Political Quotes

“It is an honor to appear before you today. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring awareness to the public health crisis that continues to devastate communities in Ohio and across the country while we grapple with the unprecedented challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic--the opioid crisis. I have been proud of Congress' bipartisan work over the past several years to not only advance recovery and treatment efforts, but also to prevent the trafficking of lethal, illicit opioids, like fentanyl. I was even prouder when, in 2018, those efforts resulted in our Nation's first decline in drug overdose deaths in nearly 30 years. Tragically, our progress is slipping away. The CDC's preliminary 2019 overdose death data shows that fatal overdoses hit a record high last year, accounting for the deaths of 70,980 Americans. More than half of those deaths, 36,500 to be exact, involved synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl. In total, 37 States saw their number of fatal overdoses increase or remain stable from 2018. That deadly trend is ongoing this year as the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact the mental health and economic security of Americans across the country. An analysis released by the White House last month found that overdose deaths were up 11.4 percent from January to April this year when compared with the same period in 2019. Mr. Speaker, these are more than just statistics.…”