Christie delivered his final state of the state address in trenton. The focus of his speech centered on combating drug addiction. This is one hour and 15 minutes. Drug addiction. This is 1 15. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. President , mr. Speaker, honorable members of the supreme court, members of the state legislature and my cabinet, former governors, family and friends, this is the seventh time that ive had the honor to step before this legislature and the people of new jersey to perform one of my duties as governor. Article v, section 1, paragraph 12 of our constitution creates the requirement for the governor to report on the state of the state. As the one person independently elected by all New Jerseyans to State Government, the governor is the only person truly able to give this report. For me, service to the people of this state has been my central responsibility every day of my life for the last 15 years. First as United States attorney and now as governor. As i enter my eighth year as governor, it is my honor and privilege to report on the state of the state that i call home for me and for my family. The state of the state is good. Having boldly dealt with so many of the longterm problems we inherited in 2010, having an economy which continues to grow, and now ready to use 2017 to confront problems that still need solving. I stand here today prepared to give every ounce of energy i have to make 2017 a year where we solve more big problems for the citizens of new jersey. So lets start with the central issues of our economy. Since we entered office seven years ago in the depths of the recession, new jersey has created 278,000 new private sector jobs. We now have had seven consecutive years of private sector job growth, and all of the jobs lost during the Great Recession have now been recovered by the people of the state of new jersey. [ applause ] at the same time, we have kept our promise to reverse the outlandish growth of government, which was created in the decade before our arrival. We have eliminated more than 10,000 government jobs at the state and 21,000 more government jobs at county and local government level through the effective property tax cap. That is 31,000 government jobs eliminated in just seven years. We promised a smaller government, recall ladies and gentlemen we have delivered it. [ applause ] and let me remind you that in State Government all of this was done without layoffs. It was done with fiscal with the peoples money. Rose 15 in 2016. Home sales are growing and new jersey is growing with it. As a result look at what happened to Unemployment Rate at 9. 8 , now 5 . Nearly cut in half. 445,000 new jerseyian out of world seven years, 50 fewer are unemployed today. While the prognosticators, the glass is fully, much fuller as reenter 2017 and all of us should be proud of the work we have done to make it so for them. [ applause ] we have restored responsibility budgeting back to new jersey government. Think about this. Discretionary spending it 2. 3 billion less in actual dollars today than it was nine years ago. Heres what that means. Nearly every additional dollar we have collected in taxes, this administration has dedicated to deal with our historic problems. Pension payments, Health Insurance premium and debt service. We make 1. 9 billion pension payment in state history. That will bring our total payments to the penning system to 6. 3 billion and that is twice as much has governor wit man, mcgrief vi and co sign combined. This administration has been far and away by the numbers the most generous to the Pension System in the last 23 years and we are proud to have stepped up to our responsibility. [ applause ] now despite the fact we have not been able to pay every penny after reforms, those reforms have been working. Supreme court supported our reform despite failed assault on the reform. We have been more to return sovereignty. All of us together. Theres more to do. I will present more ideas to finish the job when i present you with the 2018 budget next month. Until then, we should acknowledge and be proud of the fact that we have passed reform that safe Pension System 120 billion over 30 years and that we have doubled the states contribution to the system during our term in the last 16 years before we arrived. Thats progress. And there will be more to come in february. Finally, 2017 will be the first year since 1996 that new jersey citizens will see broadbased tax cuts. [ applause ] thats right for the first time in over 20 years new jersey will see taxes go down this year. This was a partisan fight for six years. As my republican colleague and i regularly called for tax cuts. Democrats colleague said no. I want to thank my friend for standing strong so the tax cut could become a reality in year seven. For the democratic friends i thank you too for making 2017 new jersey can get tax relief, its tax relief we can be proud of. 2017 our sales tax will be cut for the first time in decades. Better news, its go be cut again on january 1 of 2018, 520 billion in relief for nnl who pays sales tax. Every new jerseyian living here today. In 2017 the work rk poor will get assistance to raise families. When we entered office, it was 25 . 