Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to raise an issue that would ``shock the conscience.'' Those are not my words. Those are the words of a distinguished Federal judge when he refused to sentence two ranchers in my district to 5 years in prison. Judge Hogan looked at the case and he said: That is not right. It would ``shock the conscience.''

This Friday, the younger of those two ranchers will mark his fourth year in prison for starting a fire--by the way, fire on the range, high desert, is a management tool. They were using it for that purpose. They were tried. They were convicted. They never should have been sentenced to this.

The Obama administration came back and resentenced them to 5 years for 139 acres. We burn hundreds of thousands of acres every year. The government starts fires that burn onto private land. Nothing seems to happen.

It is time for the President to review this situation and to grant a pardon to Steven and Dwight Hammond, pull them back together with their families. They have served long enough.

This is an issue that shocks the conscience. It is time for real justice, and President Trump can administer that.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 6.

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

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 6. This is the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act, or the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act.

I was proud to introduce this bill with my bipartisan colleagues: Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member, my friend from New Jersey, Mr. Pallone; Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady; and Ways and Means Ranking Member Richard Neal.

These past 2 weeks, this House, the people's House, has dedicated tremendous amounts of time and energy to send a simple message to millions of Americans impacted by the opioid crisis. And that message is: Help is on the way.

Not only are we passing legislation, dozens and dozens of bills that will save lives, but also we want to leave no doubt in the minds of those suffering from addiction that the United States House of Representatives, Republicans and Democrats alike, stand with them together.

For too long, embarrassment and stigma surrounded the disease of addiction. It is time for that to change. If you are struggling with addiction, if you are fighting that invisible battle, please know that it is okay to seek help.

Opioid overdoses take the lives of more than 100 Americans each and every day. In fact, Mr. Chairman, a thousand people in our country will go to an emergency room in the next 24 hours, suffering an overdose from opioids. We don't want those people to become part of that deadly statistic.

You matter. You are worthwhile. And I pray that the various legislation we vote on here today, and that we voted on throughout the last 2 weeks, can help you begin your journey of recovery.

H.R. 6 includes several bills that went through regular order at the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees, but the bill we will vote on today also includes dozens of other pieces of legislation that have recently passed the House, most unanimously or with very strong bipartisan majorities.

You see, at a time when it seems we couldn't be more divided, it is clear that striking back against addiction is something that transcends politics and brings us together as a community, as a country, and as a Congress.

Remember, this legislation is not the first action that this Congress has taken to combat the opioid crisis, and I am sure it will not be the last. I guarantee you that.

The Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act and the 21st Century Cures Act, both of which were signed into law nearly 2 years ago, and an additional $4 billion in resources for States and communities that was provided in the omnibus appropriations bill just a few

months ago, indicate we have been at this for awhile, and we will be at this for a while longer.

Taken together, this is one of the most significant congressional efforts against a drug crisis in our Nation's history. But we must continue to legislate, evaluate, conduct oversight, and work together to provide new solutions, so that we can rise to this ever-challenging situation.

Today, we have an opportunity to continue our work to combat this crisis, an opportunity to save lives, and we cannot let it pass. The legislation before us will help advance treatment and recovery initiatives, improve prevention and educational efforts, protect our communities, and bolster our efforts to fight deadly synthetic drugs like fentanyl.

We owe it to the families we have heard from. We owe it to our friends. Our communities need this and our country needs this to lift our people out of addiction and, together, win this fight.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 6, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie), the vice chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, a great leader on these issues and more.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. McKinley), who has been a fierce fighter to resolve this issue in his State and our country.

Mr. Chairman, we were glad to work with Mr. Peters on his legislation to make it bipartisan and get it across the line.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis).

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Ms. Clark and Mr. Mullin for bringing that issue to our attention. We were proud to work with them to get it in the bill.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Bucshon), who is one of our doctors on the committee.

It is now my great honor, Mr. Chairman, to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), who is the majority leader of the United States House of Representatives. He has been extraordinarily helpful in our efforts to move this entire bipartisan package forward to save lives and help people in addiction.

Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague from California for bringing this issue to our attention and helping us help these kids who need this assistance.

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan), the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my colleague from California for working with us. We were happy to include his bill in this compilation of legislation.

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), our resident pharmacist in the United States Congress and on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Lance), who has been very, very involved in this effort.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg), who has been very involved in this effort as well.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen).

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

Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. We have had individual Members come to the floor today from both parties. Together, we have broken through what others might see as dysfunction in Washington to achieve a comprehensive legislative package that will provide treatment; save lives; stop illegal fentanyl from coming into this country; and, in no small measure, move America forward in a much better direction.

I want to share with you, Mr. Chair, a letter to the Speaker and to Ms. Pelosi, urging us to support H.R. 6. It comes from not 1 or 2 but, literally, 161 different groups that are very involved in the recovery effort.

I want to share a couple of comments, Mr. Chairman: ``Substance use disorder not only impacts the individual, but the family and community as well. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, approximately 9 million children across our Nation live in a home with at least one parent who uses an illicit drug.

``Tragically,'' they write, ``children in these homes are at an increased risk for depression, suicide, poverty, delinquency, anxiety, homelessness, and substance use disorder. In addition, while our Nation has made significant strides in both our understanding and response to the drug crisis, it is clear that too many communities across our Nation still have fragmented prevention, treatment, and recovery infrastructures.''

Introduced by myself, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Neal, and Mr. Brady, they write: ``The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act,'' this bill, ``would strengthen key Federal low-income assistance and senior health insurance programs to better respond to our Nation's drug crisis. In addition to serving as the vehicle that will advance many other significant proposals already considered in the House, this legislation will give critical Federal safety net programs more tools to prevent and help treat substance use disorder.''

