Tammy Baldwin

I would describe it as: there is no aisle.

I am so proud, Senator Johnson, to have you join in this effort.

We need to catch up, and we need to do it fast.

This is an epidemic, that this is an emergency.

The more access to that, the better.

The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants (JAG) program keeps shrinking.

I would like to hear your thoughts on the most pressing gaps that still exist.

We need the same thing. I can assure you, Senator, that when the pilot is over, we will make sure that naloxone is at every one of our ports of entry.

The breakdown of those public safety institutions, that impunity, that is driven by our insatiable demand for drugs, and it is important for us to recognize that.

I want to know how you believe it Is working and what more we can be doing at the Federal level in Congress to support coordination.

We obviously need to put a huge exclamation point behind these new guidelines.

So, that is the wisdom of the legislation.

The problem I have with legislation, State and especially Federal, is once it is in place, it is never going to get repealed.

It cannot just be another Federal mandate like, you got to do this and it needs to come from underneath within the health systems.

I absolutely wanted this to be a public service announcement on this topic.

I think that the justice system and criminal system together is starting to see a need for help rather than sentencing.

Is it because of lack of professionals to staff them or lack of local resources, State resources, national resources to fund them, lack of insurance coverage, all of the above?

We need the care like diabetes, where for life, you are getting looked at.

Another area of Federal legislative reform that was useful is the area of reform for prescriptive practices within the VA system.

Resources need to come too. Because all of the treatment programs in the world unfunded will not provide the care and support that people need.

The pathway to the tragedy and epidemic that we are seeing right now... demands that we work together and form those solutions.

The supplier is not always a drug cartel many miles away. Sometimes it is a medicine cabinet that has been left with unused pills.

We had a chance to talk between our formal meetings, just about how this impacts everybody...

I think you did a good job, Mr. Manning, in your testimony of laying out the threat and risk assessment that FEMA requires States to conduct as the State and national preparedness reports that come from those assessments.

I was proud to author a provision in the highway bill that ensures local first responders have real-time information when hazardous materials are going to be traveling through their communities in their jurisdictions of responsibility.