Political Quotes

“today I wish to thank my colleague from California, Senator Feinstein, for including provisions from my legislation, the Comprehensive Addiction Reform, Education, and Safety, CARES, Act of 2018, S. 2440, in her bill the Using Data to Prevent Opioid Diversion Act of 2018, S. 2838. Specifically, the provisions contained in my legislation provides for a tenfold increase on civil penalties from $10,000 to $100,000 and doubles criminal penalties from $250,000 to $500,000 on opioid manufacturers that fail to report suspicious orders of opioids and fail to maintain intern controls against diversion of their drugs. Senator Feinstein's bill was considered in and reported out of the Judiciary Committee just before the Memorial Day recess. Sadly, the opioid and heroin epidemic continues to ravage communities in my home State of Washington and throughout the United States. Between 1999 and 2016, over 10,000 Washingtonians suffered fatal overdoses from opioids and heroin. Over the past 4 months, I have held seven roundtables and events in every corner of my State to hear about how the epidemic is affecting Washington State communities from law enforcement, education, and health perspectives. I have heard heartbreaking stories from individuals recovering from addiction and have been moved by their courage.…”