Months ago when he declared the Opioid Epidemic a National Emergency. So i expect today we hopefully will hear the details of what he wants that to include. No one knows at this point, so well be somewhat surprised, whatever the result, at 2 00 this afternoon. And i plan to go. Cspan plans to cover it. Good. Good. Well, this truly is an emergency, and i am glad that the president now is moving it to the front burner so that he draws attention to the problem. You know, we are losing, to an overdose now, one american every few minutes, like 15 minutes or so. And its going unabated and its increasing. And there is more people dying now from Prescription Drugs overdoses than car wrecks. Or gun violence or what have you. So this truly is an epidemic, as the centers for Disease Control said two years ago. Now the president is saying thats a National Emergency which i think elevates it on the importance scale. If what the president ends up doing is declaring it a Public Health emergency as opposed to a National Emergency, would that be a disappointment to you . Thats the reporting in todays usa today, a Public Health emergency, not the more sweeping National Emergency . We can go through what that would actually mean, but would that make a difference to you . Well, i dont know. We dont know what exactly what his intentions are, to the federal agencies. We already spend about 8 billion a year on fighting Illegal Drugs or prescription medicine, opioid abuse. So its already high on the nations importance register. But what he intends to do legally to either change regulations of the monies being spent for the problem or Something Else so we have to wait and see. If its a Public Health emergency one of the things that would allow the president to do is tap the Public Health emergency fund, but that fund only has about 57,000 in it right now, according to usa todays reporting. Where is the best place to push the funding in your mind as someone who has been on the Appropriations Committee in congress for a very long time . Well, yes. It makes a big difference on just what he intends to how he intends to define this National Emergency and what follows on. So well have to wait and see. It may require more money. In that case well try to find it. It may require agencies to change policies in some fashion. Well see whether or not they can legally do that. So, i dont know yet what the definition of his emergency is. Well all find out together this afternoon. As we said, cspan is covering it. Congre congressman rogers will be there. We have a special line in the segment to take your comments, republicans 2027487001. Independents 2027488002. Congressman rogers, why wasnt the declaration, whatever it is going to be this afternoon, why wasnt it done sooner . Well, the centers for Disease Control in atlanta, two, three years ago declared that the opioid problem was a a national epidemic. That didnt mean anything legally, but it drew attention to the height of the problem that we are in. When the president says two months ago that were in a National Emergency with the problem, it was not legally done, it was not declared, he just said that, all of us wondered, what does it mean and when is he going to do it and how can we make it happen sooner. So were all anxiously awaiting to see just exactly what he is proposing today at 2 00. The republican line. Mike. Go ahead. Thank you for taking my call. I had a quick, question or comment. I sympathize with people who struggle with this, opioid addiction and whatever. My struggle is understanding why its the governments job to intervene. You make your own decisions in life. You make your own decisions whether what you do to your body. You know, no one really got involved when the Africanamerican Community was dealing with crack cocaine addiction. And now all of a sudden its a problem but, you know, you make your own decisions in your personal lives. Got your point. Congressman, the question of why the government needs to intervene and the difference between the crisis now versus decades ago when it was primarily in the Africanamerican Community. Well, this the opioid abuse problem in 01 started in my district. We were the first to have this onslaught of addiction. The lexington newspaper, which covers my part of the state, had this huge headline on the top fold, saying something to the effect, eastern kentucky, the painkiller capital of america. Something like that. I had no idea that we had this problem. No one else did. But i dug into it, of course, and discovered it was unfortunately true. In spades. So we started an organization in my district called unite. It stands tore unlawful narcotics investigations, treatment, education. Threepronged, holistic approach to this problem. I went to Emergency Rooms and saw young people dying or dead from an overdose. And it left a lasting impression on me. Anyway, that began the problem. And of course, now, as you know, its spread coast to coast. But its interesting to me and i dont have an answer most all of the worldwide abuse of opioids is in the u. S. Hardly any in europe or other parts of the world. Why thats so, i do not have the answer. But it is a national problem. Its infusing itself into every aspect of our life. We are still losing people every few minutes to an overdose, and the work is fully ahead of us. To mike in ohio line for democrats. Good day. I have a question about the heroin epidemic. We have been in afghanistan for 15 years or whatever now and the production is four times as much what it was when we went in. This reminds me of the iran contra scandal, the covert operation when they were trading machine guns for cocaine in south america. Now were in niger and we dont know whats going on over there. It looks to me like what weve created here i havent, you