Tsunami Warning, Education, and Research Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I appreciate Senator Alexander's kindness in allowing me to say a few words in support of this bill on behalf of myself and Senator Murray. I wish to congratulate Senator Alexander for once again showing how the Senate can work properly, how we can bring together Republicans and Democrats for a priority that really has nothing to do with whether one is a Republican or a Democrat or whether one voted for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. If people are out there suffering from a life-altering or potentially terminal disease or suffering from mental illness or addiction, they need help, and we are coming together in maybe one of the most important pieces of health legislation that has passed this Congress in a very long time to deliver that help.
So I am not going to endeavor to recreate the remarks of Senator Alexander when it comes to describing the important aspects of this bill except to say that after passage of this bill, it is going to be a whole heck of a lot more likely that a life-changing, lifesaving drug is going to be able to make it to market in time to save a life.
Every single one of the underlying reforms in this bill to the drug discovery process is bipartisan. I think about Senators Bennet and Hatch's bill, the promise for antibiotics and therapeutics for health, which establishes a new pathway for antibacterial and antifungal drugs that will treat serious, life-threatening infections for patients.
I think about Senator Casey and Senator Isakson working on the Advancing Hope Act, which will extend the pediatric priority review voucher program until 2020. It incentivizes drug companies to research treatment for life-altering diseases that impact pediatric patients.
Inside this bill are all sorts of good, important, bipartisan achievements. As Senator Alexander noted, there is also help on the way for people suffering from addiction. In my tiny little State--only 1 percent of the Nation's population--we are going to have over 800 people die this year from drug overdoses. Yes, we need to get to the source of that epidemic and stop people from getting addicted to pain medications in the first place, but, boy, we have an awful lot of people showing up with overdoses in our emergency rooms who have no place to go, have no detox programs, no long-term residential programs.
The $1 billion authorized in this legislation to fight the opioid epidemic is going to save lives in my little State.
Finally, when it comes to the issue of mental health--Senator Alexander, Senator Cassidy, and I were on the floor last week talking about this legislation; the focus on funding prevention, the focus on making sure parents are part of the care for their adult children, the focus on ensuring that insurance companies really do pay attention to the Parity Act we passed 10 years ago in this Congress to assure that you get covered for mental illness just like physical illness. A broken leg really isn't any different than a broken brain when we think about it. We can treat both. These are important advances in mental health as well.
I know this place has a bad reputation; that people pay attention to the fights here more often than they do to the moments where we get together and cooperate. The 21st Century Cures Act that Senator Murray and Senator Alexander, with help from Senator Cornyn, me, Senator Cassidy, and in the House Congressmen Upton, Pallone, Tim Murphy, and Eddie Bernice Johnson--this is an example of how this place can work better.
As we head in to what may be a very charged atmosphere in January, I hope we remember this moment. I wanted to come down on behalf of Senator Murray, who has helped shepherd this process, to congratulate Senator Alexander on it and recommend its passage to all of my colleagues.
I yield the floor.
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