Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman, and I endorse everything that the chairman just spoke about. I am proud that the House is taking up this bipartisan action today to address an issue that impacts each of our districts, and that is prescription drug abuse. I want to thank especially Mr. Marino, who is using his experience to bring this legislation to the floor, and it was great working with him, Mrs. Blackburn, and also with Congresswoman Chu. Vermont is facing an opiate epidemic. That is true in many States around the country. In addition to the alarming increases in heroin abuse, we have had admissions in Vermont for prescription drug abuse that have increased 361 percent from 2005 to 2013. As we have seen in my State, we are most effective in dealing with this public health crisis when everybody who has a stake in this works together. That is the collaborative approach that Mr. Pitts mentioned. That has got to be the providers, the public health officials, law enforcement, distributors, pharmacists. They have all got to come together to tackle this problem. If we don't have flexibility and collaboration we can do something that might make enforcement tighter, but access to legitimate prescription drugs tougher. So the goal here is to get the balance right. We want to help folks get access to the prescription medication that they need. It alleviates suffering and it eliminates pain, but we want to make sure that the enforcement is solid so there isn't the abuse.…”