2015 we increase it to 30 of the last year we increased it again effective january 1, to 0 35 . We should be proud we have lepile helping families who are already helping themselves. [ applause ] 2017 is going to be better year for seniors on fixed incomes. Were going to exclude Retirement Income for seniors. In four years they will be able to make 100,000 in Retirement Incomes and pay no taxes at all. This help them stay in the state. Once they stay live better live. This rewards seniors who have planned responsibility for their retirement. 2017 the debt tax has been put on life support, by 2018 it would be officially dead itself. [ applause ] you heard the stories people flee state in senior years because we tax them to death while they live here to add to the burden we tax them again more than any other state after they die. People will now be able to choose new jersey rather than other 49 states in the union in the senior years because we will stop smoking. [ not speaking right now ] lets take a moment to have some silent prior for my friend and new jersey pastor carter. Think of joe to make sure he comes through it okay. [ silent prayer ] new jersey state tax has risen from 675,000 exclusion to 2 million exclusion. New jersey will no longer have estate tax at all. This Game Changing for economy, families and Small Businesses they want to pass on to their families. In 2017, our veterans will be honor for their service by the tax code. New jersey veterans discharge will get personal exemption from state income tax. Republicans and democrats coming together to lower tax in all in 2017. It took seven years to get it done we should be proud that taxpayer get to keep more of own money in 017 than they did in 2016. [ applause ] now as people sit and listen to state of the state speech. They wonder how many of the goals get accomplished. Good question. Lets review the goals we set in 2016 in this speech what we were able to accomplish in the years since. 2016, i called on legislature to find debt tax we did it together. In 2016, we many of us did, that our cities need even more service from Charter Schools providing extraordinary opportunities to student and families for Brighter Future thats why thousands of families are still unwaiting list in our major cities to get into a quality charter school. Its not a political decision by them. It is decision based upon the quality of the life for their children and their as per rations for their future. We promised to loosen regulation in the speech last year that are choking growth of the charrer schools. Last year they advance schools in new jersey by allowing them to be inno native. 2016, we promise 100 million increase in funding for Mental Health and Substance Abuse treatment. We exceed promise by added 127 million to increase access to most vulnerable in our state. In 2016 we promise to open certified drug abruce Treatment Center. This spring 696 bed facility will hope and every inmate who enters it will receive First Class Drug and alcohol abuse treatment before they leave prison and go back on the street to recovery their life. [ applause ] in 2016, we spoke about our successful Recovery Coach Program and in 2015 we had operating in five counties. We promised more than double that in 2016 to 11 counts. Whats the program to remind you the programs puts counselors into hospital emergency room to help people began road to recovery that gives them greater chance from the minute they get ready to leave from the emergency room. We promised greater recovering addicts to claim their lives recovery coaches are doing just that in emergency room. Those were the five promises of the 2016 state of the state speeches. We delivered on each of them. We might do what we say were going to do. Listen to the speech and the people in new jersey should listen also. You know, there are so many issues that i can talk about today and look back on with pride. But so many future issues that i can talk about today and look to with a sense of urgency. There are so many stories from the last year that i can relate to you today in this speech with a true sense of wonder. But im not going to do that today. For that, i have to wait for the book. [ laughter ] [ applause ] wait and wait and wait. But seriously, im not going to do it today because our state faces are crisis which is more urgent to the families than any issue we can confront a kris sis which is destroying families ripping the fabric of our state apart, it is the crisis of drug addict. On december 21 we held vigil on the steps of this Historic Building over 750 people from state attend to show share sol dart and concern for fellow citizens. In the group that night was pam, she is an employee of the state department of education. Pam has been a drug awareness and prevention advocate for years. For her, her reasons are personal. Her son has batted addict since he was 16 years old. During his period of sobriety. He was amazing. He volunteered his time, running support groups for fellow ad dik, at the same time he thrived at successful jobs. In they fought his addiction with him as a family. Pam came to the vigil on december 21st to rejoice in her sons ten and a half months of uninterrupted sobriety. [ applause ] she came to celebrate the gifts that she said that sobriety brought to her son and letter family. To days later erelaps and he was found dead at 23 years old from a heroin overdose. Today mary pat and i extend our deepest sympathy for her loss. Today, what im doing today, is for people like pam, together we will save lives and honor the lives of those we lost like her dear son carlos through the pain of her loss, pam has the strength and the courage just weeks later to be here today with her husband. We owe her our sympathy but we owe her our gratitude for her commitment to this cause and to those who suffer from it in new jersey. Thank you, pam. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen of new jersey, this is the face of the epidemic of addition that is ravaging our state and its people. Its ravaging our entire country. Few people want to talk about it. They want to pretend its islated to one class. We want to jail those who have this disease. We want to close our eyes and hope this passes by our own home. If we just hope and pray hard enough to make it so. Well, hoping and praying alone will not make it better, arresting jailing stigmatizing the victims will not make it better. Our friends are dying. Our neighbors are dying. Our co workers are dying. Our children are dying. Every day in numbers we can no longer afford to ignore. I am the leader of this state. I have been the leader of this state for the last 2,546 days and ill be its lead r for the next 373 days. I have been committed to this every day of my governor ship. Today i say to each every one of you, i need you to join me and feel the same sense of urgency to save lives now. [ applause ] let me be clear to every new jersey and all 21 of our counties drug addiction is a disease, it is not a moral failing. It is a disease that can be treated. By treating the disease with the methods we know, and treating its victims with understanding and compassion, we have a chance to save lives. Never forget, each of those lives are an individual gift from god. There can be not calling more clear no matter your faith than the calling to save lives. We have taken some steps over the last number of years we have made progress, but it is not enough. I can tell you that by reading the growing statistics i can see it. By watching the growing cost to the budget. I can feel it by looking into the eyes of too many loved ones who lost someone so close and dear that you can actually see their hearts breaking. Beyond the human cost, which is inkal couble. Theres a cost in every life in new jersey. This is a effecting our education system. Children coming to school high cannot learn. You came to this chamber because you came about improves the health care system. Great. Its affecting the health care system. Its putting a cost on the stm which we will not be able to bear. You came because you care about law and order and safety in the street. There is affecting how we fight crime. Police are in danger every day. Citizens at risk on the street and roads as drug addiction causes behavior that Law Enforcement cannot handle. You care about economy and the jobs is thats what brought you here, its effecting the Financial Security of every person it touches. Jobs lost, savings wasted, potential ruined. All by culture of addiction. None of that adds to the economy, just stals it. Lets say you came because you care most about your family. Let me tell you this, only through the grace of god has it not touched youre family already. You are among the lucky ones and your luck could run out at any moment. This administration has done more than an on history of the addiction of the were proud of it. Its not enough. We have to do more. Drug overdose in new jerseyesslated by 22 between 2014 and 15. Deathesslated. Theres 30 increase in heroin deaths over the Previous Year and triple number caused by oipo oipoid fen tinnal. 600 people lost their lives in 2015. 1,600. Whats that mean. Let give you perspective. For 2015 those 1,600 is 4 times more number of murder in nnl. Four times the number of murder and three times more the number of People Killed in automobile accidents in the state. For the same year. For the first time in 2015. Deaths heroin overdose alone surpassed deaths in the United States by firearm homicides. Just heroin. The fatality in 2015 would have been greater when you factor lived that were saved after receiving nar cane which made it available in every county. [ applause ] we provided training for Law Enforcement met on how to use it to save peoples lives. Has it worked . We had ten thousand nar can deployments in 2016 alone. Thats ten thousand lives that could have been lost without nar can. Add that to the 1,600 victims who did not make it, that means we could have lost more than ten thousand lives without our aggressive action on nar can. Its unthinkable. But likely to have happened if redid not act boldly. There are the countless lives of those addicted. They have not been captured by addiction but we know its there. We need to reach out before its too late. According to the surge general american dies every 19 minute from overdose, every 19 minutes. While were in this chamber, three americans will die of on overdose in the next hour and the next hour and the next hour. Nearly 50,000 people died in 204 across the country of a Drug Overdose in that same report the surge general tells us that the age of first use of alcohol, were any other elicit drug vast vastly increases the rate of addiction. The earlier you try any elicit drug, the greater the risk of addiction to other drugs. I want advocates of legalizing marijuana to listen to the numbers. If if you try any drug by the age of 13, you have a 70 chance according to the surge general of doefrling addiction to another drug within 7 years. Try an elicit drug at age of 13, seven out of ten will be addicted to another drug by the time they are 20. I hope and pray this will give pause to those pushing ahead to legalize another drug for tax revenue or falsely says it will cause no harm. The statistics prove you wrong, dead wrong. [ applause ] 1 in 12 High School Senior report they use vie ka din. They report they use oxycontin. 