They write: ``We applaud the champions of H.R. 6 for treating addiction like the disease that it is and for their bold leadership, in their respective committees and on the House floor, to advance so many innovative, bipartisan proposals that will have an immediate and positive impact to address addiction. We respectfully urge the full House to immediately consider and pass H.R. 6, which represents a significant step toward building the comprehensive response needed in our Nation so that fewer lives are lost to substance use disorder.''

Mr. Chair, this comes from the people who live this every day, who help our neighbors, our friends, our families, and our American citizens get the help they need to beat the disease of addiction and to reclaim their lives, their families, and their future.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support passage of H.R. 6, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate all the work that has been done on this bill up to this point, the great bipartisan work, the biggest effort, I think, Congress has ever undertaken to address this terrible, terrible addiction problem of opioids and everything related to it.

This amendment before us is a bipartisan manager's amendment. It is filed by chairmen and ranking members of the Committees on Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means. This amendment makes simple technical corrections and conforming changes to the underlying H.R. 6 bill that the leaders of our two committees introduced last week.

As has been noted, the policies in H.R. 6 were moved through regular order in our two committees. I appreciate the bipartisan cooperation and teamwork of my colleagues and our terrific staffs who have joined me in introducing H.R. 6.

Mr. Chair, I encourage support of the amendment, and I urge adoption of the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I claim time in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. Chair, I certainly appreciate Dr. Dunn and the good work that he has done on many of these issues, and I also appreciate his willingness to withdraw his amendment.

As a result of our committee process and various member conversations we have had, we have reached bipartisan compromise on the underlying bill on the issue of concern to Mr. Dunn.

I understand that thoughtful Members can find themselves on different sides of an issue at different times, and I certainly respect the gentleman's position. That being said, we believe our underlying policy represents a fair middle ground, and it ensures rigorous analysis on the issue going forward.

Mr. Chair, I appreciate the gentleman from Florida withdrawing the amendment.

Mr. Chair, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko).

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

Mr. Chairman, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

I claim time in opposition, Mr. Chairman, although I am not opposed to the amendment, and I will yield to my friend from New Jersey in a second, but I do ask unanimous consent to claim the time in opposition.

Mr. Chair, I rise in support of this amendment, and I want to thank Representatives Barton and Meadows and Kuster. They have really worked hard on this and it is a good amendment.

There is wide variation in the way acute, short-duration pain is treated with opioids, and there are concerns that patients may be over- or underprescribed opioid analgesics to treat that pain.

This amendment would direct the FDA Commissioner to develop high- quality, evidence-based opioid prescribing guidelines for the treatment of acute pain. By arming physicians with this type of information, we can give them more of the tools they need to treat patients' pain without overprescribing addictive medications.

The intent behind this policy is that evidence-based guidelines would add to the universe of available data in a way that would empower providers, patients, caregivers and others to make determinations about treatment in a more informed manner.

I understand that some stakeholders have raised some concerns about limitations on how these evidence-based guidelines can be used; so as we continue to work on these policies with our counterparts in the Senate, we are committed to working to ensure that the language accomplishes what the sponsors intend without having any unintended consequences.

I encourage my colleagues to support adoption of the amendment.

Mr. Chair, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) such time as he may consume.

Mr. Chairman, I have no further speakers on this matter. Again, I thank my friend, the former chairman of the full committee, Mr. Barton, for his good leadership on this effort, along with other Members on both sides of the aisle.

I encourage our colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, although I am not opposed to the amendment, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time in opposition.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to speak in support of the amendment and to thank my friend from Utah, Mr. Curtis, for his hard work on this very thoughtful piece of legislation.

It is important that women who take opioid pain medications are aware of the possible risks during pregnancy. You heard him delineate those tragic, tragic risks, such as premature birth and neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS.

While there is increasing awareness and use of nonopioid approaches in the management of pain over all, information about their use in pregnant patients and unique considerations of mother and child are simply lacking.

So this amendment requires the Department of Health and Human Services to report on the opioid prescribing practices and opioid misuse during pregnancy, and evaluate nonopioid alternatives to pain management during pregnancy.

This will complement the efforts of the Protecting Our Infants Act, which required a report on prenatal opioid exposure and NAS, presenting a strategy and clinical recommendations for preventing and treating infants withdrawal.

I encourage my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), a very important Member not only of the U.S. House of Representatives as our whip, but a very influential and effective member on our Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. Chairman, I urge passage, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, although I am not opposed to the amendment, I ask unanimous consent to claim time in opposition.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to speak in support of the amendment that requires the Department of Health and Human Services to issue guidelines for prescribing an opioid overdose reversal drug.

The guidelines would cover dosage safety, standing orders and other education, and distribution measures.

In April, the Surgeon General issued an advisory calling for more people to carry naloxone.

Expanding the use of this lifesaving drug is a key part of the public health response to the opioid crisis, along with effective prevention, treatment, and recovery programs for substance use disorder.

I can just tell you, Mr. Chairman, from my own district, I have had multiple roundtables in every corner of the district. I have, of course, met with families that have been affected. I have met with addiction treatment specialists. I have met with medical providers. But I have also met with law enforcement.

In Oregon, we lead in a lot of this recovery effort, but also in making sure naloxone is available. This is the antidote.

Mr. Chair, these fentanyls that are coming into our country illegally, if I had a little salt shaker here and put out, I don't know, a half a dozen, a dozen grains of salt, and you put your hand on it, you would likely absorb that through your skin and pass out. And if somebody in this Chamber didn't have naloxone, or the medical people who are nearby didn't get to you in time, you would be one of those 115 people who will die in the next 24 hours, or one of the thousand that will show up in our emergency rooms.

So moving forward with guidelines for prescribing an opioid overdose reversal drug really makes sense. Moving forward with naloxone really makes sense.

