Pat Toomey

So if you use that methodology for different borrowers, is it fair to say that that methodology fails to capture the different credit quality of different borrowers?

We were failing in our statutory obligation and an obligation based on decency to do a budget.

I think everybody on this committee is painfully aware of this problem.

I really, frankly, cannot think of too many higher priorities for this committee in the near term.

It would take a significant step, I think, in the direction of diminishing the risk of diversion.

The administration has consistently urged Congress to pass legislation that would give Medicare the same authority that Medicaid already has.

I helped to start a small bank in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania and the western part of New Jersey with the goal of lending to small businesses and local residents.

Unfortunately, new regulations are straining the business of continuing to bank rural customers.

The fact that America no longer launches new community banks is devastating for Americans across the country.

And we hope for a booming economy so they grow into that threshold.

The rapid rate of consolidation away from community banks that has occurred since Dodd-Frank's passage is striking given that this regulatory overhaul was billed as an effort to end 'too-big-to-fail'.

Congress and the President attempted to deal with threats to our financial system, threats that were posed by a handful of the largest institutions in the world in 2010 through Dodd-Frank.

Even though some of them have some of the healthiest balance sheets, business models, and relationships in the entire financial sector, the fact is compliance costs, at least a portion of them, are often fixed costs.

Our average historical growth over these same time periods we are talking about is a little over 3 percent, 3.1.

That means in 2023 we are going to have a $1.5 trillion smaller economy than we would have had based on your forecast.

Even what might seem nominally to be a small difference in the rate of growth, I guess my point is over time doesn't that end up having a very big impact on the standard of living of ordinary Americans?

I've authored the bipartisan Stopping Medication Abuse and Protecting Seniors Act.

Allow Medicare to pay for methadone to treat opioid addiction; and Enforce parity by requiring private insurance to provide methadone as a treatment option.

I want to thank everybody who came out today, and thank the audience members who made comments or asked questions.

Yes. Dr. Kabazie, this might be difficult to generalize, but I am wondering if you can give us any sense of how long a period of time it is safe for most people to be consuming a prescription opioid.

Ms. Potts, thank you so much for having the courage to share your testimony with us, and for being the inspiration that you are to so many people, and for your leadership.

S. 1913--Stopping Medication Abuse and Protecting Seniors Act of 2015 is a laudable effort to help reduce the narcotic abuse.

If Congress or HHS chooses to examine lifting the DATA 2000 patient cap, it should first reform DATA 2000 practices for the first time in 15 years.

We commend Senator Toomey and his co-sponsors for identifying that need.

Senator Toomey's bill S. 1913, Stopping Medication Abuse and Protecting Seniors Act of 2015, would allow PDPs and MA-PDs to proactively identify individuals at risk for controlled substance abuse, misuse or improper utilization.