S938 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE February 23, 2016 and reassembled when called to order doggedly to this ideal of the good judge Justice Scalia’s approach to judging by the Presiding Officer (Mr. whose role in our system of govern- not only requires self-restraint by PORTMAN). ment is limited to properly inter- judges, but it also demands rigor and f preting the law and impartially apply- accountability by legislators. The good ing it to decide cases. His approach re- judge takes seriously the language the EXECUTIVE CALENDAR quires self-restraint by judges. Judges, legislators enact, so the people can The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- he often said, must take the law as hold accountable the legislators they ator from Utah. they find it and apply it even when elect. Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, are we they do not like the results. In his own The famed Senator and Supreme still in recess? words, ‘‘If you’re going to be a good Court advocate Daniel Webster once The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- and faithful judge, you have to resign said that ‘‘there are men in all ages ate is now postcloture on the nomina- yourself to the fact that you’re not al- who mean to govern well, but they tion. ways going to like the conclusions you mean to govern. They promise to be The Senator may proceed. reach.’’ good masters, but they mean to be REMEMBERING JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA Liberty requires such judicial self-re- masters.’’ Those who object to Justice Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I rise to straint, whether it is en vogue or not. Scalia’s approach embrace the notion honor the memory of one of our Na- As President Reagan put it when he that judges, rather than the people, tion’s greatest champions of limited witnessed the oath of office adminis- should be the masters of the law. government under the Constitution, tered to Justice Scalia in September Justice Scalia’s impact has been Justice Antonin Scalia. Justice Scalia 1986, America’s Founders intended that enormous. A liberal legal commentator set the standard for the kind of judge the judiciary be independent and may have put it best in his review of upon which liberty depends. He was a strong but also confined within the Justice Scalia’s book, ‘‘A Matter of In- dear friend, and I will miss him great- boundaries of a written Constitution terpretation,’’ with these words: ly. and laws. We are all originalists now. That is to say, The purpose of government, accord- No one believed that principle more most judges and legal scholars who want to ing to the Declaration of Independence deeply and insisted on implementing it remain within the boundaries of respectable and the Constitution, is to secure in- more consistently than our Justice constitutional discourse agree that the origi- alienable rights and the blessings of Scalia. His approach to the law was nal meaning of the Constitution and its liberty. Liberty exists by design and, often called textualism or, in the con- amendment has some degree of pertinence to as Andrew Jackson put it, by eternal stitutional context, originalism—an the question of what the Constitution means today. vigilance. America’s Founders were approach which is nothing more than clear that liberty requires separated determining the original public mean- Justice Scalia brought the bound- and limited government powers, in- ing of the legal text. It leaves the law- aries of respectable constitutional dis- cluding a particular role for unelected making to the lawmakers and the peo- course more in line with the principles judges. Judges who seek to determine ple they represent, rather than to the of liberty than they had been in a gen- what the law is promote liberty; judges judge. eration. For that, our liberty is more who say what they think the law The Senate unanimously confirmed secure, and we should be deeply grate- should be undermine it. Justice Scalia’s nomination on Sep- ful. Put simply, judges must interpret tember 17, 1986, the 199th anniversary Mr. President, I suggest the absence and apply the law impartially; that is, of the Constitution’s ratification. That of a quorum. by setting aside their own opinions, was very appropriate because his ap- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The preferences, or prejudices. Interpreting proach gives the Constitution its real clerk will call the roll. and applying the law impartially par- due, treating it as more than empty The senior assistant legislative clerk ticularly leaves the American people words on a page but as words that al- proceeded to call the roll. and their elected representatives in ready have meaning and substance. Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask charge of the law. When they interpret Justice Scalia knew that the Constitu- unanimous consent that the order for written law impartially, they discern tion cannot limit government’s power the quorum call be rescinded. what the original public meaning of if government actors—including The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without the law is. When judges apply the law judges—define the Constitution. objection, it is so ordered. impartially, they pay no regard to the Justice Scalia rejected judicial activ- REMEMBERING JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA AND identity of the parties or the political ism—what he called power-judging— FILLING THE SUPREME COURT VACANCY effects of their decision. Judges can that treats the law as shape-shifting. Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, this neither make nor change the law they For activists, the laws and the Con- past Saturday I was honored to attend use to decide cases. That is the kind of stitution have no fixed meaning but the funeral mass for Justice Scalia. I judge liberty requires. That is the kind can rather be contorted and manipu- couldn’t help but recall back when of judge Antonin Scalia was. lated to fit the judge’s own policy pref- President Reagan nominated him for When President Ronald Reagan first erence. Such an approach puts the the Supreme Court of the United appointed Antonin Scalia to the U.S. unelected judge, not the American peo- States. At that time Judge Scalia said Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in ple in their elected representatives, in that ‘‘[his] only [agenda] was to be a 1982, the future Justice said to those of the position of supreme lawmaker. good judge.’’ us on the Judiciary Committee that if Thomas Jefferson warned that if Today, 30 years later, it is clear that confirmed the time for him to opine on judges controlled the Constitution’s Justice Scalia, who until his death the wisdom of laws would be ‘‘bygone meaning, it would be ‘‘a mere thing of served longer than any of the current days.’’ When he again came before the wax in the hands of the judiciary, members of the Supreme Court of the committee a few years later as a Su- which they may twist and shape into United States, was more than a good preme Court nominee, he repeated that any form they please.’’ That is exactly judge. In fact, he was a great judge. He setting aside personal views is ‘‘one of what activist judges do, treating the was a giant of American jurisprudence. the primary qualifications for a judge.’’ law like clay that they can mold in As I got to know him even better He described a ‘‘good judge’’ as one who their own image. during the course of the more recent starts from the law itself and not Rather than reinterpreting the law in years, thanks to a mutual acquaint- ‘‘where I would like to come out in [a] his own image, the good judge con- ance, I can tell you he was also a good particular case.’’ forms his decisions to the fixed mean- man. My first encounter with Justice Justice Scalia’s brilliance and wit ing of the law. By insisting that even Scalia was back in 1991 when I won an were certainly impressive, but they judges must be the servants rather election to be on the Texas Supreme were powerfully connected to this deep- than the masters of the law, Justice Court and the court invited Justice ly considered and deliberately framed Scalia was simply following the lead of Scalia to come to Austin, TX, and ad- judicial philosophy rooted in the prin- America’s Founders and empowering minister the oath of office. At that ciples of the Constitution. He stuck the American people. time I already admired his intellect

VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:31 Feb 23, 2016 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G23FE6.021 S23FEPT1 smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with SENATE February 23, 2016 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S939 and commitment to the Constitution value judgments on how our country tial and unique role to play as well. and the rule of law, and believe me, he ought to be governed under our Con- The founding generation regarded the was an inspiration to young judges like stitution, then the people may well feel Senate’s role in the appointment proc- me who were inspired to do the same. that their values were equally as valid ess as ‘‘a critical protection against He has been an inspiration to so many as those of the ‘‘high nine’’ on the Po- ‘despotism.’ ’’ Nothing less. That means judges, lawyers, and law students for tomac given life tenure and a seat on that the U.S. Senate has a unique and decades. the Supreme Court. It was his strict separate role to play, and certainly a I admired and respected Justice adherence to the text of the Constitu- coequal role with that of the President, Scalia. Like many Texans, I was proud tion, and not evolving value judgments in the process of filling vacancies on of the fact that he also seemed to love over time, that gave protection to our the Court. We are not, and the Con- Texas, believe it or not, even though he democracy. stitution never intended us to be, a was a Virginian. He remarked once Justice Scalia was strongly com- rubber stamp for the President of the that if he didn’t live in Virginia, he mitted to the separation of powers. United States. would ‘‘probably want to be a Texan.’’ This is so fundamental to the Constitu- I know that President Obama would I wish to spend a couple of minutes tion that, until the first Congress, love to nominate somebody in the wan- remembering this great man and the James Madison didn’t even think that ing months of his last term of office as contributions he made to our Nation. we needed a Bill of Rights because he he is heading out the door and perhaps Beyond his incredible resume, Justice felt that the separation of powers and fill this vacancy, which in the case of Scalia was a devoted husband to the division of responsibilities would Justice Scalia was filled for 30 years, Maureen for more than 50 years. He be protection enough because they far extending President Obama’s term was a dedicated father to 9 children viewed the concentration of powers, of office. That is not what the U.S. and a grandfather to more than 30 the opposite of separation of powers, as Senate is about. We are a coequal grandchildren. As I said earlier, he was a threat to our very liberty. I think he branch of government, and we have an not only a family man, which I am sure said that the very definition of tyranny independent and separate responsi- he would have considered his most im- was the concentration of powers. So he bility from that of the President. He portant job, he was a role model for a saw the separation of powers as noth- can nominate anybody he wants, but it generation of lawyers, judges, legal ing less than the most important guar- is up to the Senate, in its collective scholars, and those who loved the Con- antor of our liberty and the most im- wisdom, on whether or not to grant ad- stitution. portant shield against tyranny. vice and consent. When we say that, we One of the interesting things about In one dissent Justice Scalia wrote mean that if the Senate did not play Justice Scalia—and perhaps he could ‘‘without a secure structure of sepa- its unique role, liberty itself would be teach all of us a little something these rated powers, our Bill of Rights would weakened and despotism strengthened. days—was that he was quick to build be worthless.’’ I guess you would have As I said before, the American people relationships with people who had dif- to say he is a Madisonian and not a can and should have a voice in the se- ferent views from his own and fostered Federalist by temperament and view. lection of the next Supreme Court Jus- an environment of collegiality and This recognition of the importance of tice. In the waning days of this Presi- friendship on the Court. separation of powers could not be any dential election year after voters have As we learned earlier, Justice Scalia more important at this point in our already cast their ballots in primaries had relationships with people with history because scarcely a month goes for Republican and Democratic can- whom he couldn’t have disagreed more by when this administration has cho- didates—even as I speak, there is a cau- on key issues that the Court con- sen to undermine this basic constitu- cus convening today in Nevada—I be- fronted—people like Justice Ginsburg, tional precept by exerting itself and lieve giving the American people a for example. We all know he was a gift- claiming authorities which the Con- choice in who selects the next Justice ed writer and possessed an infectious stitution does not give the President. of the Supreme Court is very impor- wit, but Justice Scalia’s most impor- Justice Scalia understood what was tant. I think it elevates what is at tant legacy is his life’s work and his at stake. He believed that every blow stake in this next election this Novem- call for a return to our constitutional to the separation of powers would harm ber, and that means simply that this first principles. our Republic and liberty itself. vacancy should not be filled at this Justice Scalia strongly believed that As Justice Scalia wrote in a case in time by this President. words mattered, and I think that is one which the Court unanimously struck Mr. President, I yield the floor. of the reasons why he quickly became down the President’s violations of the The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. one of the most memorable writers on constitutional doctrine of separation of LANKFORD). The Senator from Cali- the Court and one of the best in the powers, he said: ‘‘We should therefore fornia. Court’s entire history. He believed the take every opportunity to affirm the FILLING THE SUPREME COURT VACANCY words written in the Constitution primacy of the Constitution’s enduring Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I came mattered because that was the only principles over the politics of the mo- to the floor because I am stunned. I thing the States voted on when they ment.’’ He continued, warning against just learned that the Republicans have ratified the Constitution. Those were ‘‘aggrandizing the Presidency beyond announced to the country they will not the words with which the American its constitutional bounds.’’ That is even call a hearing, if and when Presi- people chose to govern themselves. For what Justice Scalia did time and again, dent Obama does his job and nominates decades he tried to give those words and that is what he reminded all of us a replacement for Justice Scalia. force and fought against an attempt to about—the importance of doctrines of We send our heartfelt sympathy to say that we really don’t have a written separation of powers, adherence to the his family. Constitution; we have a living Con- text of the Constitution, and not mak- I don’t know where the Republicans stitution that should be reinterpreted ing it up as you are going along or ex- have come up with this notion that based on the times when, indeed, the pressing value judgments that can’t be this is the right thing to do. If you text had not changed one bit. related to the actual text and original look at the strict constitutionalists, His originalist interpretation of the understanding of the Constitution. you know they are reading the Con- Constitution meant that he viewed the The question arises: When the Presi- stitution, unless they are phonies. This Court as a place to vindicate the law dent makes a nomination to fill the va- is what the Constitution says, the and what it meant, not express the cancy left by Justice Scalia’s death, President shall ‘‘nominate, and by and preferences of five Justices. Justice what is the constitutional responsi- with the Advice and Consent of the Scalia was one of the most fervent ad- bility of the U.S. Senate? It is true Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, vocates for the rule of law and a writ- that under our Constitution, the Presi- other public Ministers and Consuls, ten Constitution. On many instances, dent of the United States has a unique Judges of the supreme Court.’’ Where he made the important point that if role and the authority to make a nomi- in this does it say: except in election the Supreme Court was viewed merely nation to fill this vacancy, but it is years. As a matter of fact, we have as a group of nine individuals making also true that the Senate has an essen- acted 14 times in election years.

VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:31 Feb 23, 2016 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G23FE6.028 S23FEPT1 smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with SENATE S940 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE February 23, 2016 Whoever is a strict constructionist So I have a message for my Repub- I am going to show you a few other should read the Constitution, article II, lican friends. Pretty simple. Pretty quotes of people who are very impor- section 2, clause 2. I am going to read simple. Do your job. Do your job. If you tant to this conversation and what it again: The President shall ‘‘nomi- are afraid to do your job, then do some- they are saying about not moving for- nate, and by and with the Advice and thing else with your life. If you don’t ward. How about Sandra Day O’Connor, Consent of the Senate, shall appoint want to do your job because you are what an incredible woman. She was ap- Ambassadors, other public Ministers worried that one moderate may get pointed by Ronald Reagan, the first fe- and Consuls, Judges of the supreme through, then make your argument. If male ever appointed to the Supreme Court.’’ you want to vote no, vote no, but to Court, a magnificent person and a Re- It doesn’t say as Senator CORNYN hold a press conference and say you publican. said: Oh, the President can nominate, will not even hold a hearing is out- What did she say? ‘‘I think we need but nobody else has a job to do. Oh no. rageous. somebody there, now, to do the job, It says: ‘‘. . . and with the Advice and Every day in talented cities across and let’s get on with it.’’ She just said Consent of the Senate . . .’’ this country, Americans show up for that 10 days ago or less. Is she a par- To have such a press conference, as I work and they do their jobs. They don’t tisan? I don’t think so. She is speaking understand it—I didn’t see it myself, call their bosses and say: You know, I from the heart. She is speaking from but it has been reported to me—there just don’t feel like doing this today. I her soul. She is speaking from experi- has been an announcement that the am healthy, I am fine, I am well, but ence. She knows the Court has impor- Republicans will not even hold a hear- you know what, I don’t want to do my tant cases before it and will be tied in ing, which goes against this Constitu- job. They would be fired and they knots if we don’t have a Court at full tion. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is should be. Do your job. You are elected strength. a lawsuit brought by the people of this to do your job. The American people Again, here is what she said, Repub- country, 70 percent of whom believe we show up for their jobs. They do their lican Sandra Day O’Connor, esteemed have an obligation. We have an obliga- jobs. It is as simple as that. The Jus- member of the Supreme Court, a Ron- tion. tices of the Supreme Court show up ald Reagan nominee: ‘‘I think we need Nowhere in the Constitution does it and they do their jobs every day. Jus- somebody there, now, to do the job, say it is too late for the President to tice Scalia did it. They all do it. They and let’s get on with it.’’ nominate. Guess what. The Repub- hear cases. They write opinions. I am going to show you two more licans keep saying we need an elected The Supreme Court is the last stop quotes. This is from the American Con- President. Well, I have good news for on the justice train, but to be able to stitution Society: them. This President was elected twice function as our Founding Fathers in A vacancy on the Court for a year and a and he has about a year left. Guess the U.S. Constitution intended, they half, which is what the Republicans want, at what. I am not going to run again, but need a full bench with all nine Jus- least a year and a half, would mean many in- I am here now. I want to work. I did tices. A Supreme Court with eight Jus- stances where the Court could not resolve a not take this job to have a year off and tices is not a functioning Court. split among the circuits. There would be the Let us look at the Republicans’ hero, very undesirable result that the same federal not worry about working in my last Ronald Reagan. We always hear them law would have differing meanings in various year. say: Ronald Reagan. I was proud to parts of the country. Nowhere in the Constitution does it That is the American Constitution say: Oh, and by the way, don’t advise serve in the House during Ronald Rea- gan’s term. I didn’t agree with him on Society. and consent if it is a Democratic Presi- a lot of things, but I agree with him on Then we have another quote I wish to dent in his second term. It does not say this. Do you know what he said? share with you by the director of the that. So if you consider yourself a Byron White Center at the University strict constructionist, then pay atten- I look forward to prompt hearings con- ducted in the spirit of cooperation and bipar- of Colorado: tion to this. I am proud that several tisanship. I will do everything in my power It would essentially shut the Supreme Republicans on the other side said: Ba- as President to assist in that process. Court down for two years. It would be a mon- loney, we don’t go along with it. Good President Ronald Reagan, November umental crisis for the development of the for them and more should do it. 12, 1987. What did he say? Did he get up law and the need to resolve large legal ques- It doesn’t say in the Constitution, and say: Oh, it is an election year— tions. you only advise and consent if it is a which it was. No. Kennedy was voted Let me say it again. Republican President with a Repub- on in an election year and President It would essentially shut the Supreme lican Senate. Reagan made the case. Court down for two years. It would be a mon- Again, the Senate over the years has This is what else Ronald Reagan said: umental crisis for the development of the repeatedly considered Supreme Court ‘‘Every day that passes with a Supreme law and the need to resolve large legal ques- nominees in both election years and in Court below full strength impairs the tions. the final year of a President’s term. people’s business in that crucially im- It is not as if large legal questions Justice Kennedy, who serves now, a portant body.’’ aren’t at stake. Right now the Su- fellow Californian, was nominated by Let me say that again. Ronald preme Court is set to look at some in- President Reagan in 1987. I was over on Reagan, who was pushing for a vote on credibly important cases that have real the House side, and I didn’t have any- a Supreme Court Justice in an election effects on our people. This isn’t some thing to do with it, but I sure watched year, said the following: ‘‘Every day argument in a salon. This is real stuff. it. Kennedy was confirmed by a Demo- that passes with a Supreme Court The cases can’t wait, and it doesn’t cratic Senate during Reagan’s last year below full strength impairs the people’s matter what side you are on with these in office. business in that crucially important cases. They have to be resolved. My Republican friends say: Oh, but body.’’ What about voting rights? I don’t this Senator said this about it and that I don’t understand where the Repub- think there would be a difference of Senator said that and JOE BIDEN said licans are coming from. They are dis- opinion in this Chamber that this is this. It doesn’t matter what people say. regarding Ronald Reagan, their hero. what makes this country great and It is what we do, and 14 times in his- They are disregarding the Constitution special, the right to vote, the responsi- tory we have voted on judges in an that they say is their shining star of bility to vote. We have many States election year. their being, which it should be for all that have put forward voter ID laws. My Republican colleagues who sug- of us, and they stood there today and They need to be told whether they are gest that this process cannot be done blatantly announced they are not even fair or unfair, whatever side you come before President Obama leaves office going to hold a hearing on a nominee down on. We need a Court to look at are fooling themselves. History has before they even know who he or she is. voting rights cases and see who the eli- disproven them and the Constitution is What is that about? I am truly gible voters are. going to chastise whoever says: I want stunned. I thought I had seen every- Affirmative action. They are going to a dead Constitution. Read this. This is thing, but I have never seen this. You reexamine that case. Whatever side very clear. It absolutely is. show up and you do your job. you are on, it has to be decided.

VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:29 Feb 24, 2016 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G23FE6.029 S23FEPT1 smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with SENATE February 23, 2016 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S941 Workers’ rights. The Court will de- what you mean,’’ say ‘‘Do your job. Let stitution. A lot of them believe in cide the impact of the ability of the the process move forward on the Su- strict interpretation of the words of union to represent millions of working preme Court Justice.’’ And if they say the Constitution. Well, the words of Americans. Whatever side you are on, ‘‘Well, we want an elected President,’’ the Constitution say that the Presi- there needs to be a decision, otherwise what will be told to them is ‘‘We are dent ‘‘shall nominate’’ and that the you are going to have different States fortunate. We have one, elected not Senate’s job is to ‘‘advise and con- with different laws and it makes no once but twice.’’ More than enough sent.’’ It says that it is the Senate’s sense. time remains for him to do his job, and job. It doesn’t say that it is the Sen- This is one Nation under God. That is more than enough time remains for us ate’s job to avoid things and to just go why we have a U.S. Senate and a U.S. to do ours. on TV and to run ads. No. It says that House and a U.S. President and a U.S. Republicans, do your job. the Senate has a job to do. The Senate Supreme Court—because we are one I yield the floor. has a job to do. Nation and these issues have to be de- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- Both the President and the Senate cided. There is one on employee dis- ator from Minnesota. have a constitutional duty to protect crimination. How do people get their Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I the Supreme Court’s ability to func- day in court if they are being discrimi- rise today to talk about the impor- tion and dispense justice—not to tell nated against? It doesn’t matter what tance of filling the current vacancy on the Supreme Court what to do, not to side you are on. The fact is there needs the Supreme Court of the United dictate their decisions, but to make to be a decision. States. I appreciate the words of my sure they are simply able to do justice. Women’s health. There is a big case colleague from California. This means they must be fully staffed on women’s health as to whether work- I wish to begin by saying that my and have the Justices in place, and it ers can get birth control. Again, what- prayers and thoughts are with the fam- also means they should be funded. ever side you are on, pro, con, there ily and friends and Supreme Court col- Those are our jobs. needs to be a decision. leagues of Justice Scalia. He was a According to our Constitution, the It is about women, health care, vot- great scholar who had friends in many President replaces vacant seats on the ing rights, students. These cases have places. Just last week I was at the Uni- Supreme Court. That duty does not real consequences. I am going to con- versity of Chicago Law School, where I end, as I noted, in a Presidential year, clude with one more chart that deals went to law school, and so many people just as the responsibilities of all Sen- with the length of Supreme Court Jus- have stories. He used to teach there. He ators in their States and in their Na- tices for the past 35 years. Here you see taught there for a long period of time, tion do not end in an election year. the list of the various nominees. Not and they miss him very much. President Obama was elected to serve all of these made it, a couple did not, The Supreme Court has the constitu- out his entire second term, not just the but here is the deal with these. O’Con- tional responsibility to weigh some of first 3 years. For 332 long days, the nor waited 95 days, Rehnquist 92, the most important issues facing the President will be the democratically Scalia 82, Bork 109, Kennedy 113, American people. From freedom of elected President of the United Souter 74, Thomas 110, Ginsburg 137, speech, to due process, to doing busi- States—democratically elected, as in a Breyer 114, Roberts 90, Alito 95, ness in America, Supreme Court deci- democracy, as in how our democracy Sotomayor 97, Kagan 118. sions have impacted and continue to functions. He has an obligation to all Under MITCH MCCONNELL’s plan, the impact the daily life of every citizen of Americans to dutifully execute his Republican plan that they laid out, if this country. As one of the three pil- oath of office. you averaged all of this, you get 102 lars of our government, we value the The President has not yet announced days. That is the average it takes. Court’s distinctive insulation from a nominee to fill the current vacancy Under MCCONNELL’s plan, it would take public opinion. Justices commit them- on the Court. When he does, it will be 444 days, at best. That is assuming ev- selves to the law and to the Constitu- the constitutional duty of each one of erything goes perfectly well. It could tion and not to politics or partisanship. us to consider the nominee on his or take a lot longer. Americans need and deserve to have her merits and then choose whether to What does this mean? Anyone within a functional and fully staffed Supreme vote yes or no. It is really not that the sound of my voice has heard this: Court. We cannot delay consideration hard. It is what the kids learn when Justice delayed is justice denied. That of the next Supreme Court nominee. As they are taught social studies and is a fact. And it is used throughout the my colleague just pointed out, we civics when they are in elementary country when we talk about the impor- would have to go back to the Civil War, school. The American people who voted tance of making these decisions. When to a time where a position—an impor- for us, as well as those who didn’t vote our constituents go to jury duty, what tant key position on the Supreme for us, expect us to do the jobs we were are they asked? Can you make this de- Court of the United States—was left elected to do, regardless of the timing. cision? Can you come to this decision? open. We would have to go back to a A complete refusal to engage in this Because everyone deserves to have an time when it was left open for more constitutionally required process be- answer. than a year. We would have to go back fore the President has even announced So, in conclusion, take a look at this. to a time before we had planes, before a nominee is dangerous for our system This is an abomination. This is the we had automobiles, before we had of governance. It defies the words of number of days we have seen over the washing machines—you name it. We the Constitution. This Chamber would last 35 years that it took to confirm. would have to go back to the Civil War. be neglecting a key constitutional duty Fourteen of our Justices have been Delaying the confirmation of a new if it prevented a well-qualified nominee confirmed in election years since the Justice will prevent the Court from from serving on the Supreme Court. beginning of this country, and this issuing binding precedent and deny ac- And guess what. How do we figure out takes us back to the Civil War days— cess to justice for Americans. Lower if someone is well qualified? We have imagine—when we really had a country courts will be left with decisions, and hearings. That is what we have been divided. decisions will not be made in those doing for decades now. We have hear- This is not what we need to do right cases. That is why the Constitution of ings to figure out whether this person now, with all of these decisions coming the United States says that the Presi- is qualified. That is how we advise. up. Regardless of your stand on them, dent shall—shall—nominate someone That is how we consent. That is how we people deserve justice. to the Supreme Court. It doesn’t say do our duty under the Constitution. I will conclude with the ‘‘Do Your that he will wait for a year. It doesn’t It is for that reason that I urge my Job’’ chart because I have to say that say that he can’t do it in an election colleagues to continue in the Senate’s is what it comes down to. I urge the year. It says that he shall nominate bipartisan tradition of giving full and people of this great country to call the someone. fair consideration to Supreme Court Republicans, every one of them, with We have a lot of Members of this nominees. We have precedent for the three words: Do your job. And if the great body who are lawyers, a lot of Senate performing this role in the final person who answers says ‘‘I don’t know whom I have heard quoting the Con- year of a Presidency. Most recently,

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And guess what. The Senate was elected directly; they have lifetime ap- within a split second, and that protects controlled by Democrats. So we had pointments. Their job is to be insulated your head and your torso from coming the exact opposite situation. Now we from elections and politics, and that is forward and being injured. have a Democratic President and we why we have these strict and straight- What happens if this malfunctions, have a Senate that is in the control of forward words in the Constitution that and what happens if the very manufac- Republicans. Back then we had a Re- say that the President shall nominate ture of it causes it to malfunction publican President and a Senate that someone for the job, and they also say under conditions? Let me show you was in the control of Democrats. Peo- that the Senate will advise and con- what happens. ple say: Well, what does history show sent. We have those words in place in I said these things look pretty sin- us? What do we know? To me, that is the Constitution, in that incredibly im- ister. Indeed, this is pretty sinister be- the best example of history. And we portant document that guides us in cause this is a fragment that was in know what happened: Justice Kennedy this Chamber every single day, just for the metal casing in one of these air- was confirmed, on Ronald Reagan’s a situation such as this one, just for bags in Florida that, when it malfunc- nomination, by a Democratic Senate in situations such as these. tioned, caused the explosive force of an election year unanimously—unani- In closing, I remind my colleagues of the ammonium nitrate gas. It was so mously. the important work the people have explosive that it ripped apart the metal The Senate has taken such action sent us here to do. Yes, we have major casing, and this part that I am showing more than a dozen times in our Na- disputes every day. That happens every came flying into the face of the driver, tion’s history, and there is no reason to day. We get into arguments about severely injuring the driver. In this abandon that precedent now. I am talk- issues. There are political campaigns case it hit the forehead. ing about when a Justice position going on. But we have always at least I have told the Senate on many occa- opens up during an election year. We followed the Constitution. That is what sions that fragments of metal like this have that precedent, which I think is this is about today. have come out just within the Orlando important. Again, I think the most im- As soon as we have a nominee, as area of my State. They found a woman portant precedent, the most important soon as the President exercises his con- in the middle of an intersection where example for historians, is what I led stitutional duty and puts someone in she had a collision, and when the police with: the fact that we have to go back place, we should follow the Constitu- arrived, they found out that she was to the Civil War to find a time when we tion and our longstanding traditions dead. She had bled to death. They left a vacancy on the Supreme Court and the history of this country and up- looked at her neck and it was slashed. open for a year. Think about that. hold that duty. We should diligently The police’s immediate response was Through World War I, through World consider the President’s nominee to be that this was a homicide. Upon reflec- War II, through huge tumult in this the next Supreme Court Justice. As tion, she had a collision in the inter- country, we always made sure we had a members of the Judiciary Committee, section that otherwise would have been fully staffed Supreme Court. we must have the confirmation hear- a major fender bender, but because of a It would be unprecedented to deny a ing. We must do our jobs. defective Takata airbag, it sent a piece Supreme Court nominee fair consider- Thank you, Mr. President, and I yield of metal like this into her neck and cut ation in the U.S. Senate. In the last 100 the floor. her jugular vein. years, the Senate has taken action on The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- Near Orlando, a firefighter—a big, every Supreme Court nominee regard- ator from Florida. strapping, 6-foot-4 hunk of a man— less of whether the nomination was Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I am doesn’t have an eye anymore because a made in a Presidential year. It is now here to talk about Takata airbags, but piece of metal fragment like this one February, which gives us plenty of I want to say to the Senator from Min- from a Takata airbag came out when time to consider and confirm a nomi- nesota that she is so right on. The Con- there was nothing more than a fender nee. Let’s go to that next. stitution, article II, says that the bender. When this bag exploded, it sent People say: When will we have the President ‘‘shall nominate’’ and the out a piece of metal. In his case, that time to get that done? I would submit Senate ‘‘shall confirm.’’ It doesn’t say firefighter doesn’t have the sight in that we do. We have hundreds of days ‘‘may’’ or ‘‘wish.’’ It says ‘‘shall.’’ It is one eye because this piece of metal before us. In fact, the Senate has taken a constitutional responsibility of our fragment hit him. an average of only 67 days. Let’s make duties. Unfortunately, this has happened all it easier: 2 months—about 2 months. Just do your job, U.S. Senate. Just over the country. Unfortunately, it has That is the average since 1975 from the do the job, and we will see, once the happened with a great deal of, shall we date of the nomination to the con- President comes forward with a nomi- say, dragging of feet, coverup, and ob- firmation vote—2 months. That means nee. Let’s see. Are we going to have fuscation. These airbags are supposed that if the President offers a nomina- committee hearings? Let’s see if we are to save lives, but when they fail, they tion, say, in the month of March—that going to have open and bipartisan dis- rupture violently and they send metal sounds like a good month to have a cussion on the merits of the nominee fragments right at the driver or the nominee—that nominee would receive that is put forth. Let’s see if the Con- passenger. a vote in the Senate by Memorial Day. stitution is trashed or whether the These Takata airbags have such an There are our 2 months. And if we even Constitution is upheld in the process explosive force. What is behind it? wanted to add a little time on, we put out to us in the third branch of Well, our staff on the Commerce Com- would certainly do it by the Fourth of government. I thank the Senator from mittee has just produced a report July, which is a very good holiday for Minnesota. which this Senator is releasing today. those who believe in the Constitution TAKATA AIRBAGS It is an update on this report which and in the words of the Constitution. Mr. President, I came here to speak found, through a review of recently ob- Until we confirm a nominee, the about something else—something that tained internal documents in the Court is left with only eight Justices. looks very sinister. As a matter of fact, Takata Corporation, that Takata em- A split decision will prevent the Su- I ask unanimous consent to have two ployees routinely manipulated safety preme Court from making critical deci- items to show to the Senate with re- testing data. That would be bad sions and leave lower courts without a gard to the Takata airbag crisis. enough, but let’s see the consequence precedent to follow. A major responsi- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without of this drip, drip, drip approach to now bility of the Supreme Court is to re- objection, it is so ordered. a substantial number of recalls. There

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That is why we We have these thousands of auto- already 20-plus million recalls of wanted to release this report today. mobile dealers around the country who Takata airbags, an additional 70 to 90 Through a thorough review of recently have sold vehicles with the Takata air- million Takata airbags may have to be obtained internal documents at bags. They cannot sell a new vehicle if recalled right here in the United Takata, it was discovered that Takata that vehicle is under recall because of States. Can you imagine what that is employees continually manipulated a Takata airbag. Under law, they can- going to do to all these poor auto deal- the safety testing done. For example, not sell that new vehicle. Also, rental ers? I mean, don’t even speak about the in this report, in a 2005 memo to the car companies that have more than 15 person who is in the greatest jeopardy, Takata vice president, an engineer at cars cannot rent cars if they are under the one who is behind the wheel of a Takata explained that ‘‘the integrity recall. But used car dealers can sell car with an explosive grenade right in of the validation reports . . . is in seri- used cars that have a defective Takata front of their face, and the grenade ous question.’’ airbags in them that is under recall— may go off. But can you imagine the That engineer continued: ‘‘These are without fixing it. poor auto dealers, the Toyotas, the not trivial changes in that the data I really feel for our automobile deal- Hondas? clearly in violation of the customer ers. I really feel for our automobile Let me tell you about the last person specs is altered to meet the customer dealers also because what in the world killed. He was in a Ford F–150 pickup specs.’’ The engineer called that ‘‘a are they going to do with the cus- truck, and it was in South Carolina. By clear misrepresentation of the facts.’’ tomers now screaming ‘‘Replace this the time people got to the truck after That is what the Takata engineer airbag’’ when, in fact, there are not the crash that would not have killed said to one of the Takata vice presi- enough replacement airbags? In fact, him, he was dead because of a fragment dents back in 2005. That was 11 years because the National Highway Trans- like this. I wish you could see this frag- ago. portation Safety Administration has ment. I wouldn’t want that hitting me In a 2006 email, a different engineer- allowed some of these replacements to with an explosive force that inflates ing manager explained that testing re- go in with this ammonium nitrate, this the airbag in less than 1 second. That ports were ‘‘cherry picked’’ and a is a horrendous situation. is why the Commerce Committee has Takata employee was ‘‘schmoozed’’ to So I come to the floor today—this decided to jump all over this. We have accept deviations in the data. has been going on for over 2 years. We been doing it for the last 2 years. We So was he schmoozed or intimidated? brought this out in a hearing in the had a hearing on this 2 years ago. Whatever it was, it was altering what Senate Commerce, Science, and Trans- On the current recall, I said it was in was the truth. The manager con- portation Committee. And today I urge excess of 20 million. It is actually 29 cluded—this is the Takata manager in Takata and NHTSA to do what should million with these defective inflators. 2006, which was 10 years ago—that ‘‘the have been done long ago: Stop pro- That is because nine people are dead plant should have been screaming ducing these ammonium nitrate air- and dozens are injured. We find out bloody murder long ago.’’ bags and get them out of people’s vehi- now that in all, there may be 120 mil- Well, if I were a lawyer making a cles. And by the way, give your auto- lion airbags that eventually in the case to a jury, I would rest my case mobile dealers some relief. And how United Stated alone will have to be re- right now. The fact is, we are not law- about giving the American driving pub- called. If you want a shocking figure, yers arguing to a jury. As Senators, we lic, which is driving around with one of there may be in excess of 260 million are here to try to protect the American these things in their face, some consid- airbags recalled worldwide. Knowing of all these problems, it is people. And this data manipulation has eration and put them first? Hopefully, puzzling that the consent order that continued. Even after the recalls had we will see some more action on this. the National Highway Traffic Safety been announced and the rupturing in- I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- Administration signed with Takata al- flators had caused deaths and injuries, ator from Kansas. lows the continued production of am- the data manipulation continued. Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I ask monium nitrate-based inflators indefi- I will give an example. A 2010 presen- unanimous consent that I may proceed nitely. Then they said that certain tation explains that an experimental for 15 minutes as in morning business. ones had to be phased out by 2018. Why inflator was experiencing a significant The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without isn’t the NHTSA taking a more aggres- safety and weld quality issue. Accord- objection, it is so ordered. sive approach? What is going on after ing to that presentation, ‘‘[Takata all of these inflators, based on what we Japan] was informed of these results, GUANTANAMO DETAINEES see with ammonium nitrate, have ex- but altered them and reported good re- Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I rise ploded? sults to Honda.’’ Furthermore, even today to speak about President The essence of this and of the report when these issues were raised to senior Obama’s plan to move Guantanamo we are releasing today as an addendum Takata employees, no action was Bay terrorists to the United States. to the previous report is that the cur- taken. However, it is not much of a plan. With rent recall may have to be redone. In a Takata director’s notes from all due respect, it is more of a failed at- Why? Because auto manufacturers are 2013, he explains that he shared his tempt to fulfill a campaign promise installing new live grenades into peo- view that the range of a certain recall and, in my view, what he believes will ple’s cars as replacements for the old might be a ‘‘violation of our moral ob- secure his legacy. live grenades. ligation to protect the public.’’ Let me Fortunately for us—those who be- According to Reuters and the New repeat that. A ‘‘violation of our moral lieve that moving dangerous enemy York Times, there are also internal obligation to protect the public’’—that combatants within our communities is documents that show Takata officials came from a Takata director. Wow. dangerous, irresponsible, and an illogi- were aware of these consistent prob- The engineer raised these concerns cal idea—the President’s plan contains lems at its manufacturing plants. with Takata’s senior vice president of nothing really substantive. In fact, it These reports claim that officials knew quality assurance, but the vice presi- fails to recommend an alternative loca- of manufacturing issues that could lead dent failed to take action to address it. tion to any current facility at all. As a to moisture contamination, contami- These new documents that we note in matter of fact, I call that a win. nating the ammonium nitrate wafer in- this report from the committee speak The plan does not provide any intel- side of the airbag inflator. This just for themselves. Takata failed to ligence to substantiate the President’s adds all the more to the finding of evi- prioritize the safety of its products, claims, nor does it even provide a chart dence. and as a result, nine people are dead or a graph to support the mathematics Last June, the oversight and inves- and dozens were injured. And even on the alleged cost savings, and there tigations staff of the Commerce Com- after exploding Takata airbags killed is no estimate regarding the cost to

