[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 12, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6149-S6151]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           OPIOID LEGISLATION

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, now I would like to say a word about 
legislation that the majority leader, Senator McConnell, has described 
as landmark legislation, which I expect the Senate to move to early 
next week, and that is the legislation dealing with the most serious 
public health epidemic in America today, the opioid crisis.
  We will be voting on the Opioid Crisis Response Act. This landmark 
legislation is the work of five different committees in the Senate. 
More than 70 Senators--half Republican, half Democrat--have provisions 
in this bill.
  A big bill is hard to talk about, so let me just mention 10 key 
provisions: first, Senator Portman's STOP Act to stop illegal drugs, 
including fentanyl, at the border coming through the mail; second, new 
nonaddictive painkillers, research and fast-track. I call this the holy 
grail of the opioids crisis because 100 million Americans hurt. They 
have pain; 25 million have chronic pain. They need help, and we need 
new nonaddictive treatments to help them. Blister packs for opioids, 
such as a 3 to 5 days' supply--we authorized the FDA to require 
manufacturers to do that. More medication-assisted treatment, 
preventing doctor shopping by improving State prescription drug 
monitoring programs, and more behavioral and mental health providers. 
No. 7, support for comprehensive opioid recovery centers; No. 8, help 
for babies born in opioid withdrawal; No. 9, help for mothers with 
opioid use disorders, addicted to opioids; and No. 10, more early 
intervention with vulnerable children who have experienced trauma. 
Those are 10 of the 70 provisions that change the authorizing law, but 
in addition to that, we have placed unprecedented amounts of Federal 
dollars toward the opioid crisis.
  In March, in the omnibus bill, Congress and the President directed 
$4.7 billion toward the opioid crisis. Tomorrow, the conference 
committee considering the Labor, Health, and Human

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Services, and Education Appropriations bill will meet. When that 
appropriations bill is approved, as we expect and hope it will be by 
the end of the month, that is another $3.7 billion. So that is $8.4 
billion in the last few months that will have been directed toward the 
opioid crisis.
  We have had seven hearings in our committee on opioids. On June 14, 
Becky Savage talked to us about two of her sons. She lost both of them 
after they accidentally overdosed on a combination of alcohol and 
opioids that they took in their own home after a graduation party.
  At our hearing, Becky Savage said:

       How could two boys who have always seemed to make good 
     decisions in life make a choice that would ultimately cost 
     them their lives? [H]ow did someone's prescription end up in 
     the pocket of a teenager at a graduation party?