467,000 children between 12 and 17 use prescription pain medication. 12 and 17. A 168,000 are addicted to pain medication. The prescribing rate as doubled in the last 13 years. The drug leads to abuse of heroin. These are just numbers. Go behind the numbers, think about it. These are real people. Think about the 17yearold captain of the High School Football team who hurts his knee and gets oxycontin. Tli think about the 19yearold who gets 30 per sets for the removal of wisdom tooth. I didnt come to idea the problem, i want to layout plan to fight the fight more aggressively. Theres nothing more porn important i can do than it. Lets work to save lives together and start together today. [ applause ] lets deal with the basics. We need to make treatment easier to locate and accessible to individuals and families when they are in the middle of crisis. Today, our administration can launching a hot line to make it easier to access treatment. The website will put addiction information in one place and help eliminate question where do i go. Who do i turn to . Its going to enhance public awareness, provide insurance guidance, idea location Rehab Facility for children and adult, share information for those who enter recovery. It will include updates and list private and nonprofit contact information. One website, one phone number, to help guide people through what can be a daunting bureaucracicy. We cannot reach those in need if the path is confusing. We will launch campaign to inform families to go for help. Dial 1844 reach ng j or go to reach. Gov. Last year we increased funding by more than 127. We propose that fundsing again for next yearss putting. We need to do more. I found it out recently. We cannot treat 18 or 19yearold has children in our state system. What does this do . It leaves us with empty treatment bed for the truth and resulting over crowding in treatment beds for people 18 years of age or older. I dont believe we have luxury of allowing beds to remain empty. Im going to change the rile. We invest 12 million to open more beds for the vulnerable population. This expansion will be lead by commission and department of children and familily allow 18 and 19 years rather than stop at 17. This will open 200 beds to hundreds young people seeking help. We have to do everything we can to keep children off of waiting list and get them on to treatment because the wait maybe more than they can bear. [ applause ] next director commissioner to develop curriculum on opioids. It l be tailored every age group. The message simple and direct and start in kindergarten. The medicine in mom and dad is not save for you just because a doctor gave it to them. Now it will expand commissioners project pride run by the department of corrections. It brings how drugs abuse led them to addition and to prison. Next, we need to acknowledge that the path to recovery is a live long one. We have many young people already having received treatment for addiction. How can we drop them into the life Pressure Cooker for any student without appropriate atmosphere of support. In order to support them who have been caught in the epidemic, we increase fundsing housing programs for students in recovery. They are called recovery dorms. They are lifeline for student as they learn. These housing programs provide community in need of support while dealing with the pressure of college. Attending college can be challenge and difficult for those in recovery. You know the culture. Many of us experienced it. It may seem too long ago to remember. The culture that go on campus and part of campus life. Students livingen o campus dealing with recovery, may be exposed to things they may be not able to handle. Next, the effort to support those cannot stop at the college campus. Silver living homes to live in a sportive setting during that really delicate early period of recovery. Thats why i have been working with senator vitally to create Silver Living home ins new jersey. We need to easy restrictive regulatory and code environments for residents that provide Substance Free housing for our communities. [ applause ] here is Something Else that needs to be said. We need to welcome the support of living arrangements into our own neighbors. If we want to have a chance defeat the epidemic we cannot have a attitude toward the homes. They serve a beneficial use and purpose for our state. I want you to remember this, today, the nonviolent recoverying person in your neighbor may be a strategier. It may be your child. We condition to preach benefit and fail those in recovery by denying them access to home while they get into recovery. The person who brought them idea is another example this can touch any family how those in recovery can change lives if we give them the tools to help them help themselves. I met aj. When we gradated i hired him to work as member of the advance team. I was proud. Aj had a problem. He had a secret. He dabble ask stumble on to prescription painkillers. By the age of 19 painkiller and alcohol br part of his life. By the time he came to work for me he was a fullblown heroin addict. Luckily, aj was caught buying drugs and wipt into 28 day program. But aj found his way around the system. He left the facility and wound up living on the streets. Aj watched a