Political Quotes

“I am a proud cosponsor of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, and I am glad that this important bill is now going to be moving to conference. I am glad that as the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, I will be a conferee. Beyond the idea of being a conferee, it is urgent that we find comprehensive and real solutions to the epidemic of heroin and prescription opioid abuse. I am in Vermont many times a month. I hear from people I know and from some I do not know. They are in the grocery stores, on the street, even coming out of church on Sunday. They are telling me of their concerns either within their own family or in their own neighborhood with the problems of opioid abuse. Communities throughout the Nation are grappling with this issue, whether they are in urban areas or rural areas or a State such as the Presiding Officer and I represent that has a mixture of both urban and rural. I think the Federal Government has to do its part to provide the support necessary to sustain those efforts. It means real money. For rural communities, which are predominantly the communities in my home State of Vermont, it means better access to the opioid antidote Naloxone, which saves lives. I have held hearings throughout Vermont, and I have heard from not only the police but physicians, the faith community, parents, teachers, and others that Naloxone can save lives.…”