Botticelli Nomination
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, Senator Alexander and Senator Enzi are here on the floor. I want to briefly address the nominee we will be voting on this afternoon and then turn to the matter the three of us wish to address.
Today the Senate is going to vote on the nomination of Michael Botticelli to be the next Director of National Drug Control Policy. I look forward to working with our Nation's next drug czar just as I have with previous drug czars.
Drug abuse is a serious problem in my home State. Kentucky is the fifth highest prescribing State when it comes to pain killers, and we have the Nation's third highest drug overdose mortality rate, with many deaths driven by prescription pain killers.
Heroin abuse is also a problem in the Bluegrass State. Heroin deaths accounted for 32 percent of the drug overdoses back in 2013, and they continue to climb. The epicenter of the heroin problem is located in the northern region across the river from Cincinnati, although I am hearing more and more from constituents that drug abuse is rising in other parts of the Commonwealth as well.
All told, the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy reports that about 1,000 Kentuckians lose their lives overdosing on drugs every year, which is more than we lose in fatal car crashes.
There is another reason I am pleased to welcome prior drug czar Gil Kerlikowski to tour Kentucky. We had him there a couple of years ago to take a closeup look at the problems we face. He visited Louisville, Lexington, London, and Pikeville--four communities, both urban and rural, across the State. He met with Kentuckians who worked to tackle this issue from every single angle--public health officials, medical professionals, law enforcement officials, drug courts, members of the business community, and Kentuckians involved with prevention. The drug czar's visit helped focus more Federal attention and Federal resources on this issue, and in a time of strained budgets, the extra attention and those extra resources are particularly important.
I am also pleased to report that Mr. Botticelli plans to visit Eastern Kentucky soon. He also plans, at my invitation, to visit Northern Kentucky this spring. Visits such as these help ensure continued Federal focus on Kentucky's drug problem, and I look forward to working with the next drug czar to move closer to the day when drug abuse is no longer ravaging our families and our communities.
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