We will save lives with this amendment, and I commend my colleagues from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania for their good work on this. We are happy to accept it as part of H.R. 6, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Chairman, because the gentleman raised the issue of these synthetics on other--we have talked a lot about fentanyl being cut into heroin over the course of this debate over 2 weeks.

We haven't talked as much about these synthetics being sprayed on marijuana or other things that you go: Oh, that is natural, mom. I can smoke that.

And what these evil people are doing is taking these deadly synthetics and literally creating a liquid or a spray and then spraying it.

And I talked to a father the other day whose daughter died of a heroin overdose, but when they did the autopsy, they discovered it was 100 percent fentanyl. So I thank the gentleman for his good work on this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, although I am not opposed to the amendment, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time in opposition.

Mr. Chair, I rise to speak in support of this amendment and to thank my friend, Ms. Waters, for her work on this initiative.

Before I go through that, I just want to say we are more than happy to team up with the gentlewoman on this issue of crack cocaine and its effects, and I am sure that Mr. Scalise, although I can't officially speak for him, I am sure that he would work in partnership with the gentlewoman.

The gentlewoman has raised an issue that we have dealt with in other parts of this legislation but not in the part that the gentlewoman has brought to us. There will be more going forward, I assure you, and we would be happy to work with the gentlewoman on that.

Mr. Rush brought an amendment on the IMD issue to make sure that those suffering from cocaine and crack cocaine addiction also could get treatment under expansion in the IMD, so we would be happy to work with the gentlewoman on that.

This amendment directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct a survey of organizations that provide substance abuse treatment services and then develop a plan to direct resources to address any identified gaps in services for specific types of substance use disorders. This information will help us better understand how our Federal dollars are invested in interdiction treatment at the local level and what more can be done with Federal resources to yield even better returns in reducing drug-related crimes, accidents, overdoses, and deaths.

So I certainly appreciate the gentlewoman's work on this effort. It is important work that will help save lives and bring about the kind of treatment we need in our communities.

I encourage adoption of the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I claim the time in opposition to the motion.

Mr. Speaker, like a lot of our work here that has been bipartisan, we would hope, going forward, this, too, could become bipartisan, because we believe that getting prescription drug prices down is essential. The Trump administration believes that as well and is doing some things administratively. We are going to be working on this in the committee.

We also agree that this unmet workforce need is important as well. Over the course of five hearings, a full markup in subcommittee, two full markups in the full committee, this issue was never fully brought and vetted. There is more work to be done here, and we are committed to doing work on both the CREATES Act and on the Opioid Workforce Act.

As the gentleman from New York, my friend, knows, we have worked out our differences on many, many issues on this and other topics, and we intend to move forward. It is just that the agreement we have today, Mr. Speaker, is about all of us coming together with bills that were ready for prime time that would not somehow cause problems with the underlying document.

This proposal, while well-intended and, frankly, on the big scope of things makes a lot of sense, it is just not ready and agreed to yet. The gentleman knows that. We know that. We appreciate his passion on this issue. We share it. But I have to reluctantly oppose the motion to recommit because we have agreement that only issues we all agree on are going into this bill--that is, Republicans and Democrats at the top of both committees.

So I take the signal that he remains committed to this effort to fill the gap. We will work with him and others going forward because we have a lot more work to do, Mr. Speaker. This one is just not ready for prime time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge opposition to the motion to recommit, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Dr. Burgess, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, for his fine leadership on this issue, along with our colleagues, Mr. Mullin and my friend from Oregon and colleague, Mr. Blumenauer, who put a lot of work into this. I commend my colleague from Oregon for his strong statement in support of this legislation.

Combating the opioid epidemic has been a top priority of all of us in this Congress and especially on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which I chair.

We have committed the last year and a half to examining the ways we can respond to save lives, to help people in our communities, and to end this deadly, deadly epidemic.

During that time, I have heard a lot of stories, both at the hearings here in the Nation's Capital and back home in Oregon, where I have held multiple roundtables and meetings in the communities about what we need to do to help the outcome of patients; our neighbors, our friends, in some cases family members, who are dealing with these addictions.

An extraordinary array of people, including patients, parents of those suffering with addiction, the Oregon Hospital Association, Oregon Governor Kate Brown, physicians, and substance use disorder treatment providers, have all told me and our committee that existing Federal confidentiality regulations and statute known as 42 CFR part 2, or simply part 2, are working against--working against--patients and making it harder to effectively treat addiction. There is hardly anyone in the healthcare sector that we have not heard from on this issue.

One story that really comes to mind is that of Brandon McKee. Brandon's brother, Dustin, testified before our Health Subcommittee when we reviewed a near identical version of this legislation back in May.

Tragically, Brandon had died of an opioid overdose at just 36 years of age. He left behind three young children.

Speaking about his passing, his brother Dustin told the subcommittee: ``Brandon's death was preventable. However, in part because of the antiquated provisions contained within 42 CFR part 2, the medical professionals that prescribed him opiate-based pain medications were not able to identify him as a high-risk individual.''

You see, Brandon was prescribed opioids after back surgery on two separate occasions despite his history of substance use disorder. Within a few months of his second surgery, Brandon fatally overdosed on heroin. That is why this bill is so important.

Health records for substance use disorder are the only--only--records that are siloed in this way, preventing physicians from seeing the complete picture of a patient they are treating. The doctors don't know.

All other protected health information for every other disease falls under HIPAA. The Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act will help align Federal privacy standards for substance use disorder treatment information more closely with HIPAA so that our doctors and our addiction specialists can provide the highest and safest level of treatment.

In short, this bill will improve coordination of care for patients suffering from substance use disorder and save lives by helping to prevent overdoses and dangerous drug interactions.

Now, I fully respect and understand the privacy concerns that some still have, and the sensitivities about the idea of making changes to a statute that has been in place since the 1970s, long before HIPAA. That is why Representatives Mullin and Blumenauer worked in a bipartisan fashion to include strong unlawful disclosure penalties, discrimination protections, and breach notification requirements in this bill.

