Substance Use-Disorder Prevention That Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, since the Senate last convened, Hurricane Florence made landfall on our Nation's eastern seaboard. According to the latest estimates, this terrible storm has already claimed more than 20 lives in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. With more than 1 million Americans subjected to mandatory evacuations, many families have been displaced, and the storm surge and historic rainfall have brought communities to their knees with crippling flooding.

The Senate stands with all of those affected, and we stand ready to ensure that communities in the storm's path have the resources they need to recover and rebuild, once the time comes. For now, we stand in solidarity with the Americans who are battling this storm and with first responders, who bravely risk their own safety to care for their communities. Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act

Mr. President, on another matter, today, the Senate will take two important actions to help vulnerable Americans. First, we will pass the Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act, spearheaded by Senator Collins.

This legislation would ban so-called pharmacy gag clauses, which prohibit pharmacists from sharing drug pricing information that would save consumers money. In circumstances when the out-of-pocket retail cost of a medication is actually cheaper than the price through insurance, it will allow customers with access to the information they need to choose the more affordable route.

After that, we will vote on major, landmark legislation to address the opioid crisis that continues to weigh on our country. My fellow Kentuckians and I are all too aware of how drug abuse and addiction attack families and communities. Overdoses killed 1,500 Kentuckians last year alone. That is more than four fatalities per day. Nationwide, it is more than 115 fatalities per day.

The effects of this emergency compound themselves. The crisis can eat away at family ties, at community institutions, at economic opportunities--precisely the things that are necessary to lift Americans out of addiction and into recovery.

On the one hand, research suggests that opioid use rose the most in the very communities where employment fell the most. On the other hand, experts blame opioids themselves for a major share of falling workforce participation, to the tune of roughly 1 million missing workers.

A comprehensive crisis demands a comprehensive solution. That is exactly what this landmark legislation is. It combines work from 5 committees and input from 70 Senators.

First, this legislation will help cut off the opioid crisis at its roots. It will stop more drugs at the border, improve interstate monitoring, and encourage reform of prescription dosing. It will encourage recovery through more resources for State and local responders, better access to care for patients, and more support for the families and caregivers of those affected. This legislation looks to the future by surrounding long-term medical research and economic solutions to get our county past this vicious cycle.

I am pleased that two of my provisions are included--the CAREER Act, which expands grants and targets funding for transitional housing and job opportunities to help recovering individuals find their footing and stay sober, and my Protecting Moms and Infants Act, which will refine our Federal efforts to combat the effects of opioids on expecting mothers and their unborn children.

The situation facing Americans and communities is urgent. With this landmark legislation, the Senate has risen to the moment. It is no wonder that experts and advocates representing 200 organizations on the frontlines of the opioid crisis have publicly called on the Senate to act. That is exactly what we will do when we pass this landmark legislation later today. Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh

Mr. President, on a final matter, it has been 70 days since the President nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the current vacancy on the Supreme Court. For more than 2 months, the Senate has pored over Judge Kavanaugh's professional record.

We have reviewed the 300-plus opinions he has authored while serving on the DC Circuit, more pages of documents than have ever been produced for a Supreme Court nomination--more than for the past five nominations combined--and testimony from prominent legal scholars and top litigators who have praised the nominee's intellect and his exemplary performance on the Federal bench.

We have also considered a wealth of evidence that pertains to Judge Kavanaugh's character and his personal integrity. We have heard testimony or received open letters from literally hundreds of men and women who know Brett Kavanaugh, who have worked alongside him, who have clerked for him as a judge, or who have known him and his family personally over the years. This is what the Senate has considered for the past 70 days. In the Senate and around the country, almost everyone who went into this process with an open mind and who was prepared to give Judge Kavanaugh a fair hearing has come away impressed.

But now an accusation of 36-year-old misconduct, dating back to high school, has been brought forward at the last minute, in an irregular manner. It is an accusation that Judge Kavanaugh has completely and unequivocally denied. This is what he said:

This is a completely false allegation. I have never done anything like what the accuser describes--to her or to anyone.

It is an accusation that the ranking member on the committee of jurisdiction has known about for at least 6 weeks--known about for 6 weeks--yet chose to keep secret until the 11th hour. Neither she nor any of her Democratic colleagues chose to raise this allegation during the committee staff's bipartisan background calls with the nominee.

They did not raise it, even with the name redacted, in the 65 meetings--65 meetings--that Judge Kavanaugh held with Senators before his confirmation hearings, including his private meeting with the ranking member. They did not raise it, even with the name redacted, in 4 days of exhaustive public hearings while Judge Kavanaugh testified under oath, even though they chose to raise myriad other matters at the hearing, including sometimes bizarre innuendo. They did not raise it in the closed session, the proper forum where such an allegation could have been addressed with discretion and sensitivity. They did not raise it in the thousand-plus followup questions Senators sent to Judge Kavanaugh in writing.

At the 11th hour, with committee votes on the schedule, after Democrats have spent weeks and weeks searching for any possible reason the nomination should be delayed, now they choose to introduce this allegation--not through the standard bipartisan process, not by advising the Judiciary Committee colleagues and committee staff through proper channels but by leaking it to the press, because the chain of custody of this letter runs through the Democratic side of the Judiciary Committee. That is the chain of custody.

I can't explain the situation any better than the senior Senator from Maine put it yesterday evening when she said this:

If they believed [Judge Kavanaugh's accuser], why didn't they surface this information earlier so that he could be questioned about it? And if they didn't believe her and chose to withhold the information, why did they decide at the 11th hour to release it? It is really not fair to either of them the way it was handled.

As the senior Senator from Texas said earlier today, ``that Democrats have so egregiously mishandled this up until now, is no excuse for us to do the same.'' Just because the Democrats have egregiously mishandled this, said Senator Cornyn, is no excuse for us to do the same thing.

I am glad that Chairman Grassley is following standard practice and regular order. As he has stated, he plans to pursue this matter by the book, with bipartisan interviews of both Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford. I have great confidence in Chairman Grassley and his ability to proceed through this process.

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