevent people from developing a dependency, because almost three- quarters of opioid abuse starts with prescription drug treatment for pain management. In some cases, those first-line treatments like medical marijuana, acupuncture, and acupressure won't work, and prescriptions to opioids have their role. But let's at least prevent some people from having to go on prescription opioids when a less harmful, less addictive, and less damaging therapy can work effectively for their pain management. I have heard from so many Coloradans for whom medical marijuana works instead of having to resort to opioids.

Unfortunately, medical marijuana is still illegal at the Federal level. There are limited research opportunities about the safety and efficacy of marijuana, and that is holding us back from really understanding how medical marijuana can be used for pain management.

I offered a very simple and commonsense amendment at the Rules Committee last night that authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to study medical marijuana as an alternative treatment option to prescription opioids, just very simply. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the VA alone has treated about 70,000 veterans for opioid addiction last year alone, but my amendment was, unfortunately, blocked from getting a vote.

The issue is personal for me, Mr. Speaker. I was able to present a Purple Heart to a veteran who lives in my district in Colorado, a young man who put his life on the line for our country. He told me that he uses medical marijuana for his pain issues and has successfully been able to take himself off of the opioids that the VA had prescribed for those pain issues.

I also offered an amendment with Representatives Pocan and Gosar last night that, unfortunately, was not even allowed to be debated here on the floor that would prevent a natural botanic substance like kratom from being scheduled under the new scheduling authority created by SITSA. Unfortunately, it was blocked.

Kratom, which is a cousin of the coffee plant, is used by many as an alternative to addictive opioids and a way of escaping addiction. I have heard from so many constituents for whom legal access to kratom is critical to their sobriety and their battle against opioid addiction.

We can very simply ensure that that legal access could be retained had this amendment been allowed. If it is cut off, as the FDA and others have been threatening, there is no doubt in my mind, nor should there be any doubt in anybody's mind, that people will resort back to deadly opioids, rather than managing through harm reduction using other compounds that are less dangerous and less deadly, be it medical marijuana or kratom.

We are debating these bills today because we know we need to take action to address the opioid epidemic that we all have felt the human face of in our communities. But instead of trying to ban substances and put more Big Government bans on top of things that people are using to recover from opioids, we should be exploring and embracing alternative treatment options to opioids.

Simply put, we need to improve access to alternative pain relief options beyond opioids like kratom and like medical marijuana, because 75 percent of opioid abuse starts with prescription drugs usually for pain management. We need to embrace that part of the solution. Increase freedom. Let Americans choose less harmful compounds that work for pain management and free people up to never become the victim of a terrible cycle of opioid addiction. Unfortunately, both of those amendments were blocked.

H.R. 2851, the Stop the Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogues Act, is a bill that would create a new schedule of drugs under the Controlled Substances Act giving even more authority to the Department of Justice to wage a failed drug war and determine which substances are illegal, sidestepping the current process for scheduling drugs, sidestepping Congress, and often sidestepping common sense. When you put Government bureaucrats in charge, they only take more power every time.

This bill creates lengthy sentencing and penalties, indulging in the over criminalization. It could harm hundreds of thousands of people battling opioid abuse by relying on incarceration and penalization, rather than treatment and helping people recover from opioid abuse.

This is a public health issue. It is not that there is not a criminal dimension; there, of course, is for cartels and smugglers. But when it comes to your niece or nephew, Mr. Speaker, your cousin or your neighbor's kid, we want to help them get better, recover their lives, and free themselves from the vicious cycle of opioid addiction. This bill does not do that.

While it is well-intended, it has serious flaws that need to be addressed. If we want to have an impact on fighting epidemics, the answer is not to give even more authority to government bureaucrats in Washington. It is to empower the American people themselves to take control of our own destiny.

The rule also provides for consideration of the THRIVE Act, that is H.R. 5735. It is a different topic, but it is related. It is designed to create housing opportunities for people suffering from substance abuse disorders.

The problem with this bill is it sets arbitrary time limits on those who seek stable housing while receiving treatment for substance use disorders, and it doesn't actually increase the supply of affordable housing.

When we are dealing with homelessness and transitory housing, we need to take meaningful action to actually increase the supply of beds for people who are in recovery. We have to walk the walk. Without funding for beds and for treatment, we are just talking around the edges and we are not really solving this problem.

