Water Resources Development Act of 2016
Floor Speech
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Mr. KING. Mr. President, last March this body passed CARA, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. Unfortunately, at the same time, we didn't fund it. We didn't provide any additional funds to support the treatment and recovery of people throughout the country. Since we passed that bill and failed to fund it, 15,000 people--78 a day, 3 an hour--have died because we haven't acted on funding.
A group of us got together on March 2 and brought forth an amendment to provide $600 million of emergency funding to give some substance to this bill, which had so much promise, and to provide support for recovery and treatment. That amendment was defeated.
Passing that bill without funding is like sending the fire department to a five-alarm fire with no water. We don't have the means to do what has to be done to defeat this scourge, which has taken the life of a constituent or more in every State in the Union. Every one of us has lost lives in our State because of this.
Treatment works. Recovery is possible. It is hard, but the greatest tragedy--the greatest tragedy--is when someone struggles with this awful disease, is ready to seek help, seeks help, and is told: Sorry, there is a 3-month waiting list. That is unconscionable.
This is something that is taking lives right now. This isn't an abstract, ``maybe this will happen in the future.'' This is right now, today, in Maine, in Florida, in California, in Arizona, in Washington, in Nebraska, in Texas--all across this country. It is the greatest public health crisis of my lifetime. Seventy-eight people a day are dying, and it is preventable.
There are three legs to the stool of dealing with this: One is law enforcement, one is prevention, and one is treatment. And without all three of those legs, the stool collapses and people die. These are real people.
I have had roundtables in Maine. I sat next to a deputy sheriff who lost his daughter and one woman who said she hoped her son would be arrested so maybe then he could get into treatment. These are regular, ordinary Americans that are being affected by this, not only young people. These are older people, middle class, middle-aged people. This is a major crisis. There are lots of aspects to it, and I can talk about the fact that opioid prescription drugs lead to heroin and other drugs, but the real subject today is funding.
I was told back in the spring: Don't worry, we are going to take up CARA in appropriations. We are going to have appropriations bills, and it will all be dealt with. Well, now we are talking about a continuing resolution that would not have any additional funding unless we find a way to do it, and that is my plea today.
I have written to the President; I have written to the chair of the Appropriations Committee saying: Let's find a way to at least fund the $181 million that is authorized in CARA. At least do that, even if we are doing a continuing resolution.
By the way, I don't understand why we are doing continuing resolutions when the agreement has been reached on the amount of the budget, the amount of the appropriations. The Appropriations Committee has done their work. Why aren't we doing appropriations? That is another subject.
But however we do the funding this fall, let's deal with this terrible problem that is taking lives, tearing families apart, and deeply wounding the heart of America.
I ask the consideration of this whole body for this urgent problem and that we take real steps to deliver help to those people who are asking for it.
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