Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in strong support of my bill, H.R. 4531, the Support for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act. Over the past 2 years, we have lost over 200,000 Americans to drug overdoses and poisonings. This is a step in the wrong direction, as the United States saw decreases in year-over-year drug overdoses between 2018 and 2019. Tragically, our best efforts to drive down these overdose rates were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which left millions of Americans isolated and shuttered from support systems that helped those struggling with substance use disorder stay on track. These statistics show the policies and programs we enacted in 2018 were working prior to the pandemic. However, since 2018 we have seen the horrors that illicit fentanyl and other illicit substances, like xylazine, have caused our local communities. In the past 3 years, over 70 percent of all drug overdoses in the Commonwealth of Kentucky have been the direct result of poisonings from fentanyl or fentanyl-related substances. Earlier this year, I convened an Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee field hearing in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where we heard firsthand accounts from law enforcement and treatment providers about the harsh realities of the crisis.…”