Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, I think it is important that we acknowledge and really recognize that this amendment is addressing the appropriation--it is an amendment to the appropriation in health and human services. The opioid crisis is here, and there is no denying that this is a crisis on our doorstep. There are multiple levers and multiple solutions that we can approach in order to treat the amount of pain that is being experienced across the country. So with that being said, what we really need to focus on is what those levers are, and one of these is the fact that infectious diseases, the rates of hepatitis B, hepatitis C are exploding due to the injection methods in the opioid crisis and self-administering opioids. That being said, we have to address this issue. We are not even asking for an increased appropriation. We are asking for a transfer of funds. So it is the same amount of funding, but we are just transferring it to a place where it is going to be most effective and treat and impact more families positively. Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.”