Last year, the Senate Aging Committee did an extensive investigation into the spiraling cost increases of certain prescription drugs.

There wasn't any investment in R and D that would justify that kind of increase.

I wish to express my strong support for the confirmation of Halsey Frank to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine. Mr. Frank has 30 years of experience working for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC, and in…

I think you're absolutely right, that we have to put more effort at the front end of this problem and reduce access by changing prescribing habits, and particularly by allowing partial fills, by training physicians that they should only…

This headline disturbed me greatly because I feel there's been so much focus on the opioid problem, the epidemic that is tearing apart our communities and costing the lives of so many.

My question to each of you is what more do we need to do? Why are the efforts that everybody is making and working so hard not working?

I was a very early supporter and co-sponsor of it many years ago, and I hope it will slide through the Committee, with your help.

It was a lot of those same issues, is the fact that they were overhauling the entire Medicaid program without a significant number of hearings or a deep look into why they were actually doing it.

You shouldn't be exchanging business cards during a disaster.

the cost of health insurance has been a major problem with the Affordable Care Act and with many of the bills which have been advanced to repeal and replace this law. I rise to introduce the Lower Premiums Through Reinsurance Act of 2017…

I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.

Today, even as we meet, yet another hurricane, Maria, is battering a region still struggling to recover, and it is expected to hit Puerto Rico particularly hard.

Senators Bill Nelson, Marco Rubio, Bob Casey, and Susan Collins have introduced the Protecting Seniors During Disasters Act.

We should take that motto to heart, and from this hearing today I can see the huge amount of progress that has been made since I conducted that investigation so many years ago into the very inconsistent and in some ways failed response to…

We have expanded our efforts to improve emergency preparedness and response across the entire country, and we have emphasized the protection of the most vulnerable.

It was evident to me in rereading it that we have learned many of the lessons of Katrina, but we still have a long ways to go.

As the then Chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, along with Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, I led a bipartisan investigation into the response to Hurricane Katrina at the federal, state, and local levels.

we had done much better planning. In fact, our hospitals had returned to normal functioning.

We are learning how being prepared today can make the difference between safety and danger, and in many cases literally the difference between life and death.

Older adults matter.

I want to close my remarks by also warning the residents who have been affected by these storms of the many scams that have already arisen.

do you think that it would be helpful if the Federal Government were to provide some initial seed money to help States establish reinsurance funds or reinsurance pools in the short term?

I support giving States more flexibility in plan design, but I think you quickly get into a thorny issue...

I am not suggesting that the Federal Government should dictate how it is set up.

I think that is a great motto for the bill that we are crafting.