Political Quotes

“I rise to talk about an epidemic that is affecting my State of Ohio and every State represented in this Chamber. Senator Whitehouse just spoke. He worked with me over a period of about 3 years to put together legislation to address the heroin and prescription drug epidemic. We had five conferences in Washington, DC, bringing in experts from around the country, including from my home State of Ohio. We looked at what is working and what is not working and came up with the best practices from around the country. That is what the legislation addresses. It is comprehensive. It deals with prevention and education. It deals with treatment. It deals with recovery. We learned longer term recovery was incredibly important to success. It actually passed this body with a vote of 92 to 2. That never happens around here. It is because working together with both sides of the aisle we were able to look at a problem objectively, take the politics out of it, and figure out what would work to help turn the tide. It is something that is urgent. We have to address it. I will tell you now nationally it appears overdose deaths from these opioids, heroin, prescription drugs, and now synthetic heroin is the No. 1 cause of accidental death, meaning it has surpassed car accidents. Sadly, it is getting worse, not better. So those changes this Congress voted on to modernize our Federal response to prescription drug and heroin addiction are incredibly important right now.…”