Stop Illicit Drug Importation Act of 2018

Mr. Speaker, I say to my colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee on both sides of the aisle, thanks for your great work on this bill. My colleague, Congresswoman Blackburn from Tennessee, this is an issue she has worked on for a long time--we will just say a long time--with great passion and great diligence.

We had the subcommittee chair of the Health Subcommittee, Dr. Burgess, go up to the facility in New Jersey recently and observe firsthand what happens, what transpires there.

My colleague, Mr. Green, and others have talked about the number of packages that go through the facility versus the number that are actually inspected.

Then, I know we have all had pretty good conversations with Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the now-Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and he has done marvelous work with the limited tools that he has to really ramp up their ability to try to stop these shipments of illegal fentanyl.

For those here in the Chamber, you have to understand illegal fentanyl. If you took a salt shaker and put, I don't know, half a dozen grains of salt on

this podium and put your finger on it, it would likely go through your skin and you would pass out and die, unless my colleague from Texas or Tennessee here, or the House Physician, had some naloxone they could come and revive you. It is that potent; it is that dangerous; it is that deadly; and that is what is getting cut into heroin.

By the way, you can always trust your local heroin dealer to get the right mixture. They are good chemists, I am sure. No, not. But that is what is getting cut in.

That is what we are trying to stop with this legislation, this illegal fentanyl coming in through the mail system from foreign countries, mainly China, stop it from getting into our country.

That is why I want to commend Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Green, and others, everybody who was involved in this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I also take the floor because, over the course of this week and next week, we will deal with more than 57 different opioid- related bills. We have heard from Republicans and Democrats. This is an epidemic that doesn't check your party registration before it sickens or kills or addicts somebody in your family or your community. Throughout all this, we have had terrific support, not only from our Members, but also from our staff and on both sides of the aisle.

There is somebody I want to single out today on our side of the aisle who, unfortunately, has decided to pursue other endeavors. Paul Edattel has served as the chief counsel for our Health Subcommittee since 2016 under then-Chairman Fred Upton.

Prior to that, he served our Health Subcommittee on an abundance of healthcare issues, as well as being hired to be Speaker Boehner's top health policy staffer. But timing has a funny way of getting in the way of things, and following Speaker Boehner's decision to leave the Congress, we were able to persuade Paul Edattel to come back to the Energy and Commerce Committee.

In fact, when I became chairman of the committee, I remember meeting in Speaker Ryan's office when we were just getting started, and I was choosing the final staff and Speaker Ryan looked at me and said: I don't care who else you keep or don't keep, but that guy over there is the brightest guy around on health policy.

I said: I agree, and we have already reached our agreement that he would continue on.

His service has been our gain and that of the country's. Paul has helped lead our push on the floor on these issues with his very talented team; and just as my colleagues and I have made this our top issue, so has Paul. At the same time, he has ensured other critical healthcare policy priorities continue to move through our processes.

Paul is one of the best. He is also a machine. He has been guiding this committee on the Nation's top healthcare issues for many years, including our comprehensive review of America's mental health laws that we passed in, I think, a big bipartisan vote last Congress, helped engineer through the 21st Century Cures Act, our opioids act, and so many other pieces of legislation.

Paul is also a wonderful family man, a great individual with tremendous integrity and insight, and we will miss his friendly smile and unmatched understanding of how this place works. We will even miss his unwavering support for the Buffalo Bills, if you are a Buffalo Bills fan. If you are not, you will be glad to see him go, probably. It has been an honor to work with Paul and call him a trusted adviser and, moreover, a friend.

So, Paul, as you begin your new chapter in your new career, I join with all of our Energy and Commerce Committee members and staff, I think, on both sides of the aisle in wishing you the very best and thanking you for your service, Paul Edattel.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5752) to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the importation of certain drugs, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on this bill.

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

I rise in support of this important piece of legislation. This bill will get FDA the tools the agency needs to intercept illicit substances coming through our country's international mail facilities. Illicit and unapproved drugs entering the U.S. supply chain through these facilities pose serious public health threats.