Doing so, H.R. 6082 will actually improve the ability to penalize those who illegally disclose a patient's information. This isn't about using this information for any other purpose than treating that patient safely.

To be clear, there is no legal way for a patient's substance use disorder treatment information to be used against them under this bill. This bill, instead, expands protections for individuals seeking addiction treatment above and beyond existing law, and it will help us turn the tide on the opioid scourge.

I want to thank Mr. Mullin and Mr. Blumenauer once again for their work, and the other Members on the committee. This bipartisan bill will save lives. It is critically importantly to our efforts to combat the opioid crisis, and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 6082.

Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleague Mimi Walters and those who have worked so closely with her on this really, really important legislation. That is why I am here to support it, H.R. 5797, the IMD CARE Act.

This is really commonsense legislation, and it will make a meaningful change to the way Medicaid covers opioid use disorder for its beneficiaries. In other words, low-income people in America who get their medical assistance through Medicaid are going to get another option and more help to deal with their addiction.

We are discussing this bill because a severely outdated policy limits Medicaid's coverage in an institution for mental disease--that is what an IMD is, institution for mental disease--for just 30 days. It is old. It is antiquated. It doesn't work with today's treatment regimens.

This exclusion has been in place for decades--decades--certainly long before the opioid crisis ever hit our country, and it is now a barrier to critical care for low-income people on Medicaid when this vulnerable population needs help with their addiction the most.

Representative Walters' thoughtful bill will allow State Medicaid programs, from 2019 through 2023, to remove this antiquated Federal barrier to treatment for those on Medicaid, age 21 to 64, with an opioid use disorder, through a State plan amendment. In doing so, Medicaid would pay for up to 30 total days of a beneficiary's care in an IMD during a 12-month period, year.

So this is limited in scope. It is in partnership with the States. It is low-income people getting more help from Medicaid to pay for this extraordinarily important treatment.

This bill also collects much-needed data on the process. After taking up this option, States will have to report on the number of individuals with opioid use disorder under this plan, their length of stay, and the type of treatment received upon discharge. This will help inform better programs down the line.

As a Congress, we have been focused on combating the opioid crisis for quite some time. This is not our first legislative attempt to help people not only avoid this addiction, but overcome it. It will not be our last. We will legislate; we will evaluate; we will legislate; we will evaluate, as Republicans and Democrats have been doing for some time.

It is an important step, this bill, that can help get people a vital treatment to which they now don't have access. The American Hospital Association, the National Governors Association, Republicans and Democrats, hospitals and Governors across the country, have said: Please do this. This is a need that is unmet. Please help us change this antiquated Federal law.

Many stakeholder groups, including the National Association of State Medicaid Directors, the people who run the Medicaid programs in States; the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, the people who know what is needed most to overcome these situations; and many others have talked to us in the committee. They have talked to me personally. They are pleading with Congress to get rid of this barrier to care, this outdated law, and to help people get treatment, especially the low-income among us.

We have an opportunity to deliver, to help. We have an opportunity to save lives. It is our responsibility, and we need to pass this legislation.

Mr. Chair, I commend the gentlewoman from California for bringing this issue to the committee and shepherding it through. It is so important to pass this legislation. Let's help these people get the care they need and want.

Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment, though I am not opposed to the amendment.

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

Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of the Rush amendment to H.R. 5797, the IMD CARE Act. Earlier today, I spoke in support of the underlying bill. It will make a meaningful change to the way Medicaid covers opioid use disorder for its beneficiaries.

The amendment offered by my friend and colleague from Illinois, Representative Bobby Rush, will expand on that definition. It will allow Medicaid to provide coverage for individuals seeking treatment from cocaine and crack cocaine usage.

Looking at just 2016, opioids and cocaine caused 82 percent of all drug overdose deaths in the United States. Cocaine alone kills more than 10,000 Americans a year. News outlets have also reported fentanyl being mixed in with cocaine, further complicating this tragic opioid crisis.

This is an issue that Mr. Rush has passionately led on in the committee, on the floor, and at home in his community.

We discussed it in the hearing room and at length in private while working to fine-tune this legislation so that the best possible version can become law.

So I want to thank Mr. Rush for this amendment, and I want people to know that it really will improve and expand the scope of this bill.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to adopt this amendment and support the underlying bill, which will dramatically aid in our response to the opioid epidemic for all Americans, wherever they live.

Mr. Chairman, how much time do I have remaining?

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), the ranking Democrat on the committee.

Mr. Chairman, I conclude my comments by expressing my disappointment that I have yet to persuade my friend from New Jersey to support the underlying bill, although I appreciate his support of the Rush amendment.

We know that our Governors, we know that our State Medicaid directors, and we know those most involved in helping those with addiction have pled with us to change this antiquated law so that people of all colors, of all backgrounds, from anywhere in this country, especially the low-income, can get access to meaningful, modern, and helpful assistance to overcome their addiction. That is what this bill does.

Mr. Chairman, I encourage my colleagues to support the amendment, and I encourage them to support the underlying bill.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I thank Mr. Fitzpatrick and his team for agreeing to work with us on this issue. Unfortunately, this well- thought-out amendment would significantly alter the quality standards we have built into the base bill, and such a change would require more substantial vetting with key stakeholders than we have time for at this point.

Because of that, we are not in position of being able to accept the amendment at this time. However, we do feel that Mr. Fitzpatrick has made a good start, so I will have our team do a comprehensive vetting of the language and work with stakeholders to see if this is something we could add as we move into conference with the Senate.

Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for his work and I look forward to continuing to work with him on this and other issues and with the Senate as we continue work on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Texas, the vice chairman of the Energy Subcommittee, who has just been a real leader on energy issues across the country and around the globe.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to talk about the shale revolution and what it has really meant not only for jobs and growth in America, but energy worldwide. The shale revolution and the dramatic increase in domestic oil and natural production has really been remarkable. American innovation did this. Technological advancements did this. It transformed the United States from an importer of natural gas to a major exporter.

