Some of his ashes are here. When we travel places sometimes if we go someplace to spread his ashes like at his grandparents house different places and pennsylvania but there was a little bit left in here so i spread them out and put his ashes inside of it. She didnt like to travel so much, so its kind of like one of those gotcha. At least for me. [laughter] thats all the time we have for this session. Hopefully it is effective in the war on opioids. Thank you all very much for listening. [applause] in a congressional reporter would have opposed joined by two senators who seemed their States Affected and are working to find solutions. Please join me in welcoming senator rob portman. [applause] during her four years as governor she worked across party lines to secure funding. The director of the office of management and budget and trade representative of the congress is foremost experts on fiscal and trade matters. He established an antidrug coalition in his hometown of cincinnati and is the author of the comprehensive addiction and recovery act which is the first major reform. We are collecting questions under the hash tag postlive. The. They took the tools away to help combat this epidemic. When did you learn about the effect of this particular bill. You were in congress and it happened and played a part in supporting a bill to. Its an understanding of what the impacts of this bill would be a a complicated issue. Opioids require a comprehensive response obviously and that is why the comprehensive recovery act was landmark legislation as you said because it covers the whole gamut of. On the Prescription Drug monitoring and maggie is a cosponsor of the filth. It was that the Judiciary Committee at the same time as the recovery act so a lot of the focus is on the Opioid Crisis. The Treatment Recovery which is the miracle drug that reverses the effect of overdose, that was on the comprehensive Addiction Recovery act and this may have been one of the reasons to slip through because it was unanimous consent in the committee and the floor but obviously that is one of the issues that we need to look at and examine that. I did look this morning at what the actions were around that time and that they were significantly reduced before the legislation was passed, so it was already a pullback of that enforcement action. But it is again, its a complicated issue and there is no Silver Bullet and no one way to address this issue that will solve the crisis because it is a crisis to meet the family coming out that we saw briefly here and i met with probably a thousand addicts, recovering addicts in the last year alone and i focus a lot on that issue, but everybody has, so i think that you have to start with the Drug Companies coming up with a nonaddictive pain medication. There was a task force recently established in the comprehensive addiction applications being accepted now for people to be on the task force and we need to push the Drug Companies have come up with nonaddictive alternativealternatives and it y that we are using opioids for things like extracting a wisdom tooth. It just doesnt make any sense and the Distribution Network which focuses the story on a huge part of that kind of restriction drug monitoring act that began and we encourage members to cosponsor to get it passed requires the states to have the program that holds the pharmacies and doctors responsible on the prescriptions either to stop overprescribing and also requires the states to get involved in a compact so that you have interoperability to help people get the prescription out if. What is your reaction to the revelations i know that you have some tough questions for the dea you would expect the agency enforcing the law to speak up when congress was about to act what is your reaction . Meeting with families that have struggled with addiction and lost people to addiction. Part of what we see in the story dot you all broke while its true that weve been focused on prevention and Treatment RecoveryLaw Enforcement i was with republican colleagues people can get treatment and its a critical part of the Affordable Care act. While weve been focusing on getting resources to the front lines and do much more than that because the various forces involved, so i along with senator mccaskill and a senator manchin i am on the bill that we filed yesterday to a repeal the law that passed by unanimous consent. One of the things that has been a challenge is there are all these structural components to help alleviate pain and save lives. So then we have an epidemic in which the people that are suffering from the disease are stigmatized and i do think if this were an epidemic, what but didnt carry the stigma of that Substance Abuse disorder is, we might have gotten to these issues sooner. So we still have a lot of work to do and we have to push incredibly hard to provide incentives for the Drug Companies to find nonaddictive pain relief can be of the medical Device Industry that does have some nonaddictive alternatives for pain treatment they cant get coverage through medicare and medicaid. So, we have a lot of work to do. I would also say how grateful i am not just from the family that we heard from the lows throughout the country, people suffering from addiction and their families have stood up. Theyve brought attention to this by being willing to stand up and talk about their pain and suffering and disease and that is what is going to make the difference ultimately. Thank you. We are joined by senator joe manchin. How are you doing . Thanks, senator. Always great to have a treo. I will give a brief introduction to senator manchin whos represented the senate since 2010 and worked tirelessly to bring attention to the Opioid Crisis in his state before the National Epidemic became known. He is among the efforts hes been involved in, he was a leader in the effort to get hydrocodone rescheduled. From schedule three to schedule two. And thats been quite a dramatic decrease in the number of prescriptions for that drug. Hes cosponsored a number of bills related to the crisis and to say member and talked about this almost every single day. Every single day you are talking with constituents about this issue. Thank you very much. Senator, i knosenator, i know te the report we had in the paper on sunday that we did with 60 minutes. Youve spoken out about it and called for the representative marino to withdraw his name. Let me ask this, because i gave senator portman a bit of a hard time before you showed up but you were in the senate with unanimous consent. What was your reaction with the author of a number of bills that addresse we never intended to remove that. It was never intended to be a wholesale market to open the floodgates to West Virginia. They were already open. I have one little town so tell me something that should not have been flagged. Everybody is at fault but how do you stop it . Getting the enforcement people to do their job stop them the dea those that know what to look for our how to prosecute and prevent them from going into the pharmaceutical industry the business the same week to get a big paycheck. To be clear this is not partisan it is republicans and democrats. He has as much problems as in ohio than West Virginia and New Hampshire. This does not have partisanship and we keep our mouths shut. We were afraid to embarrass ourselves. Everything that i know that has been affected. So should this act we repealed were you willing to do . We already cosponsored and im sure it will be a bipartisan effort. I was happy to see this morning the Judiciary Committee is the first half to address the issue and to be bipartisan and that hearing will take place soon and looking at the dave said this morning enforcements were down just with the standard of proof in this is with the