Hundreds of millions of parcels go through the IMF facilities each year, and it has been reported that the number of packages processed by the Nation's nine IMFs nearly doubled from 2013 to 2015. These facilities now receive more than 275 million packages annually.

Although the FDA has increased the number of investigators it has in the facilities, it is estimated that the FDA can only physically inspect less than 0.06 percent of the packages that might contain drugs or drug products.

In conjunction with H.R. 5228, led by Representative Pallone and passed by the House yesterday, this bill will give the FDA the flexibility and the tools the agency needs to effectively and efficiently seize illicit or unapproved drugs, and to prohibit bad actors from continuing to ship these deadly products into the country.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill and to help stop the entrance of illegal opioids and other drugs that might harm Americans.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden), the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

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

Mr. Speaker, you have heard the mention of bipartisan work and bipartisan support on these issues, and Chairman Walden is exactly right.

Not only have Members worked in a bipartisan way, but also our staffs have to answer the questions: How do we help to get the resources to our local and our State officials? How do we help to remove barriers so we can end this epidemic in our country?

Last year, 63,632 Americans lost their lives to drug abuse and drug overdose, and 1,600 of those were Tennesseans. We can all tell you these stories, and I tell you as a mom and as a friend, so many times when you talk to families and talk to people who have been so affected and so impacted by this, they talk about family members and coworkers and individuals that they are in contact with every single day and how we need to work on this issue with opioids, with fentanyl, with heroin, with cocaine, these illicit drugs that are flooding our streets, as well as the pills.

Now, last October, during a hearing when Dr. Gottlieb was before us and we were conducting oversight with the FDA, one of the things that he mentioned was there were some changes that they needed to see in Federal law. The number one change they needed was permission to work some changes in Federal statute for how they would work in these international mail facilities.

As we have said, there are hundreds of millions of packages. As Congressman Green said, they cannot get ahead of the work. So we have come together. The Stop Illicit Drug Importation Act is something that will be helpful to getting the job done and getting these drugs off the streets. Indeed, they will never get to the streets. They will never get to the streets because there will be the ability to stop them and dispose of these drugs before they ever get to the streets.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5752, the Stop Illicit Drug Importation Act of 2018.

In 2016, 42,000 Americans died from opioid-related overdoses alone, including more than 2,800 victims of opioid addiction in my home State of Texas.

One of the contributing factors to the opioid epidemic is the illicit importation of opioid drugs. According to Commissioner Gottlieb: ``FDA investigators are the last line of defense at the international mail facilities'' when it comes to preventing illicit drugs from entering our country.

Despite the fact that more than 2 million packages are received each day at our international mail facilities, FDA only has the capacity and resources to inspect 40,000 of these. More must be done to equip the FDA, both from the resource perspective but also with the law enforcement perspective.

This is why I was also pleased to support the SCREEN Act, which was passed yesterday, and would authorize additional resources for FDA to take on this fight and grant FDA greater authority to destroy and recall drugs that pose harm to public health.

The Stop Illicit Drug Importation Act of 2018 empowers the FDA to refuse admission and destroy imports identified as items of concern by the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The bill will also help streamline seizure procedures and debar individuals and companies that repeatedly violate Federal law from being able to import in the United States.

This commonsense measure passed by the Energy and Commerce Committee by voice vote last month will help stem the tide of illegal and illicit products, including opioids, from entering our country from international mail facilities. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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

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

I want to join our chairman in thanking our staff. We couldn't be here today without our staff working on these.

But this bill is so important. I have been on the docks of the Port of Houston and watched these containers come in off the ships and them being inspected. The FDA agents there are frustrated with it, even in our international mail facilities that are actually in our district in Texas. So that is why this bill is so important, and I am glad for my colleague from Tennessee to be sponsoring this bill.

I have no other speakers, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back the balance of my time.