Pat Toomey

The legislation that we are discussing today would dramatically reduce the chances that people could obtain multiple prescriptions from multiple providers

This is overdue, but this is a chance for us to get this done now.

I was shocked when there was a standing-room-only crowd in a very large auditorium. That is just how widespread this problem is.

We urge the Senate to help address the nation's prescription drug abuse epidemic by passing the Stopping Medication Abuse and Protecting Seniors Act of 2015.

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for convening this hearing and for cosponsoring the bill, the Stopping Medication Abuse and Protecting Seniors Act.

Senators Toomey, Brown, Portman and Kaine have shown great leadership by introducing the Stopping Medication Abuse and Protecting Seniors Act of 2015.

Your bill directly addresses concerns about the harmful impact of prescription drug fraud and abuse on the health and well-being of Medicare beneficiaries.

We thank Senators Toomey, Brown, Portman and Kaine for introducing this legislation.

S. 1913 will provide the authority to enact effective fraud prevention and information sharing practices.

And if banks resist that, then that just means their margins are crushed.

One of my deep concerns is that central banks around the world, very much including our own, seem to be trying to compensate for an inability of the political class around the world to address what is really holding back economic growth.

It is not at all clear that the Federal Reserve Act permits negative IOER rates.

I find it very, very disturbing to even seriously consider moving in that direction, and I hope we could talk about some of the potential risks of negative interest rates.

Isn't it also true that there is an internal memo at the Fed from, I think it was, August of 2010 that raises doubts about whether the Fed has the legal authority to impose negative interest rates?

I could see an adverse effect on business investments. Investors would be pressured to move further out the risk curve, even further than they have already been pressured.

If we have learned anything from the crisis, it is that Wall Street encouraged behavior that caused the crisis at a steep price to American homeowners and American renters.

The Banking Committee has not in 13 months held a single hearing on strengthening consumer protections.

I have been advocating that the Fed normalize interest rates for a long time now.

Instead of conducting oversight hearings to push for implementation of the Wall Street Reform Act, we all remember when President Obama signed Dodd-Frank that chief financial services lobbyists in this town said, 'Now it is half-time,'…

We would be happy to work with you on this legislation, as a very similar proposal is included in the President's FY17 budget.

The intention of our bipartisan legislation is to stop fraudulent diversion and help improve the quality of care for those who are addicted.

There is a systematic risk that we are underestimating the risks of the assets that we are claiming.

I think CBO's hands are tied, is my understanding, into a methodology that does not sufficiently take into account the different range of credit risks that we take as a government.

And failure to do so would absolutely mislead about the nature of those risks.

If you have a loan that is made or guaranteed by the Federal Government through a vehicle like the Ex-Im Bank or more directly, and you have two loans, identical in all terms, but in one case the borrower was a large multinational AAA…