The final bill under this rule is H.R. 5788, the Securing the International Mail Against Opioids Act, which is another bill that creates more paperwork for the Postal Service. Frankly, it just adds, again, another level of bureaucracy.

I am pretty sure, Mr. Speaker, that people smuggling opioids into this country don't put opioids on the Customs form. They don't say: ``We are illegally bringing opioids into the country.'' Yes, we need to do more against smuggling, but creating more forms to fill out by government bureaucrats is not the answer.

This bill is being considered under a closed rule. This is the 86th closed rule of this Congress. What that means, Mr. Speaker, is that not a single Member, Democrat or Republican, was able to

offer an amendment to this bill, the Securing the International Mail Against Opioids Act. There were good ideas from both sides that aren't even allowed to be advanced.

The Republicans continue to bring bills to floor this way that limit the opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to actually do something to stop opioid abuse. It is frustrating.

As a legislator who has a lot of ideas about what we can do to actually save lives, increase freedom, and reduce opioid abuse, which would pass--I think a lot of my ideas would get 300, 350 votes here in the House--we are not even allowed to bring them forward. It is just so frustrating when we all know the human face of people who are suffering from being caught in the vicious cycle of opioid addiction. We have seen it affect so many families, including so many of our friends and even family.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, our Nation is in the midst of a devastating opioid crisis that is spiraling out of control. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids are responsible for 6 out of 10 overdose deaths in the country. More than 115 Americans die each day from opioid overdose.

The house is on fire; yet, with these bills today, unfortunately, the Republicans are not addressing this problem in a meaningful way. The American people need strong action from Congress to stem the tide of the opioid scourge and save lives.

Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up Representative Lujan's legislation, H.R. 3495, the Opioid and Heroin Abuse Crisis Investment Act, which would make a difference by extending badly needed funding to combat the growing public health crisis of opioid-related addiction and deaths.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment in the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Ben Ray Lujan) to discuss our proposal.

Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett), the distinguished ranking member of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Tax Policy.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings), the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, here we are, a year and a half into this session of Congress, and finally the Republicans are bringing something to the floor around the opioid epidemic, but it is too little, too late. They prioritized, unfortunately, corporate tax giveaways over families that are struggling and communities which are affected by the path of destruction caused by opioid drug abuse.

As we address opioid addiction, we need to remember that many communities were suffering from substance use disorders long before Congress began to wake up to this issue. Opioid abuse affects both rural and urban communities and has a human face and a tragedy in every congressional district.

We should support efforts to address this through treatment instead of incarceration or punishment, through alternatives instead of giving Washington, D.C., bureaucrats more power.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question and ``no'' on the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 934 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Polis), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the rule and the underlying legislation. This rule provides for consideration of three bills intended to give our country more necessary tools to tackle the opioid crisis.

The three bills this rule makes in order today were all reported favorably by their committees. H.R. 5735, the Transitional Housing for Recovery in Viable Environments Demonstration Program Act, was the subject of a hearing by the Committee on Financial Services on April 17 and was reported favorably on May 22 with a bipartisan vote of 34 ``yes'' votes.

H.R. 2851, the Stop the Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogues Act, was the subject of hearing by the Committee on the Judiciary in June of 2017, and was reported favorably in July of 2017 by a unanimous voice vote.

The final bill made in order by this bill is H.R. 5788, the Securing the International Mail Against Opioids Act, which was reported favorably in May with a unanimous voice vote.

Together, these three bills provide the foundation of the House's legislative response this week to the opioid crisis which is wrecking lives and communities across this country.

Mr. Speaker, the eastern plains of Colorado has been my home for many decades. I often refer to the area as God's country. It is full of goodhearted, hardworking people who care for their families and neighbors. Many of these people work the land and provide services to those who do. They farm, they ranch, they produce energy resources, they transport livestock.

And when hardship and disaster strikes, neighbors move heaven and Earth to help each other. They grieve over loss and bear each other's burdens. However, it is not an unfamiliar refrain to hear that in the heart of this God's country is a disease plaguing our people.

All across this land, in rural towns, suburban developments, and urban neighborhoods, abuse of opioids is wrecking people's lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 64,000 Americans died of a drug overdose in 2016. Of that number, 65 percent, or 42,000 of those deaths, were directly related to the opioid epidemic. That means that every day 115 people die due to opioids.

