Political Quotes

“today the U.S. Senate is going to vote on legislation that is representative of years of work that has been done to help address the opioid crisis. That vote will occur in about half an hour. This is historic legislation. It is legislation that was put together by the House and Senate, on a bipartisan basis, to answer some of the pleas and calls from our communities back home--pleas from people asking: Can't you do more to help us reverse the tide of this opioid epidemic? I would like to start by thanking and commending Senator Lamar Alexander for putting together this legislation, taking the work from five different committees of Congress--the HELP Committee, Judiciary, Finance, Banking, the Commerce Committee--putting those different legislative projects together, along with projects that had come over from the House. Seventy Members of this body have contributed to this legislation. This legislation is important because although Congress acted a couple years ago, unfortunately, the problem has gotten worse, not better, and we have learned more. The last major legislation we passed on opioid legislation was about 2 years ago. By the way, during those 2 years, I am told I have been on this floor 56 times talking about this issue.…”