On the recordOctober 16, 2017
let me echo the remarks of the senior Senator from Ohio. Like Ohio, Rhode Island has a very significant opioid problem, and we came together in this Chamber to support the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. I had the privilege of being the principal Democratic author of that piece of legislation, and Senator Portman of Ohio was the principal Republican author of that legislation. We worked for years to set it up--to hold the hearings necessary, to get the information together, to make it work. When we did, it passed this body with a massive bipartisan expression of support. It makes no sense to nominate somebody to this position who does not understand what we understand, which is that the drug epidemic is, at its heart, a public health emergency and an illness. A reversion to law enforcement harshness in dealing with this problem will simply not be effective.
