Hal Rogers

I want to thank the gentlelady for cosponsoring this legislation and working in a bipartisan fashion to be sure that it is brought up in the quickest possible manner, which this is. Like you and the others who have spoken, I am proud of…

Might I inquire as to how much time is remaining? The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Kentucky has 11\1/2\ minutes remaining. The gentlewoman from New York has 4 minutes remaining.

The pattern that we have seen so far in opioid abuse, first OxyContin, which exploded in my district, I think probably ground zero for the country, 10, 12 years ago, finally we were able to bring it under control, OxyContin, by the…

Washington State is not regulating those marijuana dealers and yet the U.S. government through your Department are putting a stamp of approval on banks doing business with illegal shops even in the State of Washington.

I think that the recent report that came out about the alleged abuses, the timing was excellent.

I asked him at a hearing like this, do you think the IRS has betrayed the trust of the American people? And he said, yes.

So we have filed a bill in Congress to undo that decision.

FDA took this big step backwards in my opinion and approved Zohydro.

I have some very strong issues with the posture the Administration has taken towards coal-fired generation in developing countries.

Today, mandatory spending, as you know, accounts for two-thirds of Federal spending.

I am on record here three, four, five, maybe even more, times saying that, if, indeed, abuses were committed... I am as outraged and upset and lack tolerance of it as much as any Republican or any American.

I hope that you are the right person to right the ship.

But as I saw in Washington State these dispensaries are still not licensed by the State or regulated by the State.

This is not complicated.

I have serious concerns about the proposed regulation published by your predecessor in November.

Mr. Secretary let me ask you about marijuana.

I value my partnership with Ranking Member Lowey, her counterpart on the Senate side, Chairwoman Mikulski, as well as Ranking Member Shelby.

This Administration's request for Treasury seemingly cast these statutory budget caps--just cast them aside as merely suggestions.

It is selective non-prosecution. It is turning a blind eye to the law.

But the day after FDA upscheduled these hydrocodone drugs, like OxyContin, the next day, inexplicably, the FDA Director allowed the sale of Zohydro, a new, extremely potent, 10 times OxyContin's strength, is to be released with no…

I fear that this Zohydro in straight pill form--you can crush it and shoot it up, chew it, whatever--will be abused just like OxyContin was, and we are going to see more young people die.

We have had some real changes in that war, if you will, in the last few days, when the FDA, after 10 years of pushing by DEA and Attorney General and me and others, finally upscheduled Vicodin and Lortab, hydrocodone opioid medicines, from…

It is my hope that this case will help lay that political debate--it's a political debate--to rest.

for the chief law enforcement of the nation, the Attorney General, to tell the world, and especially his law enforcement colleagues, not to enforce a law on the federal books is a little bit more than selective prosecution.

We have worked on this Committee in a very nonpartisan way for the most part to construct bills that comply with the Budget Control Act and the Ryan-Murray agreement.