[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 2905-2907]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SENATE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, as many Iowans know, I made a practice 
of holding townhall meetings in each of the 99 counties of my State 
every year. It has become known in the media as a ``Full Grassley.'' 
That is not something I named it. That is something someone else named 
it. It is kind of a flattering name, but in some ways it does not make 
sense because the townhalls are not about Senator Grassley. They are 
about hearing from Iowans whom I am proud to serve. They are about 
hearing about the real problems my constituents have, and, of course, 
from our end, trying to find practical solutions to those problems. 
That is what I work on every day. I suppose all of my colleagues would 
say that is what they work on every day.
  On many occasions at my townhall meetings in recent years, Iowans 
have asked me why the Senate never gets anything done. Both parties 
probably shoulder some of the blame for this attitude out there at the 
grassroots, but the reality is that the most obvious, the most glaring, 
the most unmistakable reason for the Senate's recent paralysis is the 
way Democratic Leader Reid ran it before he was toppled as majority 
leader.
  When the Democratic leader was in control of the Senate, he was the 
one who decided not to empower his committee chairs to craft and 
advance bipartisan legislation. He decided not to give all Members, 
Republican and Democratic alike, a real opportunity to participate in 
the process. He decided not to empower the Senate to address real 
problems that real people face every day.
  Instead, he chose dysfunction and gridlock over practicality and 
problem solving. By November 2014, the American people had finally had 
enough. After the American people spoke, the Democratic leader no 
longer controlled the Senate. Since the Senate has been under 
Republican leadership, things have started to work again. You see it in 
the latest example of this bill passing almost unanimously. So this is 
an example of Senators partnering across the aisle. Legislation is 
moving. The result is real progress on real issues facing our country.
  I am proud the Judiciary Committee has played its part. As chairman, 
my goal has been to open the process and seek as much consensus as 
possible. The results reflect that. We have reported 21 bills out of 
committee, all with bipartisan support. I would like to walk through 
some of these results because there is a lot of credit to go around on 
both sides of the aisle.
  Last February the committee passed the Justice for Victims of 
Trafficking Act. We passed it unanimously, 19 to 0. The bill enhances 
penalties for human trafficking and equips law enforcement with new 
tools to target predators who traffic in innocent young people. The 
bill passed the Senate 99 to 0 and was passed into law.
  Yes, there were some bumps along the way. When the Democratic leader 
realized that genuine bipartisanship had broken out and that we might 
actually accomplish something, a controversy had to be manufactured 
about the Hyde amendment on that particular trafficking bill, but 
eventually the Democratic leader took yes for an answer and the bill 
got done.
  This victory was a credit to the leadership of one Democrat and one 
Republican--Senator Cornyn and Senator Klobuchar. Their bill provided 
real solutions for real victims of trafficking. A few months later, in 
October, the committee passed the Sentencing Reform and Corrections 
Act. Sentencing reform is a difficult and complex issue. Many Senators 
have strongly held views. Despite that, the bill emerged from our 
committee with a strong 15-to-5 bipartisanship vote. My bill would 
recalibrate prison sentences for certain drug offenders, target violent 
criminals, and grant judges greater discretion at sentencing for low-
level, nonviolent drug crimes. I am grateful for the Senators who have 
partnered with me on this legislation, especially Senators Durbin, 
Cornyn, Whitehouse,

[[Page 2906]]