The positive effects, the enormous effects are being felt around the globe. OPEC and the established gas suppliers like Russia, they all bet against the United States. And guess what. They have lost.

Now, as American energy exports reach world markets, they are losing their stranglehold on supply and prices. U.S. LNG exports are going to markets across Asia, North America, Europe, and, yes, to even some of our allies in the Middle East.

The rise of the U.S. as a global energy superpower means that energy markets are more open. They are more transparent and competitive than ever before. And we are creating great American jobs here. We really are. If you look at these regions where these finds have been discovered and now are being developed, people are getting good wages, good jobs. They are building out, and it makes us stronger.

President Trump didn't want to say, ``We want to be energy independent''; he wanted to say, ``America is going to be energy dominant.'' And that is what we are becoming. That is a good thing.

By the way, as we find this new natural gas and we build out more generating facilities, we are also reducing our carbon emissions. We are below the 1995 levels. I don't think there is a country on the planet that has reduced emissions more than the United States during this period, so we are making progress there, too.

The increase in LNG exports around the globe over the past 2 years will help us and is the result of continuing expansion in the U.S. LNG export capacity. Two LNG projects, Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Cove Point in Maryland, have been online since 2016. That has increased the U.S. LNG export to 3.6 billion--that is with a B--cubic feet per day.

There are four more projects scheduled to come online in the next couple of years: Elba Island LNG in Georgia and Cameron LNG in Louisiana in 2018, and Freeport LNG and Corpus Christi LNG in Texas in 2019. Once completed, U.S. LNG export capacity is expected to reach 9.6 billion cubic feet per day by the end of 2019. That is the end of next year.

Meanwhile, in my home State of Oregon, work continues on the Jordan Cove LNG export facility in Coos Bay.

As export capacity continues to increase, the United States is projected to become the third largest LNG exporter in the world by 2020, following closely behind Australia and Qatar.

As chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, I have prioritized a progrowth, proconsumer, all-of-the-above, and, frankly, all-of-the- below approach to energy that includes a focus on natural gas. We have held a number of hearings.

We have looked into the overall impacts of natural gas development, the enormous number of new jobs, good family wages, middle class jobs and economic growth, the increased use of natural gas for power generation, the reduction in carbon emissions, the need for new infrastructure, and the advantages for domestic manufacturing and global competitiveness.

We have looked at all of that in the Energy and Commerce Committee, and my colleagues, many of whom you will

hear from tonight, Mr. Speaker, have really led on this. My colleague from Texas (Mr. Olson) has really been a fine leader on the Energy Subcommittee.

I encouraged our Members to work across the aisle. Growing American energy and great-paying jobs should be a bipartisan effort. We need to improve the regulatory process so we can solve some of the challenges that may prevent us from reaching our full American potential.

This is our century. This is the American century, and we are seeing great progress. We cut taxes. We are growing a million jobs and have the lowest unemployment rate in decades. We have more job openings than people to fill them, and a lot of that has to do with energy.

For example, members of the Energy and Commerce Committee have introduced and the House has passed legislation that would modernize the permitting processes for interstate and cross-border natural gas pipelines and LNG export facilities. These bills all passed the House on a bipartisan basis, Republicans and Democrats getting together, getting things done. I am encouraged by the support they are receiving in the Senate, too.

While these bills have not yet been signed into law, the Trump administration is very receptive to our approach to improve coordination and permit reviews and dedicate a single Federal lead agency. Part of the swamp back here is there are so many people, so many agencies, and so many duplicative processes that have been accumulating for decades.

And if you are the innovator who wants to do something new, if you want to grow jobs in your community, your State, your region, you have got to navigate this morass of red tape and regulation and permitting. About the time you think you have got it done, some other agency shows up, and then somebody else and then somebody else, and your enormous investment languishes out there for years and years and years.

We can do better than that. You can maintain all of the important environmental law, but if we have a lead agency, we can find some efficiency.

I think the vice chairman would agree that we might be able to find efficiency in the Federal Government. I think it is possible. And I think with the lead agency, we can.

This one-agency, one-decision process is now being rolled out because of the Trump administration, with a goal to cut down permitting time to 2 years or less. I think you can probably do it faster than that, but, hey, we will take 2 years or less. That is a big win.

Our energy security is stronger today than at any point in America's history, due in large part to natural gas. Natural gas has contributed to jobs and economic development both here in America, here at home, and it is improving the efficiency of our power generation fleet. It is increasing the competitiveness of our manufacturers who use it as both a fuel and a feedstock. It is strengthening our hand diplomatically, and it is creating jobs, jobs, jobs, good-paying jobs. It is a win-win across the board.

And so I appreciate the vice chairman's leadership on this special time for us to come to the House floor and share the great progress of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the country, the bipartisan work we are doing, and the great innovative future that lies before us.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3192) to amend title XXI of the Social Security Act to ensure access to mental health services for children

under the Children's Health Insurance Program, 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 the bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, last week the House advanced dozens of bills to help save lives and stem the tide of the opioid crisis that has struck at the health of our people wherever they live. We are back here again this week to consider additional legislation that can help our communities fight back against this epidemic.

We have all read the headlines about this tragedy, and we have heard the stories firsthand across our respective districts. We are confronting an addiction that mercilessly seizes control and then destroys. This killer does not discriminate--not by age, not by race, not by where you live or by what you believe.

Opioid addiction continues to take the lives of more than 100 Americans every single day. But it is what is behind the numbers that really matters. These are real people. Their stories are real. They tragically have lost their bright futures and left loved ones sadly behind. So we have come together to advance legislation that will help put a stop to this unprecedented crisis that has left a mark on just about every family across America.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the legislation before the House today--we have various bills--and throughout the course of this week. We have an opportunity to save lives, and we have a responsibility to our families, our friends, our communities, and our Nation to lift people out of addiction and get America on a better path.

