On their agenda, extending funding for the Childrens Health insurance program, a repeal of the Health Care Laws independent medicaid payment Advisory Board and several bills to prevent wildfires. Watch live house coverage on cspan. Next, President Trump speaks about the Opioid Epidemic and signs and that drug emergency. National he says it will get worse before it gets better and the declaration will be the start of a nationwide effort to combat the problems. Introducing the president s first lady melania trump. This is 35 minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States and mrs. Trump. [applause] mrs. Trump thank you all for being here today. It touches my heart to see the faces i been lucky to know these past few months. Thank you for the time and strength for each of you to tell your stories. We are here today because of your courage. The Opioid Epidemic has affected more than 2 million americans nationwide and sadly the number continues to rise. Americansre than 175 to overdoses every day and millions more are struggling with addiction. Addiction you know, affects children in many different ways. Ive recently taken a larger interest and when i can do to help fight this epidemic. [applause] mrs. Trump i have been participating in meetings and listening sessions and ive been visiting with people who have been affected by these diseases. Want to take a moment now to tell you what ive learned from being on the front lines of this epidemic. Don hallman talk to me about his son, garrett, who took medication for adhd and suffered from depression and anxiety. He explained that social media played a part in his sons erratic moods and behaviors. Garrett started to buy synthetic opioids online and self ,edicated for his depression passing away from an overdose just eight days before his 31st birthday. Don home and told me the stigma of drug addiction must be normalized and talking about it is the only way. His friends became addicted after pain medication was prescribed for sports injuries. His friend died from an overdose and through his tragic loss, coach mickey taught me how important it is to educate kids, athletes, and parents, because his friend was not weak minded. In fact, like so many of our kids today, he was competitive and strongwilled. She is now in her 10th year of recovery tells me that drug addiction is an effective disease, but with the proper , a persond attention can move on to lead a happy and healthy life. We are so proud of you for all that you have overcome and pray for you as you continue on this journey. Where are you . Hello. [applause] mrs. Trump when i had the honor of visiting this place in West Virginia at a clinic for babies born to drugs, to help baby succeed we must help their parents succeed. Placing the priority of the whole family, this place is giving infants a vast parentsity and their are being given the support and the tools they need to succeed. I want to thank Rebecca Crowder and the staff for their heroic efforts. Thank you. [applause] mrs. Trump ive learned so much from those brave enough to talk about this epidemic and i know that there are many more stories to tell. When i found to be the common theme with all of these stories is that this can happen to any of us. Drug addiction can take your friends, neighbors, or your families. No state has been spared. No demographic has been untouched, which is why my husband and his administration has dedicated itself to combating this Health Crisis by using every resource available. Im so proud to support him today secs this commitment through. I look forward to continue my work on behalf of children across the country and hope that citizens everywhere will join forces with this administration to help and this Health Crisis. Thank you very much for being here today. Cant bless you all and god bless the United States of america. God bless you all and god bless the United States of america. [applause] pres. Trump thank you, melania, for your moving words and for your devotion its a very deep devotion, i can tell you that to our nation and its children. Thank you also to members of congress, my cabinet, governors, members of congress, state, local leaders, First Responders, and Healthcare Professionals gathered here today. We have some truly incredible people in this room that i can tell you. Most importantly, we acknowledge the families present who have lost a cherished loved one. As as you all know from personal experience, families, communities, and citizens across our country are currently dealing with the worst drug crisis in American History and even, if you really think about it, world history. This is all line this is all throughout the world. The fact is this is a worldwide problem. This crisis of drug use, addiction, and Overdose Deaths in many years, its just been so long in the making. Addressing it will require all of our effort and it will require us to confront the crisis in all of its very real complexity. Last year, we lost at least 64,000 americans to overdoses. Thats 175 lost american lives per day. Thats seven lost lives per hour in our country. Drug overdoses drug overdoses are now the leading cause of unintentional death in the United States by far. More people are dying from drug overdoses today than from gun homicides and Motor Vehicles combined. Think of it Motor Vehicle crashes, gun homicides, more people by far from drug overdoses. These overdoses are driven by a massive increase in addiction to prescription painkillers, heroin, and other opioids. Last year, almost 1 million americans used heroin, and more than 11 million abused prescription opioids. The United States is by far the Largest Consumer of these drugs, using more opioid pills per person than any other country by far in the world. Opioid opioid Overdose Deaths have quadrupled since 