close friend die from his addiction. Aj watched another friend go to jail. And he knew there were only two choices left for him, to die or to have the strength to get sober. After much hard work ask having a few years of sobriety, he called me asked to come see me. He told me he was coming to make amends for the ways he felt he disgraced the office of the governor by his conduct. How he felt he betrayed our friendship. I asked him how i can use his experience to help others. Aj is the architect of the silver i outline, based on his experience, and of those he watched. He opening substance Treatment Center in new jersey. Recovery center in lor ral springs. [ applause ] this place is going to be 15 minutes from where aj grew up and why he felt victim to addiction. Aj is going to continue to change is save lives. Recently he told me people think that being an addict is unbearable burden. He disagrees. He says he grateful. Grateful to be in recovery. He believes that the fulfillment and the joy that helping others brings to his life will keep him from relaps and using drugs again. Who is aj. He is aj slom man. The new Jersey Supreme Court justice lee solomon. Who extraordinary citizens, two parents, his story is not uncommon. It has an uncommon ending. Aj kacant wait to see the next chapter of his life unfold. We love you aj. Im thrilled how you chosen to spend the rest of your life. [ applause ] what i know is going to a long and productive one. Next, whether leaving a Treatment Center or leaving prison after having received treatment for the disease that lead you to life of crime, the reed to recovery is long and road to relapse is shorter. If if the person is recovery cannot find a job. Thats why i advocated for the we have a criminal system to keep dangerous sociopath behind bars. To end advocating people behind bars unless clients are permitted to profitment we ended that. All of new jersey will benefit from our efforts. We know the greatest predictor is a job. Emt employment is a longterm fact towards reducing resistism. [ applause ] as we know there are more barriers which is why i will be working with Coke Industries to work collaboratively to challenge ourselves for employment of those incarcerated. All across new jersey to ensure new jersey is at the forefront of helping people get back to work and become productive citizens and taxpayers. Thats going to be help those incarcerated, addicted and lef behind. [ applause ] next, we most confront the economic barriers to receiving treatment for addiction. There is important. You see the wealthy have few barriers. They have the financial means to pay the cost for the loved ones. Through our efforts we have elimited the barrier for the poor to receive treatment as well. Whether i expanded it created drug treatment for the poor in new jersey. In 2016, 14,357 medicaid citizens are receiving drug this represents fivefold increase in 2013. For the poor in new jersey. Through theory forms the cost is down since 2013 by 7. 7 . Were doing more of it and at better costme. If the rich have been able to pay for it and the poor has access. Who has the biggest it is working of the middle class of new jersey. They are depending on a Health Insurance industry who finds a way to say no. As a guy who grow up new jersey middle class family, i say thats unacceptable. [ applause ] on behalf of our middle class being attacked and being denied coverage i demand we end this today together. So im going to call on the same people i call on every time i have a tough problem to fix in this city. I call on senator sween knee and mccain and bren nonto be responsible for mandate no citizen with Health Insurance can be denied coverage for the First Six Months for inpatient or out patient treatment for drug rehabilitation treatment. [ applause ] lets face it, no family puts their loved one into inpatient treatment unless its necessary. Unless every other al tern tifr has been tried. Rather than support and compassion coverage they are too often met pi questioning and red tape and denials by insurance who take their premiums at the same time. No more medical necessity, no more defiles that can costs lives. Treatment first. Hope first. Denials last. [ applause ] together we can end Insurance Company run around and i challenge you to pass this law in the next 30 days. I will sign it in return on the day you land it on my desk. Together we can save lives by doing this. They dont deserve the double doze of agony. Denial by Insurance Company which leads to the death of a loved one. Lets get to work on that. We have to end it and end it within the thenext 30 days. [ applause ] next im announcing an additional 5 million for the statewide Expansion Program we started on ped at trick behavioral health. It provides hubs can psychiatrist on call. The participating pediatrician receive how ton screen children for Substance Abuse addiction. It provided connection to specialist while parents and child in the pediatrician obvious office. In the facetoface is available on the same day. No longer weeks waiting for a specialist. Next, we have to step up prevention efforts in the corner of the states. We know they become addiction through the use of opioid, the 4 out of 5 user become addicts by misusing prescription painkillers. Im directing paren no to limit supply of opioids prescribes to patients presenting with acute pain. [ applause ] think about this in new jersey authored Health Care Provider are write prescription that provide up to 30 day supply. First prescription. 