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Let me this—I am holding up the report here— to create cost savings for his plan that repeat this. The plan fails to substan- this is all we have in return: 9 pages. can never be realized? tiate President Obama’s repeated I know the chairman of the Senate The plan also fails to account for the claims that Guantanamo Bay serves as Armed Services Committee, my good fact that our Nation is still mired in a recruiting tool for jihadists, a ral- friend and colleague, Senator JOHN the War on Terrorism. We are still lying point for terrorist attacks, hin- MCCAIN, is not going to be pleased with fighting in the Middle East and world- dering relations with allies, and drain- the lack of substance or data or the ar- wide, including the United States of ing Department of Defense resources. ticulation of a real plan. The same goes America, to ensure that terrorism does My goodness. for Senator RICHARD BURR, chairman of not prevail. What about the individuals I wrote Defense Secretary Ash Carter the Intelligence Committee, who at we detain from this day forward? What in November to ask for intelligence re- this particular time is going to be in- about those individuals with critical ports or data to support many of these troducing legislation of his own to pro- information related to the next ter- assertions. I asked Secretary Carter if vide intelligence with regard to the ad- rorist threat? How can we operate an intelligence assessment has been ministration’s lack of intelligence on without a facility like Guantanamo done in conjunction with the site sur- moving detainees to the United States. Bay to hold terrorists we take off the veys recently conducted by the Depart- The lack of a plan and the inability battlefield? ment of Defense from the safety of our of this administration to provide an al- Third, the plan attempts to identify community’s standpoint. I asked for ternative site indicate that none of the individual dispositions, one by one, for the Department’s rationale for evalu- sites visited by DOD’s survey team met those who remain designated for con- ating Fort Leavenworth, when three the demands necessary to hold detain- tinued law of war detention, to include previous evaluations have made it ees and, more important, keep our Article III, military commissions, or abundantly clear it is and continues to community safe. The fact that no site foreign prosecutions. What a muddle. be an unacceptable alternative. I asked was named and no substance on those In his remarks today, President if there were intelligence products re- visits was provided tells me there is no Obama advocated for trying terrorist garding previous site evaluations at alternative to match what we are now suspects in Article III courts. The Fort Leavenworth. doing safely and securely at Gitmo, pe- President named two American citi- The administration has argued that riod. zens—Faisal Shahzad and Dzhokhar Guantanamo is a recruiting tool for This so-called plan, as outlined by Tsarnaev—to articulate his point. Both terrorists. So I logically asked for an the President in his speech today from of those individuals, however, were ap- intelligence assessment to support that the White House, skims over four steps prehended in the United States, not on argument. As a follow on, I asked what to closing Guantanamo Bay. the battlefield. assessment had been done to reflect First, it articulates the administra- The intent of the Guantanamo deten- that Guantanamo has increased ter- tion’s plan to continue moving detain- tion facility is to protect the American rorist recruitment. And finally, was ees designated for transfer by the people by removing terrorists from the there any empirical data to support the President’s national security team to battlefield. As the United States faces administration’s argument that na- foreign countries. a growing threat from terrorist organi- tional security threats will decrease if In some instances, this may have zations, such as ISIS, which have tens enemy combatants are held in the been successful with regard to individ- of thousands of members, bringing United States? Common sense will tell you that it would increase. uals being rehabilitated, but a third of those terrorists to the United States to Two months later, the response con- the time, detainees transferred to stand trial simply cannot be the an- firmed my assumptions. The Depart- third-party host countries have re- swer. It is not safe for the American ment of Defense had no intelligence turned to the battlefield. And these are people and irresponsible to our na- products—none. There were no intel- just the ones we know about. This is tional security. ligence products, no data to provide to called recidivism, and the rates are too Fourth, the plan states the adminis- support the President’s argument that high for this process to be called ‘‘se- tration’s desire to ‘‘work with Congress GTMO serves as a recruiting tool and cure and responsible,’’ as the adminis- to lift unnecessary prohibitions in cur- that moving detainees to the mainland tration has labeled it. rent law.’’ That is in quotes, ‘‘work would increase security and decrease Second, the administration plans to with Congress.’’ the terrorist threat to the United continue its review of the threat posed Well, there is something that is unique with the President, ‘‘work with States. by those detainees who are not cur- My colleagues, this plan really con- Congress to lift unnecessary prohibi- rently eligible for transfer through the firms what many of us already know: tions in current law.’’ But it does not Periodic Review Board. There is no safe alternative to GTMO— This is to provide a new review on anywhere in its nine pages endorse a not in Kansas, not in Colorado, not in the current population of detainees specific facility to house Guantanamo South Carolina. Nowhere on the main- who have been deemed too dangerous detainees; rather, the plan describes a land is there a secure and responsible to transfer—deemed too dangerous to prototype for a detention facility in alternative. If there were, this Presi- transfer, and yet this President wants the United States—not Kansas, not dent would not have failed to articu- to give them a second shot at getting Colorado, not South Carolina, not any- late it in his plan. out. This doesn’t make any sense. Ter- where in the United States. Mr. President, a plan that is a legacy rorists are not criminals. As much as The President’s long-awaited plan is speech does not safeguard the lives of this President would like for you to be- to work with Congress to identify the the American people. lieve they are, terrorists are not equal most appropriate location as soon as I yield the floor. to the inmates we have across Amer- possible, according to the summary The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- ica’s prison system. They are fixated provided to my office by the Depart- ator from West Virginia. on the destruction of America. They ment of Defense. Question: How could Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, are we have no regard for life, not that of it take 7 years to arrive at the idea to in morning business? their own and especially not the lives work with Congress? What a novel The PRESIDING OFFICER. We are of innocent civilians. idea, but only for this express purpose. postcloture on the nomination. The report hones in on having a de- If the President had a suitable alter- Mr. MANCHIN. I wish to speak on the tainee population anywhere from 30 to native, he would have provided it in nomination of the Food and Drug Ad- 60. There seems to be an assumption on this plan. If he had a suitable alter- ministration, Dr. Robert Califf.

VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:16 Feb 24, 2016 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G23FE6.041 S23FEPT1 smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with SENATE February 23, 2016 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S945 The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without a 90-day prescription and then call in fight against the FDA protecting a objection, the Senator is recognized. to get it refilled. They were going out business plan and hopefully the culture Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I be- like M&Ms. will change, and they will start pro- lieve the FDA needs new leadership, a We were able to do that, and no soon- tecting America and the plan of fami- new focus and a new culture, and Dr. er did we get that done—and it took 3 lies and citizens of this great country Robert Califf’s past involvement with years, when it should have been 3 to have a healthy lifestyle. the pharmaceutical industry reflects weeks. Within the same week that all It is because of this belief that I am that he will not be this person. He will opioids got to us from a schedule III to urging my colleagues to vote against not have the impact or leadership capa- a schedule II, they approved a new drug the confirmation of Dr. Robert Califf as bilities the Nation needs to stem the called Zohydro, which was 10 times the director of the Food and Drug Ad- tide of the opioid crisis we have all more powerful than Vicodin or ministration. He will still be there and over this country, even in your great Lortab—much more powerful. That ap- still be a valuable person. He is just State of Oklahoma and my State of proval was done against their advisory not that person with the passion to West Virginia, which has been ravaged committee 11 to 2. That means 13 ex- change the culture in this important by this. I would like to put this in con- perts evaluated this drug and said: It is agency. We have let this sleeping giant text for a little bit. He has been there not needed, too powerful, don’t do it. go for far too long. over a year—a good man. I am not Guess what, they did it anyway. My office has been absolutely flood- speaking about his ability, his honesty, Now they are saying that they are ed, Mr. President, with stories from his integrity, his education, his back- not going to pay attention to the advi- West Virginians—but I have received ground, and all the good work he has sory committee. Not only did they say them from all over the country—who done. But he has been there for a year, they are not going to pay attention to want their voices to be heard. They and for the past 20 years Dr. Califf basi- the advisory committee, but we have say: Please use my name. I am not cally has come from the institutional had the decision on OxyContin being ashamed. We have been hiding too research side, from education, and with given to 11-year-old children; we have long. I have watched too many people’s that, his support has come from the had the two new drugs that came out lives be destroyed. So today I will read pharmaceutical industries, those that in 2014 after Zohydro and the pushback letters not only from West Virginians are putting opioids on the market. I from Senators representing our respec- but also people across this great coun- just feel it would be hard, human tive States; they had a new drug called try of ours that have been impacted by naturewise, for him to change and rule Targiniq, which is an extended-release the opioid abuse epidemic. to keep these products from coming OxyContin product, and Hysingla, I urge my colleagues to listen to onto the market. So to put this in con- which is an extended-release these letters from their States and sto- text, this is not personally about Dr. hydrocodone product. ries from my State about these drugs Califf. This is about the culture he So there were three new decisions before confirming Dr. Califf, and in all comes from and the year he has been made, with two new powerful opioids good conscience make that decision to- there as the No. 2 man and what has coming to the market and the decision morrow when we vote. Do you really happened during that period of time. that OxyContin would be given to 11- believe he can bring the changes need- Let me go over some things. Over the year-olds. That was done without any ed and not just say: Well, we have to last decade, the FDA has approved new review from the advisory committee. have somebody there. He is already drugs at historically high rates. In They got so much pushback from there. He will do a good job where he 2008, companies filing applications to Zohydro, they said: We are not going is; he is just not going to be able to sell never-before-marketed drugs were down this path again. We will just not kick them and shake them up and say denied 66 percent of the time. They have anybody review it. We will just go we are not going down this path any were denied 66 percent of the time. Yet ahead and do it. more. There are some good people. We between the beginning of 2015 and Au- If you believe that is a culture that have made some recommendations of gust of 2015, the FDA rejected only 3 will protect the welfare and well-being some good people who would bring the uses for new chemical entities and ap- of our citizens in our States all cultural changes that need to be proved 25. That is an approval rate of through this great country of ours, brought. 