Larry Hogan

I don't think the President is listening to those folks all the time. And, you know, I just think they're concerned, I would imagine that sometimes they'll have a productive meeting.

I'm not sure there's a logical explanation for it, quite frankly. And I don't think it's helpful.

It's not accurate to say there's plenty of testing out there and the governors should just get it done. That's just not being straightforward.

But right now it's about saving lives and trying to protect the health and safety of our people. That has to come first, and later we're also going to have to address the problem of the economy.

I don't know why we're not addressing this at the federal level instead of saying, well the governors should be able to make up their own minds.

It's not just the federal government has failed, or the states have failed. There's not enough of these things.

No state in America has enough ventilators and we're -- we're short of a lot of these things.

Party loyalty must fall before the law itself. No man, not even the President of the United States, is above the law.

It is not easy for me to align myself against the President, to whom I gave my enthusiastic support. But I cannot, in good conscience, turn away from the evidence.

I think most of the children that we are dealing with, that are going into foster care now, have some relation to the parents being involved in substance abuse of some kind; much of that are opioids.

I think limiting the doses is important, but many of the states are already taking those actions.

I am a states' rights guy, and I believe that much of the innovation is happening out in the states.

I think at the Federal level, we have to focus on mental health and substance abuse issues together because, in many cases, they are overlapping.

I passed the biggest criminal justice reform bill in Maryland in a generation.

It is very effective.

Getting them the help they need while they are in prison makes a big difference.

We are hitting that from a number of different directions.

The frustrating part is just imagine if we had not taken all the steps we have taken, how many deaths we would have had.

This is not just a health issue. Or just an education issue or just a crime prevention issue; it is across almost everything you are funding.

$6 billion stretched across the country is not going to go very far.

We need more Federal funding. And not to say that $6 billion is not a lot of money; it is to the taxpayers. But it is a drop in the bucket compared to what we actually need.

We are doing exactly that, actually. I was just talking with our czar who is heading up this entire emergency operation.

We want to protect the folks that actually have drug addictions and not treat them just as law enforcement cases.

I think we do need more Federal funding with some flexibility for each state.

We ask ourselves that same question nearly every day.