Political Quotes

“Mr. President, in 2017, more than 72,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, and 49,000 of those deaths were related to opioids. Opioid overdoses have surpassed motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Whole communities have been devastated by the opioid epidemic. The situation is rightly described as a crisis. Here in Congress we are focused on doing everything we can to support the fight against substance use disorder. In 2016, we passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which authorized a variety of grants to States to boost their efforts to reduce opioid deaths and help individuals overcome opioid addiction. That same year, we also passed the 21st Century Cures Act, which provided $1 billion in State grants over 2 years to combat the opioid epidemic. In March of this year, Congress passed an appropriations bill that provided $4.7 billion to address the opioid crisis. Today, we voted on an appropriations bill that will provide another $3.8 billion to fight this epidemic. Overall, Federal funding to address the opioid crisis has increased by nearly 1,300 percent over the past 4 years. Then there is the bill we passed last night. The Opioid Crisis Response Act, which passed the Senate yesterday evening, is the product of months of work by five Senate committees.…”