people there in d. C. And the rest of them if you think back, john kennedy said that he would like to take the cia, wad it up and throw it in the trash can along with the federal reserve. Youre going in and out a little bit. Whats your question . Well, the question is why have we got this fascist disney production wrapped around the Twilight Zone . Do you want to take it up . Im not sure i understand that last statement. Well, the heroin epidemic now is beginning to replace opioid abuse, prescription medicine abuse. Heroin is cheaper. Its actually more available, they tell us, since we have been now really after prescription pill abuse. A lot of people are switching to heroin. And its just as addictive. Its cheaper. And its easier to get. So were not through with this problem. If we zero out the problem with prescription pills. And the heroin is coming, frankly, across the southern border, southeastern southwestern border. A lot of it coming from colombia. And a lot of it coming from mexico. And the fentanyl problem, which weve not talked about yet, fentanyl is a hundred times more powerful than morphine, and its now being laced into the heroin thats being sold on the streets. And its deadly. Fentanyl is deadly. Its coming from china. Mainly through mexico. Some of it being made in mexico. Its a its a chemical product. But fentanyl mixed in with heroin and no one knows what the ratio is, so its a very dangerous thing were dealing with here. Because you cant tell when you take that heroin shot whether or not it has fentanyl in it or not. If it does, look out. Stats on synthetic opioids like fentanyl which you were talking about. In 2016, some 20,145 deaths in the United States attributed to synthetic opioids and primarily fentanyl. For the first time deaths from synthetic opioids, primarily the fentanyl surpassing the number killed by prescription opioid painkillers. You mentioned the injection of these drugs. I want to ask you about this story from the indy star, a second Indiana County this week ending its Needle Exchange program with one official citing moral concerns about Needle Exchanges. I know this is an issue that you have gone around with as well. Do Needle Exchanges work, something you support . Yes. I reluctantly came to that conclusion a couple years ago, or three. I had been opposed to the Needle Exchange programs until the small town in indiana i dont recollect the name of the town had a severe outbreak of hiv and hepatitis c. Just swamped this small town. And governor pence, now Vice President pence, was governor then. And ordered that the Needle Exchanges take place. In my instance, we wrote into the appropriations bill a couple of years ago the provision that would allow communities to establish Needle Exchange programs. We would use federal funds not for syringes themselves but for the supporting activities. One reason why i think its a good thing, it at least gives us an intervention point with people who are sick. And when they come in for the Needle Exchange, perhaps we can intervene in their life and help them avoid whatever caused the disease in the first place. Drug use. Brandon in milwaukee, wisconsin, on that line for those impacted by the opioid crisis. Thanks for calling in. Go ahead. Hi. Good morning. My comment is i am a [ inaudible ]. I rely on prescription meds. Whats been going on lately is a phobia thats causing all kinds of havoc within our communities. I think a lot of it is no doubt a direct result of misunderstandings and whatnot. I am glad you cleared some of that up when you talked about the increase in deaths recently are a problem of [ inaudible ]. Its not so much legitimate pain patients that are dying. I also want to point out that those who overdosed and died on one of these opiates, and all of them, on average, were on six other substances. Yes, people are dying, but its a combination of factors. And a lot of misinformation is being thrown around and its creating a situation where doctors are scared to prescribe pain medications and its creating a lot of needless suffering. So i just hope you keep us in mind when you try to push any new legislation. Thanks for the call. I had difficulty hearing what he was saying because of the line. Yes, alcohol is a problem as well. And hes right in that these opioid painkiller prescriptions, the long lasting ones, the 12hour release pill is very, very useful and helpful with terminally ill patients with cancer or what have you. Although very addictive and difficult to kick once you are addicted, oxycontin, for example, is still a great weapon that doctors have to help people through severe pain. Unfortunately, its so highly addictive that it makes it very difficult for us to work in the regular business of curing people. The Silver Bullet on the opioid Prescription Drug problem is to develop a medicine that is effective in pain relief thats not addaddictive. Thats what the research is going into at nih, cdc and so on. Thats the golden ring that were after. The caller mentioned doctors being afraid to prescribe treatments for this. I know an issue that youve brought up is not enough doctors going into Addiction Treatment as a specialty. How are you trying to fix that . Well, that ones a tough one. Were working with fda, federal drug administration, and of course the medical community. And theyre governed by their state associations, doctors. So it makes it difficult administratively to work on that problem. But we are pressuring the medical community to study and prep themselves on the problem. We have now got the word out to the medical community about the addictive qualities of oxycontin, for example, which they were mislead at the outset in the late 90s, early 2000s. Purdue pharma that makes oxycontin mislead doctors around the country to the effect that