Herb Kohl: “I rise to announce that I have lifted the hold I placed earlier this month on Michele Leonhart's nomination to be…”

“I rise to announce that I have lifted the hold I placed earlier this month on Michele Leonhart's nomination to be Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, DEA. I had placed the hold reluctantly after numerous failed attempts to work with the agency for over a year on the issue of delivering pain medication to nursing home residents in a timely matter. At a Special Committee on Aging hearing I chaired earlier this year, panelists detailed a recent DEA enforcement initiative that has delayed many nursing home patients from receiving much-needed medication to control their pain. For several years, nurses had been able to call into pharmacies urgently needed prescriptions following a doctor's order. Pharmacies would fill the order, patients would get their pain medication, and doctors would follow up with written confirmation of the prescription. Due to the DEA's new enforcement initiative, pharmacies face huge administrative fines if they continue to follow this practice. Most disturbingly, nursing home residents sometimes must endure the pain for hours or even days as nursing home staff try to adhere to the newly enforced regulations.”