The first bill up this afternoon, Mr. Speaker, is sponsored by our colleague from Massachusetts, Representative Kennedy. It requires the Children's Health Insurance Programs to cover comprehensive mental health and substance use disorder services for pregnant women and children.

State CHIP programs may be offered by expanding Medicaid, separate programs that stand alone from Medicaid, or CHIP may be offered through a combination of both approaches. Each of these types of Children's Health Insurance Programs covers some mental health services, but not all cover substance use disorder services. So there is a gap.

This bill requires the Children's Health Insurance Programs, regardless of type, to cover mental health services, including substance use disorder services. The bill requires States with separate CHIP programs to monitor access to mental health and substance use disorder services.

Finally, the bill requires States with separate CHIP programs to ensure that mental health parity with group health plans is met.

Most CHIP programs already meet the standards in the bill. This is simply a codification of current practices and does so without additional costs. So it is important.

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to be able to bring this bill to the floor, and I congratulate my colleague from Massachusetts who brought this issue to our attention.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers on this matter. I know the gentleman has yielded back. I will do the same after calling on our colleagues to support this important and meaningful legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4005) to amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to allow for medical assistance under Medicaid for inmates during the 30-day period preceding release from a public institution, as amended.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, this bill, sponsored by Representative Tonko of New York, Representative Turner of Ohio, and myself, requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to convene a stakeholder group that will publish a report on best practices for how States can address the health considerations of incarcerated individuals as they transition back in our communities.

Mr. Speaker, the Kaiser Family Foundation reports that, in States such as Connecticut and Massachusetts, 60 to 70 percent of inmates are eligible for enrollment in Medicaid upon release.

According to 2002 data from the Department of Justice, about 68 percent of incarcerated individuals met the criteria for substance dependence or abuse.

This bill requires CMS to issue best practices for improving transitions back to the community, including systems for enrollment support, substance use treatment, and related services for individuals who are inmates of a public institution and who are eligible for Medicaid, and CMS has to do that within a year after this bill is enacted.

These best practices should help both Congress and the States get a handle on how to help these incarcerated individuals get back on their feet. That is our goal.

Mr. Speaker, my thanks to Mr. Tonko for his leadership on this issue, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers on this bill. I support it and encourage our colleagues to do the same.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5687) to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require improved packaging and disposal methods with respect to certain drugs, and for other purposes, as amended.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bipartisan legislation, and I want to thank Representatives Hudson and Butterfield, both of North Carolina, for their hard work on it.

Opioids are often prescribed in higher volumes than necessary and not properly disposed of after patients no

longer need them. That leads to an oversupply of unneeded drugs that can be subject to abuse by family members and others.

In order to reduce the volume of unused opioids in the market, this bill will direct the Food and Drug Administration to work with manufacturers to establish programs for the efficient return or destruction of unused schedule II or III opioid analgesics.

In addition, this bill will facilitate utilization of packaging that may reduce overprescribing, diversion, or abuse of opioids.

Finally, the bill will require the GAO to study new and innovative technologies that claim to be able to dispose of opioids and other unused medications safely.

This bill takes several targeted steps to minimize the amount of unused opioids on the market, and I encourage my colleagues to support its passage.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hudson), one of the authors of this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers on this legislation. I encourage my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5796) to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide grants for eligible entities to provide technical assistance to outlier prescribers of opioids, 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 on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my colleague Representative Fitzpatrick, who is here on the floor with us today, as well as Representative Curbelo and Representative Thompson. They all worked very hard to make this bipartisan legislation a success.

H.R. 5796 would establish technical assistance grants to make best practices available to those providers who are identified as opioid- prescribing outliers. This bill would establish a means of identifying statistical outliers and then notifying providers if they are an outlier.

In addition, the bill authorizes quality improvement organizations and other grant recipients to review prescribing patterns and to share educational materials and best practices. This legislation will ensure that best prescribing practices are clinically appropriate for patients and are implemented throughout the Medicare program.

House of Representatives,

Committee on Energy and Commerce,

Washington, DC, June 7, 2018.

Hon. Kevin Brady,

Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means,

Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Brady: On May 9 and 17, 2018, the Committee

on Energy and Commerce ordered favorably reported over 50

bills to address the opioid epidemic facing communities

across our nation. Several of the bills were also referred to

the Committee on Ways and Means.

I ask that the Committee on Ways and Means not insist on

its referral of the following bills so that they may be

scheduled for consideration by the Majority Leader:

H.R. 1925, At-Risk Youth Medicaid Protection Act of 2017;

H.R. 3331, To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to

promote testing of incentive payments for behavioral health

providers for adoption and use of certified electronic health

record technology;

H.R. 3528, Every Prescription Conveyed Securely Act;

H.R. 4841, Standardizing Electronic Prior Authorization for

Safe Prescribing Act of 2018;

H.R. 5582, Abuse Deterrent Access Act of 2018;

H.R. 5590, Opioid Addiction Action Plan Act;

H.R. 5603, Access to Telehealth Services for Opioid Use

Disorder;

H.R. 5605, Advancing High Quality Treatment for Opioid Use

Disorders in Medicare Act;

H.R. 5675, To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act

to require prescription drug plan sponsors under the Medicare

program to establish drug management programs for at-risk

beneficiaries;

H.R. 5684, Protecting Seniors from Opioid Abuse Act;

H.R. 5685, Medicare Opioid Safety Education Act;

H.R. 5686, Medicare Clear Health Options in Care for

Enrollees (CHOICE) Act;

H.R. 5715, Strengthening Partnerships to Prevent Opioid

Abuse Act;

H.R. 5716, Commit to Opioid Medical Prescriber

Accountability and Safety for Seniors (COMPASS) Act;

H.R. 5796, Responsible Education Achieves Care and Healthy

Outcomes for Users' Treatment (REACH OUT) Act of 2018;

H.R. 5798, Opioid Screening and Chronic Pain Management

Alternatives for Seniors Act;

H.R. 5804, Post-Surgical Injections as an Opioid

Alternative Act; and

H.R. 5809, Postoperative Opioid Prevention Act of 2018.

