CARES Act

Mr. President, today I wish to thank my colleague from California, Senator Feinstein, for including provisions from my legislation, the Comprehensive Addiction Reform, Education, and Safety, CARES, Act of 2018, S. 2440, in her bill the Using Data to Prevent Opioid Diversion Act of 2018, S. 2838. Specifically, the provisions contained in my legislation provides for a tenfold increase on civil penalties from $10,000 to $100,000 and doubles criminal penalties from $250,000 to $500,000 on opioid manufacturers that fail to report suspicious orders of opioids and fail to maintain intern controls against diversion of their drugs. Senator Feinstein's bill was considered in and reported out of the Judiciary Committee just before the Memorial Day recess.

Sadly, the opioid and heroin epidemic continues to ravage communities in my home State of Washington and throughout the United States. Between 1999 and 2016, over 10,000 Washingtonians suffered fatal overdoses from opioids and heroin.

Over the past 4 months, I have held seven roundtables and events in every corner of my State to hear about how the epidemic is affecting Washington State communities from law enforcement, education, and health perspectives. I have heard heartbreaking stories from individuals recovering from addiction and have been moved by their courage.

One consistent thread I have heard throughout my State is that opioid manufacturers need to be held accountable for their role in helping to instigate this ongoing crisis.

Drug manufacturers of controlled substances, like highly addictive opioids, are required under Federal law to keep track and report any suspicious orders or red flags on the distribution of these drugs. However, opioid manufacturers, through their failure to report suspicious orders of prescription opioids and failure to maintain their own controls against diversion, helped create an illicit market for prescription opioids that flooded our communities with highly addictive substances.

My home State of Washington and many other States, cities, and counties have filed lawsuits against opioid manufacturers for their failure to follow the law and the devastating impact those decisions have had on their communities.

However, it should not take lawsuits to get opioid manufacturers to follow the law and be held accountable for their role in this crisis.

Instead, we need to make sure opioid manufacturers follow the law by making the penalties strong enough to serve as an effective deterrent.

For these reasons, on February 15, 2018, I introduced the Comprehensive Addiction Reform, Education, and Safety, CARES, Act of 2018, S. 2440, with my colleague Senator Harris of California to do just that.

This legislation increases civil and criminal penalties on companies that fail to reasonably curtail their drugs from entering the illicit drug market. Our legislation increases civil penalties from $10,000 to $100,000 per violation for negligence in reporting suspicious transaction activity. In addition, the bill increases the maximum criminal penalty from $250,000 to $500,000 for companies that willfully disregard and/or knowingly fail to keep proper reporting systems or fail to report suspicious activity. Again, I am pleased that Senator Feinstein included these provisions as part of her legislation, the Using Data to Prevent Opioid Diversion Act of 2018, S. 2838.

Demonstrating the importance of this issue, a group of bipartisan 39 State and Territories attorneys general sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 21, 2018, in support of my legislation, the CARES Act, S. 2440, that holds opioid manufacturers accountable for negligent distribution practices by increasing civil and criminal penalties.

The attorneys general wrote: ``Diversion of prescription opioids has devastated communities in our states. The consequences for turning a blind eye to suspicious opioid orders cannot merely be a cost of doing business. We urge you to support CARA 2.0 and the CARES Act to ensure that penalties effectively hold manufacturers accountable and help stem diversion.''

Additionally, I introduced the CARA 2.0 legislation on February 27, 2018, with Senators Portman, Capito, Cassidy, Hassan, Klobuchar, Sullivan, and Whitehouse. This legislation, while providing authorizations for treatment and naloxone programs, also includes my provision to increase penalties on opioid manufacturers that do not follow the law. This same provision is what Senator Feinstein has included in her legislation, the Using Data to prevent Opioid Diversion Act of 2018, S. 2838.

We must hold opioid manufacturers accountable in our fight to end this scourge. I hope that the Senate will pass this legislation so it can be signed into law.