  Nick and Jack were just two of the 33,000 Americans who died in 2015 
from an opioid overdose, according to the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention. By 2016, the number had increased to 42,000 Americans. 
We suspect those numbers are even higher now. Last year, 1,776 
Tennesseans died of a drug overdose, according to the Tennessee 
Department of Health, up from 1,630 the year before. We know that the 
opioid crisis is ravaging virtually every American community.
  Becky Savage's story was just one of the heartbreaking stories the 
Senate HELP Committee heard last year in our seven hearings. Senator 
Isakson in Georgia told us of waking up to answer a phone call at 3 
a.m. in December of 2016. His son John called to tell Senator Isakson 
that his grandson had passed away from an opioid overdose.
  We heard Dr. Omar Abubaker, who lost his youngest son, Adam, 21 years 
old, after he overdosed on a mixture of heroin and benzodiazepines. At 
our hearing he said, ``Since my son's death 3 years ago, more than 
165,000 other parents in this country have experienced the same 
agony.''
  I imagine every Senator has heard heartbreaking stories of how the 
opioid crisis has impacted patients and children, doctors and nurses, 
entire communities in our States.
  But at our hearings, we also heard stories of hope. Jessica Hulsey 
Nickel knows ``firsthand the devastating impact that addiction can have 
on families,'' having lost both of her parents to addiction. Jessica 
has since dedicated her life to helping others battling the same 
disease.
  Trish Tanner, the chief pharmacy officer at Ballad Health in Johnson 
City, TN, lost her nephew Dustin to an opioid overdose. As part of an 
executive fellowship program, she worked on a project on ways to reduce 
opioid prescribing, saying that ``as Dustin's aunt and as a pharmacist, 
I have a duty and a desire to bring about change now.''
  To spread awareness and tell the story of losing her two sons, Becky 
Savage and her husband have created the 525 Foundation in memory of 
Nick and Jack. When she testified before our committee, Becky told us 
that ``you could have heard a pin drop in many of the auditoriums I 
speak in.'' After hearing her story, you could hear a pin drop in our 
committee room as well.
  The challenge of solving the opioid crisis has been often been 
described as needing a moonshot. I wish we could do that. I wish we 
could appoint a single agency in Washington to solve this problem in 
every community in America, but what we have found is that will not 
work. Solving the opioid crisis might require the energy and resources 
of a moonshot, but ultimately it is not something that can be solved by 
a single agency here. What the Federal Government can do is create an 
environment so that everyone--Governors, mayors, judges, counselors, 
law enforcement, doctors, nurses, and families like the Savages--can 
succeed in fighting the crisis.
  This is a package of more than 70 proposals from nearly three-
quarters of the Members of the U.S. Senate--72 Members--that includes 
the work of five committees: the HELP Committee that I chair, the 
Finance, Judiciary, Commerce, and Banking Committees.
  Since last October, the Senate HELP Committee, which I chair and 
Senator Patty Murray of Washington is the ranking member of, has held 
seven hearings on the opioid crisis. We heard from Governors, from 
doctors, from addiction experts, family members, and others on how the 
Federal Government can be the best possible partner as we work to solve 
the crisis.
  We took the input we heard at the first six hearings, and we turned 
it into a draft package of proposals, which Senator Murray and I 
released on April 5. On April 11, we held our seventh hearing to review 
the draft proposal. On April 17, we introduced an updated package of 40 
proposals, based on the feedback we heard at the seventh hearing. On 
April 24, the Senate Health Committee voted 23 to 0 to pass this 
legislation, which included proposals from 38 different Senators.
  Because this crisis is so widespread, the Finance, Judiciary, 
Commerce, and Banking Committees also have been working on their 
contributions to this bill.
  On May 22, the Commerce Committee passed two provisions; May 24, the 
Judiciary passed six; June 12, the Finance Committee offered 22 more 
provisions. We have also included a provision that the Banking 
Committee has been working on.
  Senator Murray and I have since worked with Senators Hatch, Grassley, 
Thune, Wyden, Feinstein, and Nelson to combine all of these proposals, 
along with other proposals, such as Senator Portman's STOP Act, into 
one package of legislation--the Opioid Crisis Response Act. We thank 
all of them.
  Over 20 Senators contributed to the Finance Committee provisions, 25 
to the Judiciary provisions, and 7 to the Commerce Committee's 
provisions. I think it is a testament to just how far-reaching this 
crisis is and why we feel a sense of bipartisan urgency in passing this 
legislation in the Senate and in the Congress.
  In June the House of Representatives passed its own package of 
legislation to fight the opioid crisis by a vote of 396 to 14. The 
Senate and House staff combined our legislation and what the House has 
passed, and we believe it will produce an even stronger bill to fight 
the crisis.
  My hope is that the five Senate committees will work quickly with our 
House colleagues to reach an agreement by September 21, so the House 
can pass a final opioids package, the Senate can pass it, and we can 
send it to the President's desk as quickly as possible. That is the 
bipartisan sense of urgency I feel so that we can help States and 
communities fight the opioid crisis.
  This act builds on the work already done--the Comprehensive Addiction 
and Recovery Act, or CARA, passed in 2016, which gave a substantial 
boost to States on the frontlines, providing grants to expand access to 
lifesaving opioid overdose reversal medications and to support State 
efforts to help individuals.
  Later in 2016, Congress enacted the 21st Century Cures Act, which 
included $1 billion over 2 years in State grants to fight the crisis. 
It sought to accelerate research for major discoveries, like new 
nonaddictive pain medicines, which, as I mentioned, I believe is the 
Holy Grail of solving the opioid crisis.
  Then, the omnibus appropriations bill in March provided $4.7 billion 
of funding, and $1 billion of that is for grants. We believe another 
$3.7 billion is coming from the Labor, Health and Human Services, and 
Education Appropriations bill, which we hope to pass this month.
  According to Senator Blunt, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations 
subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related 
Agencies, Federal funding to help combat the opioid epidemic has 
increased nearly 1,300 percent over the past 4 years. The bill we are 
voting on next week builds on this funding.
  So we will be passing the STOP Act, new nonaddictive painkillers, 
blister packs for opioids, more medication-assisted treatment, and 
efforts to prevent doctor shopping, to provide more behavioral and 
mental health providers, to support comprehensive opioid recovery 
centers, and to provide help for babies born in opioid withdrawal, help 
for mothers with opioid use disorders, and more early intervention with 
vulnerable children who have experienced trauma. These are just a 
portion of the more than 70 provisions in the Opioid Crisis Response 
Act.
  This is, as the majority leader, Senator McConnell, has said, 
``landmark legislation'' that represents the work

[[Page S6151]]

of nearly three-fourths of the Senate, five committees, and countless 
staff who have worked to try to help States and communities put an end 
to this crisis that is ravaging virtually every community in America.
  The House of Representatives has passed its version. We have our 
bipartisan urgency to work together. No mother should have to go 
through what Becky Savage has gone through. It is time to finish our 
work and help States and communities bring an end to the opioid crisis. 
This legislation would give us many of the tools we need to do just 
that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.

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