1999 and now account for the majority of fatal drug overdoses. Who would have thought . No part of our society not young or old, rich or poor, urban or rural has been spared this plague of drug addiction and this horrible, horrible situation thats taken place with opioids. In West Virginia a truly great state, great people there is a hospital nursery where one in every five babies spends its first days in agony. Because these precious babies were exposed to opioids or other drugs in the womb, they endure nausea, pain, anxiety, sleeplessness, and trouble eating, just the same as adults undergoing detox. Some of these children will likely lose one or both of their parents to drug addiction and overdose. They will join the growing ranks of americas opioid orphans. Such beautiful, beautiful babies. Beyond the shocking death toll, the terrible measure of the Opioid Crisis includes the families ripped apart and, for many communities, a generation of lost potential and opportunity. This epidemic is a National Health emergency, unlike many of us weve seen and what weve seen in our lifetimes. Nobody has seen anything like whats going on now. As americans, we cannot allow this to continue. It is time to liberate our communities from this scourge of drug addiction. Never been this way. We can be the generation that ends the Opioid Epidemic. We can do it. [applause] we can do iit. [applause] pres. Trump that is why, effective today, my administration is officially declaring the Opioid Crisis a National Public health emergenc, under federal law, and why i am directing all executive agencies to use every appropriate Emergency Authority to fight the Opioid Crisis. This marks a critical step in confronting the extraordinary challenge that we face. As part of this emergency response, we will announce a new policy to overcome a restrictive 1970sera rule that prevents states from providing care at certain Treatment Facilities with more than 16 beds for those suffering from drug addiction. [applause] pres. Trump a number of states have reached out to us asking for relief, and you should expect to see approvals that will unlock treatment for people in need. And those approvals will come very, very fast. Not like in the past very, very quickly. Ending the epidemic will require mobilization of government, local communities, and private organizations. It will require the resolve of our entire country. The scale of this crisis of addiction is why, soon after coming into office, i convened a president ial commission, headed by governor chris christie, that has consulted with experts across america to listen, to learn, and report back on potential solutions. We await the final report, which will come in next week. And i know some of the report has already been seen, because i want to see it as quickly as possible. And some of the things that they are recommending are common sense, but very, very important. And theyre going to have a tremendous impact, believe me tremendous impact coul tremendous impact. Today, i will detail many of these aggressive steps with my administration, which weve already taken. After we review and evaluate the commissions findings, i will quickly move to implement approximate and appropriate recommendations. But i want the American People to know the federal government is aggressively fighting the Opioid Epidemic on all fronts. Were working with doctors and medical professionals to implement best practices for safe opioid prescribing, and we will do something very, very special. We are requiring federally employed prescribers to receive, finally, special training. The centers for Disease Control and prevention has launched a Prescription Awareness Campaign to put faces on the danger of opioid abuse. I want to acknowledge cvs caremark for announcing last month that it will limit certain firsttime opioid prescriptions to sevenday supplies, among other important reforms. And i encourage other companies to do their part to help to stop this epidemic. [applause] pres. Trump the fda is now requiring Drug Companies that manufacture prescription opioids to provide more training to prescribers and to help prevent abuse and addiction, and has requested that one especially highrisk opioid be withdrawn from the market immediately. We are requiring that a specific opioid, which is truly evil, be taken off the market immediately. [applause] pres. Trump the u. S. Postal service and the department of Homeland Security are strengthening the inspection of packages coming into our country to hold back the flood of cheap and deadly fentanyl, a synthetic opioid manufactured in china and 50 times stronger than heroin. And in two weeks, i will be in china with president xi, and i will mention this as a top priority. [applause] pres. Trump and he will do something about it. I am also pleased to report that for the first time, the department of justice has indicated Major Chinese drug traffickers for distributing and they have really put very, very strong clamps on them. Theyve indicted them, the drug traffickers, for distributing fentanyl in the United States. So, jeff, thank you very much. Good job. [applause] and theyve been indicted and were not going to forget about them, believe me. They are doing tremendous harm to our country. The Justice Department is aggressively and, really, valiantly pursuing those who illegally prescribe and traffic in opioids, both in our communities and on the internet. And i will be looking at the potential of the federal government bringing major lawsuits against bad actors. What they have and what theyre doing to our people is unheard of. We will be bringing some very major lawsuits against people and against companies that are hurting our people. And that will start taking place pretty soon. [applause] were also supporting First Responders and medical