While those are astounding numbers, it helps to compare with past figures. In 2000, 8,400 people died due to opioid abuse. These recent numbers indicate a nearly 500 percent increase. That is shocking and sad.

Colorado has not been spared from the opioid crisis. In fact, the CDC reports that in 2015 alone, Colorado saw 159 heroin overdose deaths in addition to the 259 prescription drug overdoses. This is particularly harmful to my district, with 8 of the 17 counties in Colorado exhibiting the highest overdose death rates being in eastern Colorado.

As some of these figures indicate, our opioid crisis is not just prescription drug abuse. While many who are caught in the cycle of abuse began with prescriptions, the availability and accessibility of heroin has perpetuated and intensified the crisis.

Most of the heroin on our Nation's streets comes into the United States through Mexico. It is distributed via cities like Denver in a ruthlessly efficient manner. An entire delivery system is established in which orders can be placed through a central operator, essentially a franchisee of the cartels, who dispatches a delivery driver to the purchaser.

In February of this year, Detective Nick Rogers of the Denver Police Department testified before the Judiciary Committee how criminal operations flow north through Mexico and from other places such as Honduras and Nicaragua. Heroin dealers enter our country illegally with fake identification from Mexico and establish these distribution networks in neighborhoods.

In the past, our law enforcement officers were able to apprehend these criminals and have them deported. Recently, however, local government policies have been having a negative impact on these police operations. Places like Denver have instituted so-called sanctuary policies that prohibit local law enforcement from working with Federal immigration authorities. The effect has been that law enforcement officers, such as Detective Rogers, apprehend the same drug dealers over and over and over again. They are prohibited from contacting Federal immigration officers to help control this scourge. This is confounding to many of us. We should be facing this crisis using every tool at our disposal.

We could continue discussing at length how sanctuary policies--while well-intentioned and sounding humanitarian--are having a profoundly negative impact in relation to opioid abuse. But there is other work that needs to be done to stand in the gap against this onslaught of bad actors.

Mr. Speaker, in 2016 Congress passed and the President signed into law the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or CARA. CARA was the most comprehensive addiction treatment legislation passed by the Federal Government in several decades. It coordinated Federal response with State and local efforts to prevent, treat, help recover, and provide justice to those who are suffering under the impacts of opioid abuse.

While that bill was a good step, the bills before us today continue to organize Federal efforts to meet this public health and legal crisis.

The first two bills deal with a gap in Federal law that has been exposed by this crisis and exploited by international crime organizations. That gap is synthetic drugs. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, there are more than 300 known designer synthetic drugs, and this number grows with each passing year.

The gap in Federal law occurs because the Controlled Substances Act was not designed to deal with the ever-changing compounds that have resulted in more than 300 synthetic drugs. It currently takes us about 3 years to complete the process of placing a substance on the banned substance list. If we attempted to ban each drug as it was discovered, in the time it would take for our government to complete its action, criminal gangs would simply change the molecular structure just enough to avoid our laws, and we would be forced to start the process over again.

Because of this scenario, H.R. 2851 sets up a streamlined process for temporarily placing a synthetic drug on the illegal list. This will empower the Attorney General to respond quickly to criminal drug manufacturers in China and Mexico who work continuously to stay ahead of our drug laws.

Not only do we work to streamline the process of banning a substance in the United States, we also are working to prevent substances from reaching our shores in the first place.

H.R. 5788 requires the Postal Service to obtain advance electronic data on international mail shipments and transmit this data to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP. Under current law, private shippers, including express delivery carriers, are required to collect and submit this same information to CBP. Because current law does not require this information of the United States Postal Service, we have a significant vulnerability that allows criminal operations to ship synthetics and other contraband directly to the United States with relative ease.

This legislation simply closes a loophole by extending the requirement to the United States Postal Service. The data collected will allow CBP to target high-risk shipments, particularly shipments containing synthetics, for inspection and possible seizure.

The first two bills deal with bad actors overseas. The final bill attempts to help those afflicted by opioid abuse transition back to normal life. H.R. 5735 creates a pilot program in which a portion of existing housing vouchers are set aside for transitional housing for those who are undergoing opioid use disorder or other substance abuse disorder recovery.