oxycontin was not really addictive. Of course, we knew that from a long time ago. Nevertheless, the officials of that company paid a fine of over 600 million because of misleading doctors about the addictive qualities of oxycontin. Should it have been more . More money . Should the fine have been more . Should people have gone to jail . Yes, should have gone to jail. I mean, were talking thousands of people who are dying, have died because of that mistake. To helen township, pennsylvania, pat is an independent. Good morning. Actually, im a democrat. Thats okay. During the obama administration, there was a bill passed unanimously that hampered deas effort to crack down on illegal opioids. Why not go this path in the first place . And two, are there any calls to repeal that bill . Thank you. Appreciate it. Congressman, i believe the bill, the law that the caller is referring to is the one that has very much been in the news recently when it cams to president trumps d. E. A. Nominee. Your response . Yes. Hes exactly right. That bill weaken eed the Drug Enforcement administrations capability to fight Illegal Drugs. It was changed in the process of going through the congress. It was modified so that dea then became supportive of that bill, because it did not require them to prove that the act was intentionally done. Did you support the bill when it came through . I finally did because the dea came aboard and supported it. I wish now i had not. In fact, i filed a bill that would repeal that bill and i think well pass it. So that the dea will have all of the Enforcement Powers that they originally had to go after the drug dealers. That line for those who have been impacted by the opioid crisis, keith in massachusetts. Good morning. Good morning, sir. Yeah. I think how this is going to impact me is i have a broken back and broken neck. Recently i had lung cancer. I had a lung removed, a couple ribs removeremoved. When i came out of the hospital i was on a couple hundred milligrams a day of oxycontin and dilaudid. Ive cut myself down to where the doctor prescribes me 60 milligrams of vicodin a day. Thats just to get up and move. Im getting worried now because id never want to do heroin. As far as im concerned, once a heroin junkie, always a heroin junkie. Whats going to happen . Are they going to take people like myself off of the doses they take to get by and leave us just hanging where were all going to have to turn to heroin junkies or something . Hes concerned about his own access to opioids. Hes not somebody who abuses it, somebody who weaned himself off from what he was given at the hospital but concerned with this crackdown that he might not have access to the opioids that he needs to get by through the day. No, no. Thats not a problem. His doctor, his pharmacist will be able to utilize the pain medicines that are available to the public. What were trying to stop is the illicit, illegal prescription pills that are on the market. But his doctor will have full access to the pain medicines. One more call from that line for those who have been impacted by the opioid crisis. Mason, dayton, ohio, go ahead. That is blatantly false. It absolutely is impacting people who need these medications to survive on a daily basis. I had a severe injury with a double back fusion several times, hip replacement. I did need those medications. I had a broken foot and because i was on on existing medication, they could not give me medication to help with the break and the pain that comes along with a broken foot. Also had to have oral surgery with two teeth pulled. They could not give me anything because i was already on pain medication. And to top it off, they want to drug test pain patients, right . And if you dont sign an agreement to drug testing, they will no longer give you your medicines. What should be the answer . I think what the answer is, is we need to go after the problem. That would be the Drug Companies themselves and how its being prescribed, not the people who need it. The people who need it have to have it every day like a friend of mine who just went through a kidney transplant that couldnt get any more than seven days of pain medication because of the laws in ohio. Congressman . Well, her doctor will be able to prescribe whatever medicine she needs. Were not talking about cutting off access to these drugs by legal prescriptions. What were talking about is trying to prevent excess pills fall into the hands particularly of young people, who abuse that 12hour release mechanism by crushing it and using it instantaneo instantaneously. But her doctor will have full access to painkillers. Only have a couple minutes left. Did want to ask you as a Senior Member of the Appropriations Committee with this budget plan that the house is taking up, are you going to be supporting the Senate Version of the budget plan despite the fact that its different from the house, despite the fact that it would add to the deficit to the tune of 1. 5 trillion over ten years . Its coming to the house floor today. Ill be supporting it, because mainly its just an avenue for us to get to the tax reform bill thats coming up next or soon. Under the senate rules, we have to pass this budget resolution in order to bring up and pass the tax reform bill, which were after big time. So, yes, ill support it. What do you say to folks back home who are seeing that 1. 5 trillion number and heard the house talk about upwards of 200 billion cut in their budget plan . Since its a temporary bill were passing, it will be replace brepla replaced by the real budget resolution after we get through with tax reform. This is a preliminary step that is required under senate rules in order to bring up the tax bill. When do you expect that to happen . Well, im not on the committee that works on it, bu