and Lee. I am hopeful that if we keep working together, landmark 
sentencing reform can be another major accomplishment of this Senate. 
Time is growing short, but I cannot think of a more productive use of 
the Senate's time than to make our criminal laws more just. This is 
another example of a real problem we can solve together.
  Also, in July of last year, the committee passed my Juvenile Justice 
and Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization Act, again, without 
opposition. The bill will ensure that at-risk youth are fairly and 
effectively served by juvenile justice grant programs. These important 
programs provide the chance for kids to get back on the right track so 
they will not enter the criminal justice system as adults. Every one of 
these young people are worth helping to reach their greatest potential. 
Senator Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, and I are working 
hard to move this bill through the full Senate. I thank him for working 
with me on it.
  There are many other bipartisan accomplishments of this Senate that 
the Judiciary Committee cannot take credit for. I will not try to go 
through all of them, of course, but one example that comes to mind was 
the outstanding work of Senator Burr, a Republican, Senator Feinstein, 
a Democrat, on the cyber security bill. That legislation passed the 
Senate on a solid 74-to-21 vote. A conference version of it was later 
signed into law by the President. With reports of breaches of our 
personal data on an almost daily basis, it is self-evident that this 
bill helped to address a real problem that has affected millions of 
Americans.
  That brings me to the Senate's passage of the bill that was just 
voted on, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act--CARA, for 
short. It passed today with an overwhelming bipartisan vote. This 
legislation reflects the Senate at its finest, working in a bipartisan 
way to address an awful epidemic that is gripping our country.
  I thank the authors of CARA for their leadership in crafting the 
legislation and working with me to move it through the Judiciary 
Committee and out of that committee unanimously. In particular, I thank 
Senators Portman, Ayotte, Whitehouse, and Klobuchar; you see, two 
Democrats and two Republicans. Real lives will be saved because of the 
leadership of this bipartisan group. That is not something we can say 
every day around the Senate. I know the efforts of those Senators and 
others to address this epidemic stretch back a few years.
  It is a shame the Democratic leader decided not to address this 
crisis at the early stage when he was deciding the agenda of the 
Senate, but he decided not to act, even in the face of mounting 
evidence that the country was facing a grave and gathering epidemic of 
heroin and opioid painkiller overdoses. Deaths from prescription opioid 
painkillers rose over 30 percent from 2007 to 2014. Heroin overdose 
deaths more than quadrupled during that time. Heroin seizures at the 
southwest border more than quadrupled as well. All the while, the 
Democratic leader never brought a bill to the floor to address the 
crisis.
  So given the dysfunction that had overtaken the Senate not long ago, 
we should take a moment to appreciate the bipartisan process through 
which the Senate just passed this CARA bill. As the Republican chairman 
of the Judiciary Committee, I moved a Democratic bill through the 
committee. It passed without opposition. Then the Republican leader 
promptly scheduled the bill for floor consideration. I don't recall 
that ever happening under the former Democratic leadership. The Senate 
had rollcall votes on four amendments, although the Republican leader 
offered more such votes on Democratic amendments. All four of those 
amendments were offered by Democratic Senators, and the bill passed 
overwhelmingly, as amended. This process would have been unthinkable 
under the Democratic leader. This simply would not have happened. You 
know the statistics. There were 18 rollcall votes on amendments all 
during the year 2014. During 2015, we had 198 rollcall votes on 
amendments and only 4 more Republican amendments than Democratic 
amendments.
  Yes, once again the Democratic leader tried to manufacture a 
controversy when this bill first came to the floor about a week ago 
Monday, this time over some alleged funding for this heroin-opioid 
epidemic. But when $400 million in newly appropriated money for it 
hasn't even been spent yet, well, that argument by the Democratic 
leader was a tough one to sell.
  Over the last few days, the Democratic leader played some games with 
negotiations on a managers' package of amendments. The Republican side, 
the majority side, worked hard to clear amendments offered by many 
Democrats, including Senators Durbin, Gillibrand, Heinrich, Kaine, 
McCaskill, Blumenthal, Schatz, Heitkamp, and Cardin, but the Democratic 
leader objected to completely uncontroversial, commonsense amendments 
that would be in the package offered by two Republicans, Senator 
Johnson and Senator Kirk. Why? Simply because these Republican Senators 
are up for reelection this year, and under those circumstances, we 
couldn't reach an agreement. So all these Democratic amendments didn't 
go because the Democratic leader had objection to two Republican, 
relatively noncontroversial amendments, one of them absolutely 
noncontroversial.
  How noncontroversial were these amendments? Let me give you one 
example. Senator Johnson wanted to add the Indian Health Service as a 
member of the task force the bill creates to develop best prescribing 
practices for opioids. I suspect many Americans, including even people 
living in the State of Nevada, would think Senator Johnson's idea is a 
good one. Addiction is a problem for so many in our country, and the 
Native American community is unfortunately no exception. But this is 
the kind of dysfunction, the kind of gridlock that the Democratic 
leader is known for. A good idea becomes a bad idea if it is simply 
offered by a Member of the Republican Party, and that especially is the 
case if you are a Republican up for reelection.
  As CARA's name reflects, the bill addresses this epidemic 
comprehensively, supporting prevention, education, treatment, recovery, 
and law enforcement. CARA begins with prevention and education. The 
bill authorizes awareness and education campaigns so that the public 
understands the dangers of becoming addicted. It also creates a 
national task force to develop best prescribing practices, as I 
mentioned. The bill encourages the use of prescription drug monitoring 
programs, such as those in my State of Iowa, which help to detect and 
deter what is called doctor shopping behaviors by addicts. The bill 
authorizes an expansion of the Federal program that allows patients to 
safely dispose of old or unused medications so that these drugs don't 
fall into the hands of young people. In fact, along with a few other 
committee members, I helped start the original take-back program in 
2010 through the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act.
  CARA also focuses on treatment and recovery. The bill authorizes 
programs to provide first responders with training to use naloxone, a 
drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose and directly 
save lives. Critically, the bill provides that a set portion of 
naloxone funding go to rural areas, like much of Iowa, which are being 
affected most acutely. This is critical when someone overdoses and 
isn't near a hospital.
  The bill also authorizes an expansion of Drug-Free Communities Act 
grants to those areas that are most dramatically affected by the opioid 
epidemic. And it also authorizes funds for programs that encourage the 
use of medication-assisted treatment, provide community-based support 
for those in recovery, and address the unique needs of pregnant and 
postpartum women who are addicted to opioids.
  Finally, the bill also bolsters law enforcement efforts as well. The 
bill reauthorizes Federal funding for State task forces that 
specifically address heroin trafficking.
  So in all these ways, CARA will help real people address the very 
real epidemic. The eastern part of my State has been hit the hardest. 
The human

[[Page 2907]]

costs of what is happening across so many of these communities is 
incalculable. Every life that is lost or changed forever by this crisis 
is precious, especially for many young people who fall victim to 
addiction early in their lives. There is so much human potential at 
stake.
  I can't wait until my next townhall meeting. I am going to be proud 
to explain how the Senate did something today that will help so many 
people in Iowa and around the Nation, Republicans and Democrats working 
together. Let's keep it going.
  I yield the floor.
  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. UDALL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. UDALL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak in 
morning business for such time as I may consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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