In March of 2017, President Trump established a commission to strategize on how to combat drug addiction and opioid abuse. The final report of that commission said: ``There is a critical shortage of recovery housing for Americans in or pursuing recovery. Recovery residences are alcohol and drug-free living environments for individuals seeking the skills and social support to remain free of alcohol or other drugs and live a life of recovery in the community.''

Mr. Speaker, oftentimes individuals who complete recovery programs reenter life having lost everything. They are in danger of falling right back into the rhythms of their previous life which could lead them back into addiction. This bill ensures that they have a supportive housing situation to help them become reestablished in their community.

Over the course of the next week, we are going to pass nearly 30 bills dealing with aspects of the Federal response to the opioid crisis. These three bills today take major steps toward keeping the flow of drugs out of our country and helping those who are caught in the cycle of dependency become successful members of society again.

I know I speak for my community when I say that we need to be active in combating the scourge of opioid abuse. The flow of opioids and synthetics into our country from overseas must end. The lives of many of our loved ones depend on it.

Mr. Speaker, I support passage of these bills, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Ross), my friend and the vice chairman of the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Barr), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further witnesses. I reserve the balance of my time to close.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, tens of thousands of Americans are dying each year due to opioid abuse. What started as an epidemic of prescription drug abuse has led into a resurgence in heroin addiction and synthetic drug abuse. The easy availability of these drugs has led to widespread abuse and death.

My home of eastern Colorado has been particularly hard-hit by this affliction. In the most recent statistics available, more than 400 Coloradoans have died of opioid and synthetic overdose. This number is devastating enough on its own, but it does not include the many other lives that are wrecked and torn apart from this curse.

We know many of the bad actors. We know China and Mexico, in particular, are deadly merchants in this sickening trade. Anything that we can do to block these goods from entering our country we should do. Our neighbors, our children, our loved ones deserve a fighting chance. These bills today form yet another defense against the opioid crisis in America.

I want to thank Chairman Sessions, Chairman Brady, Chairman Hensarling, and Chairman Goodlatte for bringing these bills forward.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the rule, supporting the underlying bills, and standing in the gap in defense of our communities that are ravaged by this crisis.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 934, the combined rule for my legislation, H.R. 5735, the Transitional Housing for Recovery in Viable Environments, or THRIVE, Act.

I want to thank Chairman Hensarling, Chairman Duffy, and my colleagues on the House Financial Services Committee for their support and feedback on this legislation, as well as Chairman Sessions and Ranking Member McGovern on the House Committee on Rules for their consideration of my manager's amendment to make improvements to this bill.

This week the House is considering several important pieces of legislation to address the opioid epidemic that takes the lives of 116 Americans every day. My home State of Kentucky has the third highest overdose mortality rate in the country.

In order to achieve meaningful progress in the fight against opioid addiction in our Nation, Congress can no longer simply focus on prevention, enforcement, and treatment. We must also begin to implement policies that focus on long-term recovery. Our Federal housing programs are an underutilized resource in these efforts.

The THRIVE Act would make supportive housing more accessible to those in need by allocating a limited number of Section 8 housing choice vouchers to nonprofits that provide housing, workforce development, job placement, financial literacy, and continued addiction recovery support for individuals who are transitioning out of rehab and back into the workforce.

Rather than allocating the vouchers through public housing authorities, this demonstration would give vouchers directly to housing nonprofits that meet evidence-based metrics of success on a competitive basis. The vouchers would also be distributed with a focus on regions of the country with the highest rates of opioid-related deaths.

This legislation would only allocate either 10,000 or 0.5 percent of total housing vouchers, whichever is less, to people who are literally dying every day of opioid addiction and other substance abuse disorders. The demonstration is limited to 5 years.

No one would have a voucher taken away from them to create this demonstration program. This is an important point that I would like to emphasize to my friend from Colorado, who is concerned that there might be a cannibalizing effect of existing vouchers.

An estimated 198,000 Section 8 vouchers are turned over each year and returned to HUD. It is from this amount that the demonstration would set aside only 10,000 to address a deadly national public health crisis.

The goal of this demonstration is not to take away vouchers from those who need them but, rather, to open up other housing options to people coming out of rehab who would otherwise be forced to use Section 8 vouchers to live in a housing situation where they would be surrounded by individuals who are still in active addiction.