This concession in no way affects your jurisdiction over

the subject matter of these bills, and it will not serve as

precedent for future referrals. In addition, should a

conference on the bills be necessary, I would support your

request to have the Committee on Ways and Means on the

conference committee. Finally, I would be pleased to include

this letter and your response in the bill reports and the

Congressional Record.

Thank you for your consideration of my request and for the

extraordinary cooperation shown by you and your staff over

matters of shared jurisdiction. I look forward to further

opportunities to work with you this Congress.

Sincerely,

Greg Walden,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick), one of the authors of this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for their bipartisan support of this legislation.

We also were just notified not long ago about the appropriations flag, and we are working out those matters at a higher pay level. So, we appreciate and understand.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5605) to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for an opioid use disorder treatment demonstration program, 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 the bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to commend Representative Ruiz, Representative Clark, and Representative Mullin; they all worked together to make this bipartisan bill a success.

This bill would authorize a 4-year demonstration project to test new ways to treat opioid use disorder among the Medicare population.

In addition, this bill will help secure the prescribing of controlled substances in Medicare by requiring the use of e-prescribing. Pretty important work.

We have heard from providers that have not only cut down on the abuse of fraudulent prescriptions by switching to e-prescribing but also have saved time for themselves and their nurses, all while saving millions of dollars in the process. So these are really important, substantive steps forward, another piece of the puzzle in addressing the opioid crisis.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives,

Committee on Energy and Commerce,

Washington, DC, June 7, 2018.

Hon. Kevin Brady,

Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means,

Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Brady: On May 9 and 17, 2018, the Committee

on Energy and Commerce ordered favorably reported over 50

bills to address the opioid epidemic facing communities

across our nation. Several of the bills were also referred to

the Committee on Ways and Means.

I ask that the Committee on Ways and Means not insist on

its referral of the following bills so that they may be

scheduled for consideration by the Majority Leader:

H.R. 1925, At-Risk Youth Medicaid Protection Act of 2017;

H.R. 3331, To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to

promote testing of incentive payments for behavioral health

providers for adoption and use of certified electronic health

record technology;

H.R. 3528, Every Prescription Conveyed Securely Act;

H.R. 4841, Standardizing Electronic Prior Authorization for

Safe Prescribing Act of 2018;

H.R. 5582, Abuse Deterrent Access Act of 2018;

H.R. 5590, Opioid Addiction Action Plan Act;

H.R. 5603, Access to Telehealth Services for Opioid Use

Disorder;

H.R. 5605, Advancing High Quality Treatment for Opioid Use

Disorders in Medicare Act;

H.R. 5675, To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act

to require prescription drug plan sponsors under the Medicare

program to establish drug management programs for at-risk

beneficiaries;

H.R. 5684, Protecting Seniors from Opioid Abuse Act;

H.R. 5685, Medicare Opioid Safety Education Act;

H.R. 5686, Medicare Clear Health Options in Care for

Enrollees (CHOICE) Act;

H.R. 5715, Strengthening Partnerships to Prevent Opioid

Abuse Act;

H.R. 5716, Commit to Opioid Medical Prescriber

Accountability and Safety for Seniors (COMPASS) Act;

H.R. 5796, Responsible Education Achieves Care and Healthy

Outcomes for Users' Treatment (REACH OUT) Act of 2018;

H.R. 5798, Opioid Screening and Chronic Pain Management

Alternatives for Seniors Act;

H.R. 5804, Post-Surgical Injections as an Opioid

Alternative Act; and

H.R. 5809, Postoperative Opioid Prevention Act of 2018.

This concession in no way affects your jurisdiction over

the subject matter of these bills, and it will not serve as

precedent for future referrals. In addition, should a

conference on the bills be necessary, I would support your

request to have the Committee on Ways and Means on the

conference committee. Finally, I would be pleased to include

this letter and your response in the bill reports and the

Congressional Record.

Thank you for your consideration of my request and for the

extraordinary cooperation shown by you and your staff over

matters of shared jurisdiction. I look forward to further

opportunities to work with you this Congress.

Sincerely,

Greg Walden,

Chairman.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5811) to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to postapproval study requirements for certain controlled substances, 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 into the Record on the bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to speak in favor of this bipartisan bill and thank Representative McNerney and Representative Griffith for working so hard to advance this important policy.

Currently, there are limited data on the long-term efficacy of opioids, their increased addictive tendencies over time, and their overall place in the treatment of pain. This legislation will enhance the Food and Drug Administration's authorities and enforcement tools to ensure timely post-marketing studies for chronically administered opioids.

Collecting and analyzing data is the best way to ensure that patients and physicians have access to evidence-based treatments. This bill will advance our understanding of the science underlying long-term use of opioids, and I encourage my colleagues to support its passage.

Mr. Speaker, I especially appreciate the work of the sponsors of this bill, including Representative Griffith, who would be here with us to speak in favor of this legislation but for traffic congestion on his way back from his district that has detained him from getting here as he had previously scheduled.

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

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate all those who have put so much work into this, especially Mr. Katko of New York who has been relentless in his battle to stop illegal fentanyls from coming in and killing.

I rise today in support of H.R. 2851, the Stop the Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogues, also known as the SITSA Act of 2017. Now, this legislation will give law enforcement officials additional tools to get and keep synthetic drugs such as fentanyl off our streets in America.