30day supply. Had is dangerous. Its ill advised and it is unnecessary in the state like ours. We know addiction no opioids occur within days. We must work by limiting the supply. I want to limit it to five days. Prescriber would be required under new rules im directing attorney general to put out to c consult with the patient. Think about this i cording to the cdc in 2012, Health Care Provider in that one year wrote 259 million prescription. Enough for every adult to have own bottle of pills. Opioid increase in 7 in five years proceeding that. Increasing more in Family Practice in general practice and internal medicine. Its everywhere. This trend must be curved. [ applause ] this blanket 30day window is excessive. The ability of prescriber is contributing to there crisis in a significant way. Limiting the medication is one step. If necessary attorney general should open investigation of medical community and their interaction with the Industry Manufacturing these drugs. Profit by the physician must never be a rationale for contributing to the death of our citizens by over prescribing these drugs, not ever. [ applause ] our battle against the plague has been powerful allies in the community. A community that lifts up those in crisis. I created the facing Addiction Task force in the private sector. Shared by former governor mcgriefy and our friend. I ask to keep issues front and center to me and the public. They have worked to address add addiction from many levels. They are Outstanding New jerseyians who answered the call and served families in desperate needs and to save lives. Joe, he and the governor have my sincere thanks and im confident they have yours as well as. Thank you, governor. [ applause ] the nature of the crisis makes it obviously, they cannot do it alone. Im creating the Governors Task force on drug abuse control. By working with all area to fight complex problem together. Within the attorney general alone multiple agencies have role to play, drug abuse and drugs addiction. Ad to that department of the education, department of corrections human services, have role to play in this. Our response we must unitize every tool available in order to bring all with have to the fight. This task force will as chairman gives him the knowledge of every corner of state governor gives him understanding on the role, Homeland Security gives him an appreciate of how it building schools on time and on budget has shown everyone he knows how to solve problems. I thank him for willingness to take on this role. Thank you, charley. [ applause ] final, we need help from federal partners to address the crisis. We need the federal government to remove out dated barriers to Substance Abuse that limit access. Federal funds cannot be used where it matches 50 50 cannot be used in a facility if that facility has more than 16 beds. The feds call these institutes of mental disease there are we dont get federal money. This is ridiculous and an dekuwaited thaiing. If we remove this barrier, we can double the medicaid beds available. So im directing commissioner conway to call been cms who from indiana someone who i worked to remove this roadblock to care and calling upon congressional delegation to lead the fight. Eligibility should not be determined by how many beds in the facility where you seek treatment. So this is a christie plan to attack drug addiction in our state. Im ready to work with and listen to anyone on how to address this issue. Here whats im unwilling to accept. I will not have the blood of addicted new jerseyians on my hands because we failed to act. I will not watch 1,600 of our citizens die and watch the families mourn and suffer. We if we dont project this we will be paralyzed by the selfinterested actors who care more about the attack of the day than about truly attacking the problems that effect real new jersey families our fellow citizens facing the disease of addiction do not deserve to be stigmatized or locked up in jail prurly due to their disease. They do not deserve to be living on the streets and do not deserve to be going out treatment or medication because they slipped through the cracks of our complex and confusing system. [ cheers and applause ] they do not deserve a life without hope and they do not deserve this fate. They are our husbands and wives. They are our brothers and sisters. They are our sons and daughters. We have the capacity to give them the tools they need to recover and it would be a sin for us to fail to do so. This is the single most important issue to every new jersey family towned. Now as i stand in new jersey in my final year as governor i want us to make new jersey an example for how hour entire nation can compassi compassiona t compassionately help families going through this personal hell. If we do that we will save lives across america. Some will call this plan too aggressive but i dont believe its possible to be too aggressive in facting this epidemic. I know this is a very different state of the state address, but when our children are dying new jersey should be offended. If i came up here and gave the typical speech. Ill tell you, they will be more offended if we dont act on this plan without deplay. T delay. The resolve for me is fuelled by the memory of a friend. When i entered law school i was lucky enough to meet a group of friends who i have met far lifetime t. Closest were our first year study group. All of the recovering lawyers in the