If our goal is to help people coming out of rehab or medication- assisted treatment to stay off of opioids and gain job skills and find employment, our government programs should give people the option to live in transitional housing with housing choice vouchers.

Additionally, and I would also invite my friend from Colorado to consider this: I have made a commitment to working with my Democratic colleagues in requesting additional funds from the Appropriations Committee for the purpose of supporting this demonstration. I would invite my friend from Colorado to sign this letter requesting those additional funds, perhaps to earn his support and the support of the ranking member.

I would like to thank my Democratic colleague, Ms. Sinema, as well as the Department of Housing and Urban Development for their suggested changes that have been incorporated in the manager's amendment I offer today. I also thank Mr. Rohrabacher for his amendment that further ensures eligible entities have been effectively vetted to support recovery in local communities.

This legislation has received endorsements from over 140 housing, addiction support, and recovery organizations across the country, including Addiction Policy Forum, American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, National Association of Social Workers, Faces and Voices of Recovery, and over 100 others on the front lines of addiction recovery.

Secretary Carson from HUD also visited my district in Kentucky earlier this year and witnessed firsthand the success of nonprofits in helping individuals rise above addiction.

I urge support for this rule so we can continue to work together in a bipartisan manner to improve housing options for individuals recovering from opioid addiction and other substance abuse disorders.

It is time for us to allow for innovation, allow for us to focus on what happens after treatment, and allow people to access transitional housing addiction recovery services that focus on work, self-esteem, financial literacy, and stable housing in order to ultimately move into a life of permanent recovery, hope, and nonsubsidized housing scenarios.

Mr. Speaker, every community in America has suffered from the opioid epidemic. These are our moms and dads, our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters. All across America, families are suffering.

This is not a new problem. Earlier this year, The New York Times wrote about how one of the most distressing truths of America's opioid epidemic is that it has been with us for 150 years. For more than a century, this crisis has been breaking communities.

This certainly isn't a new problem in New Mexico. Since 2000, New Mexico has had one of the highest rates of drug overdose deaths in the United States. This cycle must be broken because, if there is no action, America is doomed to see these tragedies repeat for another 150 years.

This week, we are working on passing a package of bipartisan bills to address this crisis, and that is good. However, if you listen to our friends on the other side of the aisle, you might think that congressional Republicans think this problem has been solved.

We need to do more and be more aggressive. As The New York Times wrote, serious legislation needs to be considered, such as proposals modeled on the Ryan White CARE Act that would appropriate $100 billion over 10 years for research, treatment, and support. One of the packages we have today is a bipartisan approach around the Ryan White CARE Act. The funding is not sufficient. We can do more.

Last year in Congress, we came together in a bipartisan fashion to provide a billion dollars to States to address the opioid crisis in the 21st Century Cures Act. We all knew that the billion dollars included in Cures would only be a first step. That is what people said.

I am going to say today what I said last Congress when we were debating these bills: While the House is taking a step toward addressing the opioid epidemic, this is a missed opportunity.

There are good policies in this package of bills, but I am deeply disappointed in the lack of investment on such an urgent crisis facing America. Congress can and must do more.

On behalf of 129 people who will die today from a drug overdose, Congress must do more to address this crisis in a deeply meaningful way. And to do that, real investment must be made, large dollar investments that save lives across America.

My bill extends the bipartisan block grant funding passed in Cures for an additional 5 years. These grants would continue to support States in their efforts to enhance access to treatment, bolster substance abuse prevention programs, and expand evidence-based initiatives that will help address this deadly epidemic.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an editorial written by The New York Times, titled, ``An Opioid Crisis Foretold,'' from April 21, 2018.

[From the New York Times, Apr. 21, 2018]

An Opioid Crisis Foretold

(By The Editorial Board)

One of the more distressing truths of America's opioid

epidemic, which now kills tens of thousands of people every

year, is that it isn't the first such crisis. Across the 19th

and 20th centuries, the United States, China and other

countries saw drug abuse surge as opium and morphine were

used widely as recreational drugs and medicine. In the West,

doctors administered morphine liberally to their patients,

while families used laudanum, an opium tincture, as a cure-

all, including for pacifying colicky children. In China, many

millions of people were hooked on smoking opium. In the mid-

1800s, the British went into battle twice--bombing forts and

killing thousands of civilians and soldiers alike--to keep

the Chinese market open to drug imports in what would become

known as the Opium Wars.

