Establishing Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force

Floor Speech

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Chairman, I want to take time to recognize the gentleman from New Jersey, representing the Energy and Commerce Committee, and the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Brooks) for their service not only to this conference, but also to the issues and the ideas that are being brought forth.

The gentlewoman from Indiana has served our Nation as a United States attorney in Indiana. She has been on the front line of battles, albeit a few years ago, but the front line of battles that the American people face, how we protect the American public from all sorts of things that get in our way as families and communities. But in this case today, she is serving as a Member of Congress firsthand to fight a problem with opioids. Opioids are a synthetic heroin, Mr. Chairman, and synthetic heroin is a national problem. It is a national problem and one which this Congress is undertaking.

We are following up today on the United States Senate bill and this bill that came through regular order in the House of Representatives under two primary committees. The Judiciary Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee have addressed bills that are being debated today that will be passed, will be done in a bipartisan way, and will bring the best ideas of the House of Representatives to the plate. With that in mind, that is what I stand for today, sir, to do.

I join in, as my colleague from Vermont has done, in adding to this interagency task force with an amendment that I brought forth that I would ask us to consider. I will offer this amendment to ensure that the existing best practices of State and local governments, as well as the private sector, are specifically considered as the task force which was established by H.R. 4641 conducts their business.

Mr. Chairman, the opportunity for us to understand the amendment process means that not only I, but also other Members of this body, bring forth ideas that we think are the best ways to combat this problem. I believe in State and local governments. I believe in the private sector. I think they are the essence of, really, where the rubber meets the road on the solution of problems, not to kick around ideas and to find something that doesn't work, but to kick around ideas that do work.

Local communities, local governments, and the private sector collaborate back home daily. They do this in Dallas, Texas, which is my home, which I represent, and we have something that is called the Dallas Area Drug Prevention Partnership. It was established in 2007, and it represents what I believe is the best collaborative effort between local communities focusing on preventing drug abuse.

A few years ago, Dallas, Texas, the epicenter of something that was a heroin epidemic, was looking at a marketing effort by Mexican drug dealers with something that was called cheese. Cheese was a marketing effort, but it was heroin, and it was being packaged and sold as cheese. In fact, it caused the death of some 25 people in Dallas, Texas, very quickly before law enforcement recognized what the problem was.

Law enforcement worked with community leaders, church leaders, religious leaders, Boy Scout troops, Girl Scout troops, youth groups, YMCAs, and we got a handle on what the problem was. But it was not solved by the Federal Government. It was not done just by an interagency departmental group of people in Washington, D.C. It was solved with Washington, D.C., and with people back home who saw the problem firsthand, who took responsibility for the problem firsthand.

In this case, what we are trying to say is we are dealing with a nationwide epidemic, a nationwide epidemic which we have spoken very plainly about today that is one that is caused through opioid use and then the transition to heroin at some point in a person's life. It is creating thousands of deaths across our country. Something must be done. But the something to be done is a collaborative effort between the Federal Government, interagency responsibility up in Washington and other places back home, but with State and local organizations and with private sector organizations that really will be not just the boots on the ground, but many times with the best expertise about the best way to do it in the best place.

Mr. Chairman, I bring forth this amendment. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and the underlying bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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