room know what i mean by that. These are the people who in your first year, when youre the most nervous that you study with for all of your final exams. In my group there were nine of us. We have been fortunate and successful. Three have become private practice in new jersey. Three are city of new Jersey Superior Court judges. Wonder how that happened . And one became United States attorney and governor of new r jersey. All of us have been married and we have 20 children among us. One of us was particularly gifted. He had the best gpa. He was on the law review. He got a great judicial clerkship after graduation. He was the first among us to be named partner of his firm. In every way professionally he was an outstanding lawyer and great success. He married a beautiful and talented woman. Together they had three incredible children. They bought a great home in the new jersey suburbs and we all enjoyed Family Vacations together. We all grew into adulthood together. By the way, he was also the best looking among us and even as he got older he was an athlete that kept in great shape. He was an avid runner. In short, he was incredibly annoying. His avid running lead to back pain. His back pain lead to painkillers. One night i got a call from his wife. She told me he was addicted to the pills and alcohol and she asked him to leave the house. He was living with his parents and he needed us, his old friends, to have an intervention. So a group of us went. We convinced him to go. That began a nearly ten year d oddessy. Lots of support in every way you can imagine from his old friends and others. In the process he lost his job. He lost his license to drive. He lost his marriage. He lost his right to see his children. He lost their second home. He spent through all his money including all that he had saved for retirement for himself and his children. And then three years ago this spring on an early sunday morning mary pat and i got to call we had been dreading for years. Our friend had been found dead alone in a cheap motel room with an empty bottle of percocet and vodka. He was 52 years old. By every way we measure success in our society my friend had made it. Great education, great career, wonderful wife, beautiful children, fabulous home, plenty of money, good looking, successful. He was the american dream. There i sat as the governor of new jersey at his funeral with our friends who had grown into adulthood together and we watched his family grieve his loss. As i sat there that day, what struck me was there but for the grace of god go i. This can happen to any of us, any of us. We have to start treat thg disease not just jalg its victims. We need to give them the tools they need to recover. We need to stop judging and start understanding these simple truths. Every life is precious. Every life is an individual gift from god and no life is beyond redempti redemption. President kennedy defined in his inaugural address nearly 56 years ago what Public Service and elected office should be all about. He said this. With a good conscience is your reward. Let us go forth to lead the land we live asking his blessing and his help but knowing that here on earth gods work must truly be our own. That is what Public Service is for me and that is what i will dedicate my final year as governor to for all of new jerseys families. Nothing could personify gods work here on earth more than saving lives, each and every life we can. That mission is my mission over the next 373 days of governor. I hope you will join me in this mission. God bless you. God bless america and god bless the great state of new jersey. [ cheers and applause ] washington journal. Live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up this morning, the president of the alliance for justice discusses her groups opposition to the nominee to the supreme court. And former ambassador to iraq lilzadghanistan zalmay kha talks about the ban. And roben farzad discusses how Financial Markets are reacting first couple weeks in office. Join the discussion. On newsmakers, marilyn senator ben cardin talked about some of the challenges facing the Trump Administration and congress, including the iran nuclear deal, travel restrictions on refugees, u. S. Russia relations, and other issues. Newsmakers, today at 10 00 a. M. And 6 00 p. M. I am a white male. And i am prejudiced. Is the reason it is something that i do not want to talk about, but something i learned. There are more calls after that. He had to keep rolling. I do not realize how powerful it was. There was something in his voice that touched me. It was so authentic, as he searched for the words to Say Something to a National Audience that most of us will not admit in our homes. Mcgonight on q a, heather guest when mr. Civitello called. With all of the tragic events in that version and dallas, it was really a time when people were seeingl they on tv about race was bad news. Manhere was, first, a white admitting he was prejudiced. Which, for people of color we kind of just all set finally. Tonight at 8 00 eastern on q a. N oversight hearing about the 2012 whistleblower law. [inaudible conversations] the subcommittee will come to order the chair can authorize a recess said in a time ally will differ to the Ranking Member for an opening statement. Federal employees below the low whistle on waste fraud and abuse on the frontlines on the effort to insure our government functions efficiently and effectively. There is a strong bipartisan report and