Obama Administration but those that need to be given the tools. Even to robs point if there is a concerted effort by the industry to get the dea to work with them then the Administrative Law judge that you cited in your report he said yesterday the language almost makes it impossible. And this the one that is out there but what they do or dont say. So the fda takes a different view. Whether the judge was wrong or that was possible to bring enforcement action i asked the industry about yesterday. So we have some work to do. Than that substitute amendment that changed everything. When you tear the Oversight Committee you see some opportunities . If you have done a lot of work on ovulates had you done some work on this issue with the opioid . Sometimes he managed to prod those committees to be more aggressive we have done a lot in this area and do think this will move pretty quickly. There are other things in addition obviously that. Lets move on but one thing that is out there if there is a White House Commission looking at this to put out a final report by the end of the month to make the interim recommendations. That got a lot of attention at the time. And to indicate so lets talk about that emergency. So that is shorthand. To still the allies a former governor like me. We have been waiting for word details that the president said we would declare a National Emergency because that helps us to get some resources in the field. And with bad distribution formula that is the highest bracket per capita rate in the country barely got 3 million. At the end of the day the Administration Says it cares but is not following through a. I have more deaths per capita than any other state. So i go around them being governor in see the devastation first of all, we were all in denial thinking if you were addicted you were a criminal. But that didnt hear anybody say now we know it is an illness. So when West Virginia we have to start with a 3k. We have no place to put the children. Foster care is almost impossible. Feebler talking about opening orphanages again. I introduced a bill that they cannot pass on the cost for every kilogram they produce and produces about 2,000,000,000. 1. They cannot pass that through. It is a treatment that we can start putting these Treatment Centers to help people. And we cannot get people into the workforce. Because you have an addiction or incarceration or conviction or lack of skills that. View are addicted youll have a criminal record. Then we have no way to get them back if its not a criminal or violent or sexual crime one year for treatment to mentor helping other people they can go back to have that expunge in front of the judge. It is about the funding working to try to get the funding in place some of that was done with 21st century the use said there is more to be done. How does declaring an emergency help . Or Getting Congress to act to actually get people the hope that they need . But what was happened last year and a half congress did pass the care legislation it did take seven years it is the First Time Congress has never acted this will not be solved with only one approach but it will be multifaceted. And that is what this legislation does. We actually overfunded and my concern was we will provide enough funding. That was the last year now we passed the cures act. So now they announced there going to the nonprofit with half a billion dollars per year. That is this year and next year but nothing beyond that. So with this fiscal year the crisis is getting worse and we have to have a longerterm strategy. How do have something that is more permanent but all that will be needed so as a good interim report this note to governor christie again and is committed to it actually the report was due october 1st digest wood to make sure they make less deadline. He is passionate about this with a personal commitment i have to tell you i dont think the National Emergency is important because they cannot appropriate. But what they can do meeting the president personally the requires agencies to work better together. With a non addictive paid medications. This is the epidemic and a National Emergency. But congress has to view this as an emergency that we have to do a better tribelet the a better job with longterm funding. What kind of treatment works better than others . And then dealing with this set to every level. And looking at harriman and fentanyl coming in the u. S. Mail and then it may have worked on. I do want to say there is a couple of questions coming in from our viewers so lets talk about the stock back to. Were learning fentanyl is an incredibly powerful drug. And has killed people in we have this problem and with the stock back. In New Hampshire 70 is of results of fentanyl overdose. With it is 100 times more powerful only to tranquilize so these are synthetic as a precursor they are flooding those areas. The last thing we should be doing is to repeal the health care in this country in terms that they are accessible to people who need it. Talk about the stock backed we cannot ignore the fact that which treats Behavioral Health is an absolutely essential piece to this if we repealed the Affordable Care act if we fail to invest and have dave friday of treatment we will not turn the tide. It seems like a nobrainer. I can tell you the reasons but this is a shock when people find out that fentanyl is killing more than san and heroin is coming through the of mail it isnt in mexico but from china. That doesnt require packages have information you have to provide data. I have been to the screening and with the customs and Border Protection and theyre able to identify these packages. You can get a package the size of the clock with 100,000 doses but this can kill you it is incredibly powerful but that isnt the only solution but that is a nobrainer. To what extent is the punishment of fentanyl a solution . Had been bad aspect. We all know where this is coming from. And wilbur ross or the department of commerce but this is serious. We will not tolerate it. We can try to stop the flood but unless the Chinese Government gets real. With sanctions or trade agreements. There is no quid pro quo. Just like those indictments that is when the Justice Department has taken as. Absolutely there is a criminal justice act i think you have been outspoken to incarcerate your way out of this problem cannot happen. As another interesting question what do senators think about giving safe injections to give them a place to monitor . We have heard of other studies. And we have others that say absolutely not. Everybody has a different approach the recovery point takes a clean slate for those who almost bottomed out they do not tolerate methadone per girl but they really work with these people and that is what it takes when you have been ejected. But i will give you the last word. We also know there is a whole secondary problems like hepatitis c and cardiac problems that go with ongoing addiction so we need to be smart and hold people accountable satisfy those Treatment Options are so important. I will give you the last word. By going back to the Drug Companies we also need better medication through other Treatment Options. But maggie is rated need to be customized one blocks the craving with the effects of the opioid and it does have a success but it is incredible we dont have more options out there and to get people through that difficult period of recovery. And in a broad sense in with those four or five heroin addicts but then at the end their end with that National Emergency if not for the Washington Post article i knew right then that nobody would believe after that article. The was a personal whatsoever. I applaud them and the white house is sincere about this because if you had not done that. Thank you for the kind words