On the recordOctober 30, 2019
I wish to thank my colleague from Iowa for her comments and also for her organizing this event this afternoon. This is an opportunity for us to talk not only about some of the things we have done in the U.S. Congress that are positive in terms of addressing the largest drug crisis we have ever faced in our country but also about what we need to do going forward and how we need to keep our eye on the ball to be sure that we don't see more addiction coming, that we don't see some of these new dangers--like crystal meth and other drugs--coming up. Again, I thank my colleague from Iowa. Iowa has been hard-hit; so has Ohio. In fact, in 2017, our opioid overdose rate was about three times the national average. We have, unfortunately, been in the top five in terms of overdose deaths for most of the last 10 years. We have had nearly a dozen Ohioans dying from these dangerous drugs every single day. This has now surpassed car accidents as the No. 1 cause of death in my home State of Ohio. What has happened is, since 2017, with a lot of work from a lot of people on the ground, with some help from Washington--about $4 billion in new funding that this body has approved and taken the lead on--we have begun to make progress. Last year, in 2018, Ohio had a 22-percent reduction in overdose deaths. This leads the country in reductions, and we are proud of that because of the lives that have been saved.…
