Kelly Ayotte: “I rise today to urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. This is a bill…”

“I rise today to urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. This is a bill that we have been working on for 2 years--Senator Portman, Senator Whitehouse, and Senator Klobuchar. I thank them for their partnership and leadership on this bill. This is something the four of us got together on because we saw in our own States the public health epidemic that was happening with our constituents: individuals struggling with addiction, people who were addicted to prescription drugs and overusing and misusing prescription drugs, and then with the price of heroin on our streets so low that people are turning to heroin and also a combination of heroin and a deadly drug called fentanyl. I thank Senators Portman, Whitehouse, and Klobuchar for the work we have been doing together over the last several years on this bill to see this bill come to this Senate floor. This is a very important piece of legislation and will help us address the public health epidemic facing my home State of New Hampshire and this country. This is something I have come to the floor about on several occasions before. Traveling around my State, I can't tell you the number of stories I have heard from people in New Hampshire about what we are facing and the number of lives that are lost, the number of lives that are devastated by heroin and fentanyl and misuse of prescription drugs. This is a life-or-death issue in my State.…”