professionals access to the tools they need to prevent deaths through lifesaving overdose medications. At my direction, the National Institute of health, headed up by francis collins, has taken the first steps of an ambitious Publicprivate Partnership with pharmaceutical companies to develop nonaddictive painkillers and new treatments for addiction and overdose. So important. [applause] i will be pushing the concept of nonaddictive painkillers are very, very hard. We have to come up with that solution. We give away billions and billions of dollars a year, and were going to be spending lots of money on coming up with a nonaddictive solution. We will be asking dr. Collins and the nih for substantial resources in the fight against drug addiction. One of the things our administration will be doing is a Massive Advertising Campaign to get people, especially children, not to want to take drugs in the first place because they will see the devastation and the ruination it causes to people and peoples lives. Watch watch what happens, if we do our jobs, how the number of drug users and the addicted will start to tumble downward over a period of years. It will be a beautiful thing to see. I learned, myself i had a brother, fred great guy, bestlooking guy, best personality much better than mine. [laughter] but he had a problem. He had a problem with alcohol, and he would tell me, dont drink. Dont drink. He was substantially older, and i listened to him and i respected, but he would constantly tell me, dont drink. He would also add, dont smoke. But he would say it over and over and over again. And to this day, ive never had a drink. And ive no longer for it. I have no interest in it. To this day, ive never had a cigarette. Dont worry, those are only two of my good things. I dont want to tell you about the bad things. [laughter] theres plenty of bad things too. But he really helped me. I had somebody that guided me, and he had a very, very, very tough life because of alcohol believe me, very, very tough, tough life. He was a strong guy, but it was a tough, tough thing that he was going through. But i learned because of fred. I learned. And thats what i think is so important. This was an idea that i had, where if we can teach young people not to take drugs just not to take them. When i see friends of mine that are having difficulty with not having that drink at dinner, where its literally almost impossible for them to stop, i say to myself, i cant even understand it why would that be difficult . But we understand why it is difficult. The fact is, if we can teach young people and people, generally not to start, its really, really easy not to take them. And i think thats going to end up being our most important thing. Really tough, really big, really great advertising, so we get to people before they start, so they dont have to go through the problems of what people are are goin going through. [applause] pres. Trump thank you. We are we are already distributing nearly 1 billion in grants for addiction prevention and treatment, and over 50 Million Dollars to support Law Enforcement programs that assist those facing prison and facing addiction. We have also launched an 81 Million Partnership to Research BetterPain Management techniques for our incredible veterans. Soon [applause] and, by the way, secretary shulkin is here. You have done an incredible job for our veterans in a very short period of time. [applause] pres. Trump and soon, hhs will launch a taskforce to develop and update best practices for Pain Management across the federal government. I am urging all americans to help fight this Opioid Epidemic and the broader issue of drug addiction by participating in the National Prescription drug takeback day this saturday. When you can safely turn in these dangerous and horrible drugs for disposal, that will be a wonderful, wonderful period of time for you. All of these actions are important parts of my administrations larger effort to confront the drug addiction crisis in america and confront it head on, straight on strong. Were going to do it. Were going to do it. We are going to do it. For too long, we have allowed drugs to ravage american homes, cities, and towns. We owe it to our children and our country to do everything in our power to address this National Shame and this human tragedy. Tragedy. We must stop the flow of all types of Illegal Drugs into our communities. [applause] pres. Trump for too long, dangerous criminal cartels have been allowed to infiltrate and spread throughout our nation. An 90 of the heroin in america comes from south of the border, where we will be building a wall, which will greatly help in this problem. [applause] they will have a great impact. My administration is dedicated to enforcing our immigration laws, defending our maritime security, and securing our borders. We also have to work we also have to work with other countries to stop these drugs were they originate. We have no choice. We have to work with others, we have to get together, because they have similar problems to what we have. Some countries have bigger to whetheran we have that country is china, whether its a country in latin america, it makes no difference. Were going to be working with all of them. Were taking the fight directly to the criminals in places that theyre producing this poison. Here in america, we are once again enforcing the law, breaking up gangs and distribution networks, and arresting criminals who peddle dangerous drugs to our youth. In addition, we understand the need to confront reality, right smack in the face, that millions of our fellow citizens are already addicted. Thats the reality. We want them to get the help they need. We have no choice but to help these people that are hooked and are suffering so they can recover and rebuild their lives with