Tammy Baldwin

I am alarmed by the recent, tragic situation in Indiana, where there have been 130 cases of HIV identified based on injection drug use in the last 3 months.

I worked with CMS to include terms and conditions in Wisconsin's Medicaid waiver that required our Governor and CMS to track the Wisconsinites he kicked off BadgerCare.

In fact, I think we are coming very late to this issue.

I want to thank you, Secretary Burwell, for being here and sharing with the committee.

I would welcome that follow-up, because the tragedies we have seen in our States, that I have seen in my own State, deserve a response of the utmost seriousness.

When we held a hearing about a year ago, I was very interested in the discussions that the Committee and the witness panel had about root causes of the surge that we experienced in 2014.

The increasing frequency of oil trains passing through their communities as a catastrophic disaster waiting to happen.

I have become very involved and a very enthusiastic supporter of the RESPONSE Act.

I look forward to working with the members of this subcommittee on a number of steps we can take, including legislation and programmatic initiatives to correct these failures, to improve the quality of care that our veterans have earned.

On the issue of proper treatment for pain, Secretary McDonald, not only do we have to crack down on inappropriate use of opioids and benzodiazepines, we have to increase the alternatives to narcotics for pain management.

It's untenable for us to stand on the sideline and just see that continue to happen.

Many young people drop out of high school, not because it's too hard, but because it's too easy, and they're bored.

We have to challenge the status quo. We have to do some things very, very differently.

Your fiscal 2016 budget calls for a $125 million investment in our high schools to ensure that these schools can redesign to meet student's needs.

Your leadership on these issues to redesign high schools... it's absolutely the right thing to do.

These people should be the most important priority to all of us because they are the real life heroes of this country!

Let's not let all of this fade away, let's make some historic changes that we can all be proud to be a part of.

If after today's hearing, nothing major gets changed, then I think people will lose faith in our Government.

I am encouraged by the FDA's increased attention to the growing epidemic of prescription opioid misuse and abuse and the need to improve treatment options for chronic pain.

I would like to see VA more rapidly expand the use of these techniques.

Maybe on an incidental basis, but if it was happening over a long period of time, that prescriptions were being sent to a home when somebody was a long-term inpatient, that would be----

I want to give the Chairman and Ranking Member a big shout out and thank you for all of your work on the Clay Hunt SAV Act.

Who at the VA is tracking this data and who has use of it today?

Would the tracking system capture that?

So, can this system alert the providers in real time to stop the prescriptions?