On February 28, during our first of four legislative hearings on the opioid crisis, we focused on finding ways to protect our communities and the people who live in them and equip law enforcement with the necessary tools to fight this deadly opioid epidemic that kills more people than traffic accidents in America. During that hearing, the chief of police from Syracuse, New York, Frank Fowler, talked about how synthetic drugs tore apart his community. His call for this legislation rings as true now as it did then.

After that hearing, we held a roundtable to hear from families who had been directly impacted by this deadly crisis. Seated across that table from me was Michael Gray. He bravely shared his family's story, hoping that their loss would help spur Congress to modernize Federal laws. He gave me a picture of his daughter, Amanda, and he gave me a new one yesterday when I met with him and Amanda's brother.

This is Amanda Gray. She suffered from some mental illness and self- medicated with something you and I would know as heroin. She wasn't a regular user. She was an intermittent user. The person who sold her heroin knew that. Just this past January, Amanda bought some heroin. What she didn't know was that it was not heroin. It has now been determined not only was it--normally they cut fentanyl into heroin. This had no heroin. It was all fentanyl.

Let me explain why that is so deadly. It is so potent that if you took a saltshaker and sprinkled three or four or five or half a dozen grains of salt on this podium and touched them, you would likely have that fentanyl go through your skin, and you would fall on the floor here in this Chamber. Unless one of our folks here in the Chamber or one of the medics nearby had Narcan, naloxone, to resuscitate you, you would die. Tragically, that is what happened to Amanda. She took what she thought was heroin, and she died from 100 percent fentanyl.

That same night, her father recalls news reports saying additional people in their city died. It is a fatal but common trend with illicit fentanyl.

This illegal fentanyl that comes into our country from foreign countries, generally through our mail facilities, has been one of the deadliest waves of the opioid crisis to hit our Nation.

Representative Katko's bill will modernize the Controlled Substances Act to create a new schedule of drugs that specifically concentrates on the rapidly changing synthetic analogues of opioids such as fentanyl.

In doing this, we must make sure to keep particular attention on not compromising important public health protections. A thoughtful amendment was offered by our committee member in the Energy and Commerce Committee, Morgan Griffith of Virginia, which ensures that research and innovation will not be impeded by SITSA. Among other issues, if an applicant is registered to conduct research with a schedule I or II substance, they can continue to do that research that they may be pursuing with a schedule A substance while their application is being processed.

The bill we will vote on today is the result of bipartisan feedback from two House committees as well as the collaboration of multiple agencies within the Trump administration.

Mr. Chairman, this is a thoroughly thought-out bill. I encourage my colleagues to support it to help stop the spread of deadly synthetic opioid analogues.

Let us remember why we are here. It is children like Amanda and the parents who survive them, the parents who got the worst call any parent could ever get, and that is notifying them of the death of their child. We are going to stop this from happening in America with the package of bills we have going through the House and the Senate. Mr. Katko's work on this is extraordinary as is the other members of the committee.

Mr. Chairman, I call for Members to support this legislation.

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 yield myself such time as I may consume.

Our work on the House floor today is the culmination of more than a year's effort to craft legislation in the Energy and Commerce Committee that will save lives and help stem the tide of the opioid crisis that has struck at the health of our people wherever they live in America.

In my Oregon district, I have held multiple roundtable discussions with parents, with those addicted, and with those who treat the addicted. I have talked with law enforcement officials and emergency room physicians. I have sought the counsel and the advice of those who are closest to this national problem, and I have worked with my colleagues to carefully craft legislation that responds to the need and to their suggestions.

The headlines--we know they are everywhere--tell the tragic stories of loved ones gone far too soon. We are confronting an addiction that mercilessly seizes control and then destroys. This killer doesn't discriminate--not by age, not by race, not by where you live, or what you believe.

We are here because opioid addiction continues to take the lives of more than 100 people in America each and every day. These are real people in all of our districts--people like Amanda.

Just this past January, Amanda was seeking relief from the pain surrounding her mental illness. She ended up dying from an overdose of fentanyl. Her father bravely shared his family's story with our committee, hoping that their loss would help spur Congress to modernize Federal laws. It is for the young people like Amanda and her parents-- people like Amanda who tragically lost their bright futures--that we come together today to advance so many bipartisan pieces of legislation.

And it is for families like hers, the ones who are left behind with the heartbreak of a loss so many of us could never comprehend, that we will not rest until we have won the fight against opioid addiction.

From passage of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, known as CARA, and the 21st Century Cures Act last Congress under the able leadership of Chairman Fred Upton, to the $4 billion in new funding passed earlier this year by this Congress, we have worked long and hard to help families and communities in despair.

Last fall, the Health Subcommittee chairman, Mr. Burgess of Texas, invited all Members of the U.S. House to come before his Health Subcommittee and to share their best ideas on how to combat this crisis. We heard from more than 50 Members--Republicans, and Democrats alike.

This spring, the Energy and Commerce Committee held a series of legislative hearings examining ways to protect our communities, to boost our public health and prevention efforts, and to improve treatment and care for patients of all ages and all backgrounds.

While the work was not always easy, Mr. Speaker, the Energy and Commerce Committee has advanced 57 different pieces of legislation to this House floor, most with unanimous support, that may well be a record for legislating on a single issue.

So while the surge of addiction looms large before us, I believe that we as a Congress and we as the American people are up to this task. The bills before us are not our first efforts in this fight, and you have my word they will not be the last.

But I urge my colleagues today, tomorrow, the rest of this week, and next week to support the legislation before the House. We have an opportunity to save lives. We have a responsibility to our families, friends, communities, our neighbors, and our Nation to lift people out of addiction and to get America on a better path.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Comstock), who has been a real leader on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers on this bill, so I would encourage support of H.R. 449, and I yield back the balance of my time.