Will you please let us know if you start seeing impediments to implementing 21st Century Cures because of this?

I want to talk to you a little bit about some of what President Trump's Executive Orders are doing to the agency and what this will mean for the implementation of 21st Century Cures.

Over the course of the 113th and 114th Congresses, members of this subcommittee worked to uncover opportunities to strengthen and opportunities to streamline the process by which cures are discovered and then made available to patients.

I think we all agree the amount of fentanyl recovered by American law enforcement has risen from 640 samples tested to 13,000 samples tested in 2015.

The Trumpcare bill this House is being asked to vote on later this week would be the single most devastating piece of legislation to individuals struggling with addiction in our Nation's history.

The opioid epidemic is unprecedented and it is escalating, and I think we all agree that we need a comprehensive strategy to confront it.

I also think we need to find a way to address the treatment side of this epidemic and this is, sadly, where I have significant differences with my majority colleagues.

Yes. I mean, it is really raised--going up in crisis proportions, right?

But I think you would agree that the amount of fentanyl recovered has been growing exponentially, right?

we are concerned if the Medicaid expansion is retracted, because in those States the Medicaid expansion has helped many people who have--who need to have addiction treatment

I think this is another important step that this subcommittee had been taking to address the opioid epidemic, and for the record I want to continue this bipartisan work.

if we hope to treat these folks who are getting addicted to opioids, it is important that they have access to medical treatment

WADA recommended to the IOC that it prohibit the entire Russian delegation from participating.

Russia's methods of cheating went from abhorrent to something out of a spy novel.

This is a nightmare realized.

In the end, what ensued was a muddled process some viewed as sending a very, very weak message to the cheaters.

You referred in your written testimony to the Russian cheating scheme as shockingly pervasive.

Another doping scandal has now shaken the sporting world. This time it involves a wide-ranging Russian scheme to circumvent doping controls relied on by the global sports community to ensure clean sport.

Mr. Wieske, I thought that what Mr. Tonko was asking you was really important, which is with this bill that we are looking at today, there is no requirement that the States not charge people with preexisting conditions.

if you expand Medicaid then you actually are more able to insure the vulnerable.

I don't think the biggest problems facing Medicaid are lottery winners getting Medicaid advantages.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It's good to be back for another session of Congress.

But as important as combatting fraud and abuse in Medicaid is, policymakers should keep it in perspective.

There is simply nothing in the recent reviews of program integrity that justify the policy proposals that are now on the table.

Program integrity problems are, however, not new.