Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today in support of H.R. 4812, the Ensuring Compliance Against Drug Diversion Act spearheaded by Energy and Commerce Committee colleague Representative Morgan Griffith. I thank Mr. Griffith for his leadership on this and many other pieces of legislation. This legislation addresses a policy issue that was identified again in our 2018 Energy and Commerce Committee report summarizing the committee's bipartisan investigation into the distribution of prescription opioids by wholesale drug distributors and subsequent enforcement practices by the DEA. The investigative report that we issued found that an opioid distributor and its pharmacy customer did not go through the appropriate process of transferring a registration to a new pharmacy owner. This is disturbing, because failing to appropriately contact the DEA and verify whether the agency approved the transfer of a registration to dispense controlled substances creates a serious risk that could lead to drug diversion. In order to prevent people who have not been vetted by the authorities from dispensing controlled substances, H.R. 4812 makes clear that the transfer of any controlled substance registration without written consent from the DEA will be prohibited. Madam Speaker, I urge support of this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.”