Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Speaker, I want to wholeheartedly agree with the comments we just heard from the gentlewoman from Michigan. It is imperative that we guard against the pendulum swinging too far in either direction. One of the very first hearings I attended as the newest member of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health in 2005 was a hearing on why doctors do not prescribe adequate pain relief for their patients who are in pain. Now we fast-forward today, to the significant number of drug overdose deaths, many of those attributed to opiates that this country has seen in the past several years, and, clearly, it is important that the committee do something. It is important that in doing something, we do not further damage those people who are stable and depending upon a pain medication regimen that works for them. But going forward, we need to find, if we can, a way out of this predicament in the future for future patients. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.”