Jay Rockefeller

the dimensions are so shocking, and they are exploding right in front of us

But it seems to me that, in life, when people have serious addictions or serious problems, a team concept, a group working with them, frees up people to be more helpful as a concept.

That should be the way we get things fixed.

I can remember, in West Virginia we were one of the first that had a school for physicians' assistants.

Overdose from prescription painkillers is now one of the leading causes of accidental death in the United States.

But how can that be? I mean, they are the ones who are really good at having data.

The new health care bill, which everybody loves to hate but I do not, has I think $10 billion for rural health clinics.

This is controversial, but not to me. I was responsible for getting it going, the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB.

Can people sometimes declare to you that they have pain, but what you know is that somehow it is in their--not imagination, but they have decided they have pain because perhaps they had pain a week ago...

It is interesting. Mr. Millwee, you join in this, too. I was actually surprised, and I forget which one of you said it, that after 6 weeks you are addicted for life.

What we are talking about is pain prescription medicines, and we are not even mentioning any of the other addictions: meth, or anything else that is just disintegrating families, communities, States, and ruining budgets, and much more…

I know in West Virginia there is one area where a group of doctors have just sort of had it with this problem and want to do something about this problem.

There is a lack of geriatricians--I am just trying to make a comparison here--in this country.

Well, you are an extraordinary, thoughtful group, and very direct. So how is your morale as you go to work every day?

There is not enough time in a doctor's schedule, in a hospital schedule, or in anybody's schedule, so that people can coalesce over a patient.

Hearings are important because often they are carried on C-SPAN. People learn from them, we learn from them.

What role can nurses play in all of this? Just talk.

Well, that is very helpful. That is very helpful. Thank you.

the problem of writing legislation, and trying to make it on a bipartisan basis and getting it past the Senate

I appreciate the steadfast work of my colleagues, Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, in advocating for the families of the Colgan Air tragedy.

I thank the good Senator from Missouri for her courtesy. Madam President, I rise today to express my very strong support for the confirmation of Gina Marie Groh to serve as a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of West Virginia…

I am in this Chamber with my colleague, Senator Joe Manchin, who has as much interest in this as I do and feels the happiness from a wonderful event which will happen, we hope, tomorrow in West Virginia, which will not necessarily be a…

given that the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee was unable to mark up the National Rail System Preservation, Expansion, and Development Act of 2012 prior to floor consideration of S. 1813, I wanted to make a quick statement…

every day tens of millions of Americans take to the roads, board buses, use Amtrak, to get to work, drop off their kids at school, or visit friends and family. Our transportation system binds our vast and diverse Nation together. All too…

I am appalled by that thought. I am appalled by it. And I want to serve notice that I will do everything I can to make sure that it does not happen.