That history has either been forgotten or willfully ignored

by many in the medical and political establishments.

Today's opioid crisis is already the deadliest drug

epidemic in American history. Opioid overdoses killed more

than 45,000 people in the 12 months that ended in September,

according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The epidemic is now responsible for nearly as many American

deaths per year as AIDS was at the peak of that crisis.

Experts say that the death toll from opioids could climb

for years to come. Millions of people are dependent on or

addicted to these drugs, and many of them are increasingly

turning to more potent, illicit supplies of heroin and

fentanyl, which are cheap and readily available on the street

and online. Yet only about 10 percent of Americans who suffer

from substance abuse receive specialized addiction treatment,

according to a report by the surgeon general.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on ordering the previous question so we can take a meaningful step toward defeating this crisis.

Mr. Speaker, yes, America does have a wildfire when it comes to the opioid crisis; and what we are getting this week and next, instead of experienced, professional firefighters with a plan to put out that wildfire, we are being offered a collection of garden hoses. It won't get the job done.

If words, if speeches, if the President's tweets could resolve this problem, we could be here today celebrating a victory. Instead, we have a piecemeal program around the edges of the crisis.

You only have to look at the President's tweets and his near- meaningless declaration of a healthcare emergency, and how he is handling the problem, to know how serious these Republicans are about it. I think the President views this as just another one in the series of political reality television shows that he is producing daily. Because instead of turning to a physician, a firefighter, a scientist, a drug policy expert, he has turned over the leadership of his entire opioid crisis effort to a political consultant and double-talk expert, Kellyanne Conway.

We haven't seen much other than talk over there, and with these 30 bills that are being considered today making modest changes around the edges of the problem, we are not going to advance very far.

Of course, there is a reason for this in this Congress. We can only consider legislation that a majority of the Republicans say we can consider, and they applied a test to get these 30 bills to exclude other ones. The test was twofold: If it cost much of anything, the bill couldn't be considered here. Second, if Big Pharma opposed it, it certainly couldn't be considered here.

So, like Trump, the Republican Congress offers more words, a few bills that may help a few people, but does not address the central issue in the crisis. What we need are substantial additional resources for treatment.

Instead of going in that direction, the Republicans turned about- face, and they are trying to drag us backward so we will have even fewer treatment options than today.

The President's latest assault on all Americans who have a preexisting condition, to deny them access to healthcare, and his assault to cut billions out of Medicaid, will deny the very places that so many people can now turn to for opioid treatment. So they won't add resources, they won't permit us to add resources, and they want to take away the resources that exist today.

Of course, much of the treatment that is out there is necessary because of the wrongs committed by pharmaceutical manufacturers in promoting these opioids in the first place. Here again, the test is not approved for bringing legislation on the floor because Big Pharma opposes it.

I believe we should be following the lead of 41 State attorneys general across America who are saying: Let's look at what Big Pharma did to cause this problem. Why make the taxpayer pay for everything when Big Pharma played such a role?

We ought to have accountability for those who helped to create the opioid crisis, yet the Federal Government--though, again, Trump talked about it, but he didn't do anything.

Mr. Speaker, after talking about it, the Justice Department and the Trump administration have done nothing.

In one single year, Medicaid paid out $9.3 billion associated with this opioid crisis, billions and billions of dollars. Yet, when I tried in the Ways and Means Committee to get involved in terms of getting back the money Medicare has paid out, other billions of dollars, it was rejected on a party-line vote.

At the very time that we are being told our police and first responders across America and, indeed, individual citizens should be carrying naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of overdoses and prevent a death, we have seen an incredible spike from Big Pharma in the cost of that. I see headlines.

How does a $575 lifesaving drug jump to $4,500? Because these pharmaceutical manufacturers think they can hijack America and, particularly, our law enforcement sources.

We need more than a photo-op version of these measures. If every one of the bills being considered, all 30 of them, are approved, few of those who really need treatment are going to get it as a result of this, and none of those responsible for this crisis will be held accountable.

This crisis is a true hurricane. It is being treated like a dust devil. Approve these modest proposals that do no harm, but then let's move forward with a Congress that really wants to solve the problem.