their families. Were committed to pursuing innovative approaches that have been proven to work, like drug courts. Our efforts will be based on sound metrics, and guided by evidence and guided by results. This includes making Addiction Treatment available to those in prison and to help them eventually Reenter Society as productive and lawabiding. Itizens finally, we must adopt the most common sense solution of all to prevent our citizens from becoming addicted to drugs in the first place. [applause] pres. Trump we must and are focusing so much of our effort on drug demand reduction. We must confront the culture of drug abuse headon to reduce demand for dangerous narcotics. Every person who buys illicit drugs here in america should know that they are risking their futures, their families, and even their lives. And every american should know that if they purchase Illegal Drugs, they are helping to finance some of the most violent, cruel, and ruthless organizations anywhere in the world. Illegal drug use is not a victimless crime. There is nothing admirable, positive, or socially desirable about it. There is nothing desirable about drugs. Theyre bad. We want the next generation of Young Americans to know the blessings of a drugfree life. In this enormous struggle against drug addiction, an Opioid Epidemic it really is it is an epidemic. Our greatest hope is the same as it has always been. Through every trial america has encountered throughout our history, the spirit of our people and the strength of our character, we win. Each of us has a responsibility to this effort. We have a total responsibility to ourselves, to our family, to our country, including those who are struggling with this addiction. Each of us is responsible to look out for our loved ones, our communities, our children, our neighbors, and our own health. Almost every american has witnessed the horrors of addiction, whether through its own their own struggles over the struggle of a friend, a coworker, a neighbor, or frankly, a family member, our current addiction crisis, and especially the epidemic of opioid deaths, will get worse before it gets better. But get better it will. It will take many years and even decades to address this scourge in our society, but we must start in earnest now to combat National Health emergency. We are inspired by the stories of everyday heroes who pull their communities from the depths of despair through leadership and through love. Fire chief dan goonan, of New Hampshire great state runs a program, safe station, which allows drugdependent residents to seek help at fire stations at any time. Jesse and Cyndi Swafford of dayton, ohio have provided a loving, stable home to children affected by the Opioid Crisis. I i am calling on every american to join the ranks of Guardian Angels like chief goonan and the swaffords, who help lift up the people of our great nation. Together, we will care for our citizens, our children, and our orphans and our and you know what im going to say our foster youth. So many, so many. But were going to lift them up, and were going to take care of them. We will work to strengthen vulnerable families and and vulnerable families and communities, and we will help to build and grow a stronger, healthier, and drugfree society. Together, we will face this challenge as a National Family with conviction, with unity, and with a commitment to love and support our neighbors in times of dire need. Working together, we will defeat this Opioid Epidemic. It will be defeated. We will free our nation from the terrible affliction of drug abuse. And, yes, we will overcome addiction in america. We are going to overcome addiction in america. We have fought and won many battles and many wars before, and we will will him again. Will win again. Thank you. God bless you. And god bless america. Thank you. [applause] pres. Trump here we go. This is very important combatting the National Drug demand and Opioid Crisis. Right . So important. We will win, right . [applause] pres. Trump [indiscernible] [applause] ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated until the guests on stage have departed the main room. [indiscernible] on monday, we will hear from former president bill clinton who is speaking at a summit on opioid addiction. There will be people from the Public Sector at Johns HopkinsBloomberg School of Public Health. Live coverage at 10 00 a. M. Eastern here on cspan. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up monday morning, author ken stearns discusses Political Polarization the United States. And Denis Kelleher talks about Senate Legislation on classaction lawsuits. And then American Retirement associations Douglas Fisher on 401 k s and tax reform. The sure to watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern monday morning. Join the discussion. Next, adhering to assess the federal governments Public Health preparedness for hurricane season. Hurricanes cause major damage to parts of texas, florida, and puerto rico, home to several drug manufacturers whose facilities were damaged by the storms. The house energy and commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations heard from john gottlieb. This hearing is two hours and 35 minutes. Ill go ahead and get us started. We are here today to examine the department of health and Human ServicesPublic Health repairedness for and response to the 2017 hurricane season. In the last two months, texas, florida, puerto rico, and the u. S. Virgin islands have been devastated by hurricanes. I first want to express our heart felt sorrow for the millions of americans impact by these devastating storms and say that all members of this committee, on both sides of the aisle, stand with those affected by these hurricanes. I would also like to thank dr. Burgess and dr. Reeves, both members of the