89 percent. then I am sorry because I don’t. I am I am going to read first about a Now, tell me how in 7 short years sorry, but that is why I have been so young lady from Southern West Vir- that culture changed to where any- passionate. I have more people dying of ginia. Her name is Chelsea. This is her thing and everything coming at us was legal prescription drug abuse than any- story. passed through, when we have already thing else in the State of West Vir- As a recovering addict, I have watched my- become the most addicted country on ginia. More people die. It is ravaging self, my friends, and loved ones suffer from Earth. If one looks at new drugs and families. this horrible thing we call addiction. As I not the use of drugs, they have rejected I have personal letters I will read, watch all these people now suffering, I know only 1 and approved 23. That is a 96- and they will tear your heart out with they had no idea what they were getting what is happening and how this grips themselves into, and neither did I. percent approval rate in 2015. So of the Whether it be for pain or just simply hang- new drugs that came to the market, and tears people apart. It tears commu- ing with the wrong people like I did, we all only 1 was rejected—a 96-percent ap- nities apart. Every law enforcement have one thing in common, we chose to do proval rate. agency in America will tell you—no drugs for the first time. In 2008, the FDA’s approval of new matter what town they are in, what Someone made a decision to do drugs marketing claims for existing drugs county they are in, or what State they for the first time. was 56 percent. In the first 8 months of are in—that over 80 percent and up- Growing up, I can honestly say I had what 2015, it was 88 percent. This includes ward of 95 percent of all crimes com- most people would call a normal childhood. approving OxyContin for children as mitted are drug related, are some sort Chelsea comes from an upper socio- young as 11. The FDA’s 2013 approval of of drug related. economic family in Southern West Vir- There is not one of us right now in Zohydro drew widespread concern. All ginia. She continues: of us were outraged when we heard this this beautiful Senate Chamber that doesn’t know somebody in our imme- I was raised by two hardworking parents new drug came on the market. who would and will still do anything for me. To put another time period in con- diate family or Senate family that I was a gymnast and a cheerleader for most text, I had worked for 3 years to try to hasn’t been affected by drugs, either of my life and went to church every Wednes- get all opioids from a schedule III to a prescription legal drugs or illegal day and Sunday. My dad was even the Mayor schedule II so doctors could prescribe drugs. It is awful. It is an epidemic. of Madison at one point. But even being only for 30 days. You had to go back I believe the FDA must break its raised up in a good home did not stop me and see your doctor. Up until that cozy relationship with the pharma- from doing drugs. time, Vicodin and Lortab—the two ceutical industry and instead start a So this has no socioeconomic bear- most widely prescribed opioids—were relationship with the millions of Amer- ing. It does not. It is not a partisan schedule III. That means you could get icans. I have said that I am going to issue. Whether you are a Democrat or

VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:16 Feb 24, 2016 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00021 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G23FE6.043 S23FEPT1 smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with SENATE S946 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE February 23, 2016 Republican, it makes no difference. that if I got caught with all of that I could my sentence. I went through drug court and Rich or poor makes no difference. Chel- go to jail. I was just worried about my next completed it. I was the third person to ever sea continues: high. graduate from the Lincoln County Drug The following months were the same. I was Court. I can still remember the first time I heard doing anything I could to get my hands on I also had to do 14 more days in jail, 6 about someone getting high. I was in the 6th drugs, from pain pills to cocaine to meth. I months of home confinement, and 4 years’ grade and became friends with a girl whose did not care as long as I was high. I was probation. I can honestly say that going to parents got high themselves. We would walk hanging around with people who were as sick jail and rehab saved my life. If I hadn’t have about the playground and she would talk of as I was and places that I look back now that been put in jail, I would probably be 6 feet in these things called ‘‘drugs.’’ As she talked I would not even take my dog. the ground just like a lot of my friends that day in and day out about how getting high At 19 I met a guy who would fuel my drug I had to bury. made her feel, it made me start to wonder addiction even more. He was 40 years old and All of these things combined gave me what this thing called ‘‘getting high’’ was dealt OxyContin. At this point I could not af- something I hold very dear to my heart. My really about. ford my habit, so I did what I had to do. I recovery. Recovery has not only given my Now, mind you, I am talking about a started seeing my drug dealer. life back. It has given me a chance to be a 12-year-old girl. She was just 12 years My life soon went from bad to worse. I had daughter, a sister, a wife, and hopefully a old. OxyContin 80s any time I wanted them, and mother someday, a productive member of so- ciety, a good friend, but most of all, my re- I can remember thinking how cool I at the time I thought life can’t get any bet- ter than this. When you are doing eight to covery has given me a chance to be the voice thought it was that her parents had done of the sick and suffering addicts who lay in drugs with her and would party with her. ten OxyContin 80s a day, you will do what- ever it takes to get them. bed at night wondering if there is a way out. So another friend of hers, also 12 At this point I was turned on to heroin. I enjoy giving people hope and showing years old, had parents who were doing Heroin would have taken my life if it hadn’t them that treatment does work. I am living drugs with her and would party with scared me so much. The high from heroin is proof that if you work the program of recov- her. so intense that anyone who had done it ery, it will work for you. Since that day I Chelsea continues: would have fallen in love. But, actually, it had found myself sitting in that jail cell scared the life out of me. with no hope and my life completely con- One weekend I went to her house to stay As time passed and I wasn’t getting high sumed by my addiction, my life has changed the night and this was the first time I had like I wanted to anymore from snorting for the better. I have graduated with an As- gotten high. We smoked some pot, drank OxyContin, I decided to start shooting up. sociate’s Degree in applied science from some alcohol, and I was turned on to my first That is one thing I never thought I would do Southern West Virginia Community Tech- pill around the age of 12. From this day for- is shoot up. I always told myself that people nical College. ward, my life would forever be changed. I went on to get my Bachelor’s degree in From the ages twelve to fifteen I partied who shot up were the homeless people on the streets, complete and utter trash. the arts of psychology from West Virginia some on the weekends and sometimes during State University, and now I am currently the week, but as time went on my addiction Now here I was sticking a needle in my arm to get what I wanted. And to be honest, working on my Masters of Social Work de- and tolerance grew more and more. By this gree at Concord University, and I will grad- time, I was doing more pills because I had I thought life was bad before. It just got a whole lot worse. The life I was and the life uate with that degree in May. access to them. Between stealing Lortabs off I have also been able to go to various that I knew was gone, and OxyContin was my dad, to hanging with that girl so we schools, drug courts, and different places completely ruling my life now. could get high with her dad, to buying pills around the state to tell my story of addic- off the local drug dealer on the street, I had OxyContin is a legal drug made by a tion from where I was then to where I am moved from doing them every now and then legal pharmaceutical that knew ex- now. I have also had the pleasure of working to every day. actly the effects this would have when with a great group of people who are trying I would stay a lot of weekends at this girl’s they put this on the market over 20 to get a sober living home open in Danville, house just to get high because my parents years ago. West Virginia called the Hero House. would never have done that nor did they I can tell you, she is so passionate know I was doing it. By sixteen my life took She said: another turn. My grandmother, who I called What stood before everyone was pure ad- about getting this Hero House so she Nana, had taken care of me most of my life diction. can help other people. Anybody listen- while my mother worked. She was diagnosed I had started stealing off of everyone by ing who wants to help Chelsea in with lung cancer two years prior. In the last now and didn’t care who I hurt. People’s Danville, WV, with the Hero House, days of her life, I would visit her in the hos- priceless possessions that meant so much to please do so or contact my office. pital and she would tell me how proud she them meant nothing to me. All I’d seen was Now, with all this being said, I don’t tell was of me and how I was her little model. my next fix. That’s all I could see. my story to get praise. I tell my story be- I had also met a very special guy by the People were bringing me stolen stuff and I cause there is a son, a daughter, a husband, name of J.R. a few months before this who I was taking it to the nearest pawn shop or my a father, a wife, and many, many other peo- spent a lot of time with. On July 18, 2003, my drug dealer. I had no shame. I had needle ple out there addicted to drugs and they do Nana passed away. On the day of her wake, marks all up and down my arms, and I would not see a light at the end of the tunnel. J.R. took me out to dinner, and on the way lie to my family about how they got there. It When you are in active addiction, that home he asked me to go meet his dad. I ex- was like I had no conscience, or, better yet, light is so dim and a lot of times people plained to him I could not and that my my addiction was my conscience. think they are going to die from this hor- grandma’s funeral was the next day. Eventually I got caught stealing and was rible disease. But I am here to show people He dropped me off that night, kissed me charged with 17 different felonies and one that you don’t have to die. You don’t have to good-bye, and that was the last time I ever misdemeanor. This still did not slow me let that horrible addiction win. You can step heard from J.R. Twenty minutes after he left down even though I was looking at two to 20 out and take your life back, because I am me, he wrecked and died. I felt like my heart years in prison. Nothing scared me more here to tell you that if you don’t, if you had been ripped out of my chest. than being sick from the drugs. don’t, your addiction is going to take you to The day of his funeral is the next time I On September 29, 2008, I was called in for a your grave. met the love of my life that would soon try random drug test and failed because I had Drugs do not discriminate. They know no to destroy my life. It was called OxyContin. shot up OxyContin the day before. At the good, no bad, no rich, no poor. There are so I fell in love immediately with OxyContin. It courthouse they handcuffed me and shackled many people out there who suffer from this took all of my cares and worries away, and me and sent me to Southwestern Regional because there is little to no treatment. from that moment on all I wanted to do was Jail where I did a total of 10 days. As I sat By the grace of God I was sent to rehab and be numb. there in that jail cell and cried, I thought a given a second chance. I still have the hor- As the years passed, my drug addiction pill could not be worth two to 20 years of my rible reminders every day of the things I did grew worse. I was not only doing pain pills, life, and I hit my knees and prayed to God to my family, to my body, and, most of all, I was now experimenting with all kinds of that if He brought me out of that jail cell, to my self-esteem. other things. that I would never, ever, ever touch drugs I have the track marks after being 7 years I can still remember my senior week in again. The Lord answered my prayer and the sober that constantly remind me of the life high school. While everyone was excited judge gave me the choice to stay in jail or go I once lived. I have a poor self-image because about going to the beach, I had to make sure to the Life Center of Galax, in Galax, Vir- of the men I chose to give myself to just to I had enough drugs to go and not be sick. I ginia. get a pill, and the damage I did to my family took Roxy’s and Oxy’s, pretty much any- I chose to go to rehab. I completed the 30- because I had no cares in the world. thing I could get my hands on, and eight day program and came back and did Thomas One day I hope there is enough treatment balls of cocaine. Memorial’s intense outpatient program for 6 to help the addicts who want help. People By this time in my life I didn’t care about more weeks. Once I got home I was sen- need to be given a second chance and shown anything. It never once had crossed my mind tenced to two to 20 years, but they suspended there is a better way of life than to do drugs.

VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:16 Feb 24, 2016 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G23FE6.044 S23FEPT1 smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with SENATE February 23, 2016 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S947 I have another story called Tami’s best friend since first grade that year to a a lot of changes to that bill, but most story, but I know Chelsea. I know this drunk driving accident. She went to coun- importantly, we need to make sure we girl. She is impressive. She said: Please seling. More prescriptions. have an agency in the Federal Govern- She appeared fine, gave birth to a beautiful tell my story, I want people to know. baby boy, and then because of back pain ment of the United States of America No one could come from a finer family more pain prescriptions were given. I real- that is fighting to protect every Amer- than I came from. No one can go lower ized she had a problem when she was preg- ican. And it is not a business plan that than I have gone, and no one but by the nant with her second child and was stepped we have to adhere to, not at all. These grace of God could be saved like I was. down to Vicodin while pregnant. are good companies. They are legal When we hear these stories—and all Vicodin while pregnant. pharmaceutical companies. They do an she is saying is there is no treatment. After his birth, we started her first rehab awful lot of good. I challenge every one She was lucky. She found a treatment experience. She returned to the father of her of them that is listening to what we center. Somehow we have to come to children sober. She relapsed and began snort- are talking about right now to give us grips with this. We have a tax on to- ing heroin. pain relief without addiction to At this time she was living in Ohio and we bacco because we know it is harmful were unaware of her relapse. We found out opioids. Do something. Break through and we have to cure people of the dis- when her mother-in-law went to court and the chemistry or something. It has to ease. We have a tax on alcohol. We took her children. That was one of the worst be there. We have been able to solve have no fee whatsoever on opiates— days of all of our lives. We immediately every other epidemic. We have been none—and it is destroying lives like picked her up, brought her back to West Vir- able to cure epidemics and pandemics, nothing else that has ever happened in ginia, and into treatment. and now we have one that has been rav- this country. We need to make people Fast forward. Thousands of dollars later on attorneys, doctors, rehab, she returns to aging our country for almost 30 years. conscious of this, and we need to have Ohio to try to obtain her children. Relapsed. I have Samantha’s story. She says: an FDA that is compassionate, but not She began shooting heroin and then arrested. Hello. My name is Samantha Holbrooke. only that, is committed to the change We let her sit in jail and picked her up on She wants you to know her name. that needs to be made in our culture. her release. Charges were dismissed. Back to I am from Fayette County, WV. I am a 28- I want to read Tami’s story, from West Virginia she comes, hospitalized for a year-old female. I have been an addict for the West Virginia. That is in the northern week and rehab again. past 6 years. This letter is to explain to you She has now been in recovery for 13 how addiction has affected my life. It is also panhandle. Chelsea was way down in months. She fell in love with a nice, drug- to express my view on drugs and what it is the southern part of our State of West free man, moved to Ohio to try to obtain Virginia. doing to our society. custody of her children back, and is six I first started drugs when I was 13 years We have 2 adult children suffering from months pregnant. One thing I can say is my old. I was a recreational marijuana user. My daughter was always a good mother. Even substance use disorder. mother was an alcoholic and a drug addict. Our son entered the military while in col- while on active addiction, she worked and My father was not in the home or involved in lege. He was sent to Iraq right after 9/11, De- took care of them. As you can tell, both of our children be- my life. cember 27, 2001. He experienced things that Unfortunately, that is true for many peo- came addicted to prescription drugs first. . . he never talked about, celebrated his 21st ple around this country. birthday there, and returned home. He was And they tell me this is exactly how My mother would allow me to drink with not a saint when he went to war. He had a ju- it starts. It starts at a very young age. her and go to bars. I was often her designated venile past of drinking. Back then we Recreational marijuana, prescription driver, but I was only 13 years old. I got in thought he was a typical teenager acting drugs out of your parents’ medicine my first and only bar fight at 13. It was with out. When he returned, he suffered PTSD, as a 24-year-old woman. She thought I was com- many do, and went to the VA hospital for cabinet, taking it to school, being the cool kid in school, sharing those drugs, ing on to her boyfriend. In reality, we were treatment. He was put on cocktail after smoking weed, not trying to hook up. cocktail of medications. then you begin using them, then you When I was 19, my oldest sister and mother We all know this. We all know that sell them. This is how it starts, and it introduced me to hydrocodone, Ritalin, basically these brave men and women leads to obtaining street drugs to feed Xanax, and Percocet. My sister and mother who are willing to risk their lives and their addiction. So it goes from occa- had no income; I did. By getting me on pills, sacrifice their lives for us—in order to sional to recreational to addiction to they were able to get free pills by charging feeding that addiction. me to get them for them. By the time I was treat their pain, we think, just give 22, I think I was snorting Oxycodone. them a prescription, and they are able This is a condensed version of course. As with any family dealing with addiction, it Oxycodone is made in a single source, to get anything and everything. That does not show the tears, the hurt, the finan- which is a powder form that is com- is what they are talking about when he cial breakdown put on the family; (we are pressed. They would break it down, was put on cocktail after cocktail of broke). crush it, and snort it to get the quicker medications—was this his starting Literally and figuratively. She says: high. point of the spiral into addiction? I want to thank you for listening. That became my drug of choice. I eventu- I believe his addiction to opioids, benzoids, Doctors keep prescribing pills, and ally got in with a doctor who was pretty and amphetamines started then. I know that they will tell you that they have had much a pill mill. he spiraled from that point on. He lost his very little training in this area. As We know we have them all over this marriage, he didn’t see his son, he bounced they go through all of their medical from drugs to drugs to drugs. He obtained country. several DUIs, and time after time he walked schools and advanced training, they He wrote me a prescription for Xanax and away, no offer of help, no sentencing. He get very little training on the effects Oxycodone. I got even more strung out on bounced, married again. She was addicted to these drugs have on human beings and those two. heroin. He bounced again, was in and out of the addiction. As a result of using drugs, I now have our house. Unfortunately, we always gave We took 1 billion pills off the market memory problems, concentration problems, him a safe place to land. when we went from 90 days to 30 days and the list goes on and on. I lost about 30 She said: ‘‘Unfortunately,’’—not for- of Vicodin and Lortab. We took that pounds. I lost my job. I lost my home. I lost many pills off the market. That means my child. I lost my fiance to suicide. He was tunately but unfortunately—‘‘we al- drunk when he shot himself in the head. I be- ways gave him a safe place to land.’’ 30 days. lieve that had he not been drinking, he The last time I saw him is when I called I have people in my office or in their wouldn’t have taken his own life. the police on him. I discovered that him and families—and I know the Presiding Of- As a result of these life-changing events, I his girlfriend, with two small children, who ficer does as well—who will go to the became severely depressed. I then took the had been living in our house for four months doctor for something where they may wrong road and began to use drugs intra- were using and selling drugs. I found out he need pain relief for 1 or 2 days. Do you venously. I started lying and stealing. This was recently incarcerated for drug traffic know what they get? They automati- led me to gain two felony charges and sev- and sent to a correctional rehabilitation fa- cally get enough pills for 30 days. That eral other misdemeanors. I went to jail and cility. 1 2 is the path of least resistance. It is prison and spent 2 ⁄ years locked up. I am Our daughter was an athlete all through now on DRC because I am on parole and had school. She received injury after injury, and legal, they can do it, and the doctor a relapse, which led to several bad decisions, at 18 started seeing specialists for back pain. will write a 30-day prescription. and now I am paying the consequences. That was in 2004. They prescribed opiates. I We are working on a bill that will be I am now in recovery. I am a recovering never saw the addiction coming. She lost her coming to the floor. We need to make addict. I joined Narcotics Anonymous and

VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:41 Feb 24, 2016 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G23FE6.046 S23FEPT1 smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with SENATE S948 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE February 23, 2016 Alcoholics Anonymous. The classes and pro- fools with drugs is a criminal and where I live in Cabell County, we have gramming in prison helped me to think bet- should be put in jail. We have done had over 900 overdoses in just the year ter. I now analyze a situation before making that, and it hasn’t solved a thing. It of 2015. a decision. has gotten a lot worse. We have to As a mother, I must trust our leaders to This is my story. Prescription drugs and make responsible choices to help us seek so- all drugs have ruined a large percentage of rethink this issue. This is not a crime. lutions, gain back our communities, and the citizens of West Virginia’s lives. I am Addiction is basically an illness. It save our children from following the same now in full control of my life again, thank needs to have a cure, and treatment is deadly path. the Lord. that cure. We have to face that. Senate I know the FDA was so proud that This story is anonymous, but they Republicans and Democrats are look- they came out with some new guide- wanted to share it with us. ing at how to fix the sentencing guide- lines, and they said now they are going I grew up in a nice home. My grandfather lines, and I think it is encouraging and healthy for us to have these discus- to start paying attention to the advi- was a pastor. My dad grew up in church. My sory committees. They didn’t say they family went to church every Sunday. We had sions. a nice house. We had nice cars. My mom She says: would adhere to their recommenda- tions; they would just start paying at- didn’t have to work, and my dad took very Is it a selfish sickness? Of course it is. But good care of us. how can we help them see the light when we tention to them. Also, the CDC—the My dad had surgery, a common surgery to push them aside? Because ‘‘they asked for Centers for Disease Control—put out remove several large veins in his legs. This is it?’’ Just like a lady with skin cancer ‘‘asked some guidelines of how we should be where his addiction began. This is where he for it’’ because she laid in a tanning bed? prescribing, the knowledge we should found his unlimited supply of numbness. What if we treated addicts with the same have, how we should be administering, I was in middle school, and this is when I compassion that we treat cancer patients? and what we should be doing to curb remember things being different. Things My father has been clean for almost a dec- this drug abuse. And guess which agen- were changing. My dad stayed out with his ade, and the demons of his addiction still friends a lot. He wasn’t home for dinner any- cy fought against that and put it on haunt us all. No, we weren’t homeless, nor delay? The FDA. more. When he was home, he was lying down did we have to face a death to be completely sleepy and always said silly things. I would broken by this horrible epidemic, but I had a The only thing I ask all of my col- stay up late at night until he would get zombie for a father for my adolescence. I leagues to do is to please consider—just home, only to hear my mom and dad fight- missed my childhood, years that we can send a message with the vote you make ing, screaming, and my mom crying. Eventu- never get back, memories that will never be tomorrow. It is not about the doctor at ally I hated to hear the garage door open be- erased, all because of a little orange pill bot- all. It is not about the person before us. cause I didn’t want him to come home. Be- tle chased and hidden with a brown paper It is about getting an advocate who fore my dad would take me to school, stand- bag. ing in his business suit with his briefcase, he will make a real change and make sure Luckily, my story ends with a happy end- we fight this war. would scarf down pills out of a little orange ing. I still have my dad. My story hasn’t bottle. He would tip it back like he was eat- This story is another anonymous ended up the way so many do every day, like story: ing a box of Nerds. I didn’t know any better. my two friends who didn’t get help in time My naive, my innocent mind didn’t know and passed away. My brother is in his early 20s and was hired what was happening. I couldn’t comprehend at the local plant that employs the majority that a doctor could be his drug dealer! I have stories from all over the coun- of the county. He was injured on the job, saw try, and they are pathetic. I have a They couldn’t comprehend that be- his doctor, and was prescribed Lortab long couple more I can read from West Vir- term. cause we have been taught to trust ginia. I will go to different States. doctors. Lortab, as I said before, is a schedule This is Erica’s story. She says: III, 90 days. You can keep calling it in, Things got worse. I started finding bottles Hello, My name is Erica and I am an ad- of liquor and cans of beer hidden, and I calling it in, and calling it in. dict. And I say that with great pride as I passed it off. The 3 empty beers in the back As the effects from this started to wane, he celebrated 10 years of recovery in November of his company car: Oh, they must be his was prescribed Xanax, Klonopin, and a vari- of 2015. ‘‘friends’’. No one in our family drinks, defi- ety of other prescription medicines. He then I began using drugs here in West Virginia nitely not my dad. lost his good-paying job but found other at the ripe age of 13. work at a lower pay after almost a year of I remember whole vacations, week- Thirteen seems to be that magic— unemployment. end trips, and afternoons ruined by his adolescence. We are coming into ado- This prescription med addiction continued addiction. Mad fits of rage until one lescence. We are willing to experiment. for years, and once laws finally cracked day my mom stood up and couldn’t down on prescribing narcotics, it left him We think we are invincible. We think unable to get all the medicines he had pre- take it anymore. My dad got the help nothing can harm us. he needed, but how did he get the help? viously been prescribed. Once it became too Prescription drugs were easily accessible In hiding, in private—a local rehab fa- expensive to buy them on the street, he at that age and opened the door to 11 years turned to heroin. cility. He was on a business trip. Our of anguish, desperation, jails, and dirty nee- My fun-loving brother who was always at culture has stigmatized a group of peo- dles. I came from a stable, drug- and alcohol- family functions, loved to be around his ple—a group of people who transcend free home, but I was able to gain access to nieces and nephews, totally disappeared. I race, status, gender—at the expense of prescription drugs from my peers and my suspected that something more serious was their lives. local middle school and high school on a going on, but he wouldn’t answer calls or This is a hidden killer. Drug abuse daily basis. texts. In August, I hadn’t seen him in several and drug addiction are hidden killers. As my disease progressed, I dropped out of high school my freshman year and continued months. We have always been close. This was So many of us have people in our fami- to put myself and family through years of very unusual. I sent him a novel of a text lies or close friends who don’t want to pain and suffering. I attempted drug replace- since he wouldn’t take my phone calls con- talk about it. They are ashamed, and ment therapy to control my opioid addic- fronting him over the rumors that I had so it gets covered up and hidden away. tion, but that was only a temporary solu- heard of his heroin use. He denied it. As a result, we don’t bring people out, tion, and I eventually returned to drugs. A few short weeks later, I got a call from let them know the effects, and cure Finally, I found myself in the court system my mother that he was transported to the them. and facing felony drug charges. It was then hospital by ambulance but discharged a few hours later for chest pain. He later told us he She says: that I was able to find freedom through a 12- step fellowship. had gotten a bad batch of heroin and was My dad was hurting. No, not from the Today I can say I am a cum laude graduate certain he was dying. wounds on his legs when he had his surgery of Marshall University, fully employed, He told the EMS he had used that morning, but from depression and bipolar disorder. homeowner, wife, and the mother of two as well as hospital staff. I still to this day These are the roots of his addiction. They go wonderful West Virginia boys. don’t understand how someone can come in hand in hand. When will we see this? When I pray my children don’t follow the path suffering from an overdose and be discharged will we stop seeing addicts as a problem and that, not only myself, but many of my West a few hours later. see them as human beings and hurting? Virginians fall into. The disease of addiction People don’t have knowledge. They For the last 20 to 30 years, I have is progressive and fatal if not treated or pre- are not being trained in this horrible been in public life, and the Presiding vented. epidemic that we have in this country. Officer has been in public life a good Here in West Virginia, we are leading NOTHING was mentioned to him about bit. I always thought that anybody who the Nation in drug overdoses. And treatment or rehab and he was treated as a

VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:50 Feb 24, 2016 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00024 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G23FE6.048 S23FEPT1 smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with SENATE February 23, 2016 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S949 lesser person. I was worried before, but after grandparents. We were normal, that’s all, or knew when she didn’t return my calls or this was in a constant state of fear that I what we perceived was normal. texts that it was bad. But finally she re- would get a call that my 31-year-old brother When speaking with our children now, they sponded; she was back into it again, but was dead. both recount wonderful childhoods and deem she’d get out she promised. In October, he called me to tell me yes he themselves ‘‘lucky.’’ Our house was filled The next 8 months were a few weeks clean was a heroin addict, but a new treatment with love. I hugged my kids all the time, then back into drugs again. I did not send center had opened near his home and he never hesitated to demonstrate to or tell her money. Honestly, she never asked. She wanted to get clean. He asked if I would go them how much I loved them. They had knew I’d never support her habit. Around with him, and I said of course yes. grandparents who were always around, who Thanksgiving 2015 she had had it. She called His insurance wouldn’t cover a dime of this also demonstrated love for them. About 5 me and said she wanted to get back into treatment. It would be all out of his pocket years ago, my daughter, and her boyfriend, rehab and leave her boyfriend permanently. at $100 a day plus the cost of meds. For some- an Intern at Tufts Medical School decided, Her life was no longer worth living. Weeks of one working at a $30,000 or less a year job, after being together for 2 years that they trying to get her into rehab went unsuccess- paying for housing, utilities, food, (he never would move to Sacramento. I was devastated fully when we finally found Clean and Sober did receive public assistance)— inside but encouraged my daughter to follow in Sacramento. At that point she was clean He was too proud for that— her heart. Over the subsequent years, our two weeks, had slowly packed up or sold her communications went from daily to weekly belongings and was ready for the break. But this cost was more than he could do. to scattered. Each conversation seemed more she had to sneak out to get away from her Again I told him I would be there and pay distant than the last. We saw her an average very controlling, manipulative partner; and for whatever he couldn’t. I convinced him he of twice a year; most significantly, when we she did. needed more of a support system than just paid her expenses to come home for Christ- The happy part: She is today 60 days sober. me and he finally told our parents. We were mas. Her boyfriend never came; he distanced She has a new job (She had been fired from we were raised in church and came from a himself from us almost immediately. the other one), which she loves. She blocked large religious family. He was so ashamed of I’m sure at this point you know the story. her boyfriend from her phone, her email and what he had become he didn’t want the fam- About 18 months ago I finally confronted my her facebook. She is the daughter, once ily to know and the majority of them still daughter asking what was wrong, seeing her again, that I know and love, but I love her don’t know to this day. go from a loving daughter to a distant per- regardless of the disease of addiction. Love I am hoping, as this letter was writ- son I no longer knew. Over the previous few the addict, hate the disease. And for right ten anonymously, eventually he will years, she turned into a virtual stranger. I now I thank God, pray alot, and take it one day at a time. share this with the family, maybe pre- told her I loved her no matter what and that venting other members from going I would be there for her. At that time she de- I have another one here I want to down this road. nied any issue. A few weeks later she was in share with you. The thing I wanted to the hospital and called me. Apparently, she share, Madam President, is this: My He will tell them when he is ready. My had hit bottom. She confided that she was a mom and I went with him to his first ap- State and your State have probably heroin addict. I was more than shocked. She been hit as hard as any two States in pointment at the suboxyne clinic, and one of had been in a substance free dorm in college, us has been at every appointment since. It is the country. We have people coming to hated drinking, drugs and was pretty us all the time. We are fighting every wonderful—he has a session with a psychia- straight laced overall. I kept myself in check trist at every visit. saying that no matter what I would support way we can. We are introducing pieces It’s more than prescribing meds. They are her, asked her to come home so we could of legislation. We are not worrying doing the counseling to make sure their pa- help her. She confided that it started with a about who is Republican or Democrat. tients get clean. I am proud to say that after prescription for opioids that her boyfriend How can we help Americans—the beau- only four months, not only is he clean but he had shared with her. He was given one for tiful people in New Hampshire, the has weaned off the suboxyne. back pain years before, got hooked and de- He still goes for counseling and has the wonderful people in West Virginia, who cided she might just like it. are facing more deaths, more disease, nurse’s cell that he can call 24 hours a day if So, amazingly she did come home, but she he’s having a hard day. In the future he more destruction to the family? went back a few months later. She then re- I want to share with you that when I wants to tell his story and help others facing turned to get clean again and went back a the same crisis. few months later. She overdosed multiple first got elected—Senator Byrd had Madam President, I have been read- times, of which I knew nothing until re- died in 2010. I was Governor of the ing stories of people addicted all over cently. Her boyfriend gave her IV heroin State of West Virginia. I had to make the State of West Virginia. I have sto- while she was in the hospital being treated a decision. I thought maybe I could ries from your State also, Madam for pneumonia to keep her habit going. He come to Washington and help with the President. I would like to read that for was the one, I found out later, that he shot experiences I had and what I had seen her up because she hated doing it. He had de- in my State and times. We had chal- you. veloped a hold on her that was a bond of her- This is in New Hampshire—Sandown, lenges. oin high. I knew the drug had gotten her After I was elected to the Senate, I NH. This is Kathleen’s story. I am sure when, due to the stress of everything hap- she has sent you the same copy she pening, I ended up in the hospital ruling out had gone back to Oceana, WV. At that sent me. She wants her name to be a heart attack. She drove me there, dropped time it had been called ‘‘Oxyana’’ be- known. me off and went to get high (I found out cause drug use was so rampant in this beautiful town. I remembered this My name is Kathleen Stephens. I am a 56 later). I ended up being fine, stress of course, year old RN, BSN, from Sandown, NH. I am and she ended up going back home yet again. town because when I was a freshman in currently the Director of Clinical Service at She stayed clean after going into a rehab, college, my roommate was from this a nationwide hospice company. My story is which kicked her out after 8 days because town. It was the most beautiful town I much like thousands of others out there, her insurance was declined. She then at- had been in. They had everything. pretty average, fairly normal. I have two tended NA— What a privilege it would have been to children; a 33-year-old son who graduated Narcotics Anonymous— grow up in this beautiful town, but I with a degree in Mathematics from Boston meetings almost daily and got a job that she could see many years later it was not University and a 31-year-old daughter who loved. In the meantime, her boyfriend was the town I knew or remembered in my graduated with a psychology degree from As- found out through a ‘‘random’’ drug test and mind. I went to the middle school. sumption College. I myself have a Bachelor suspended. She was clean for 4 months, the These were all children in fifth to of Science and Nursing degree and my chil- happiest four months of my life. We spoke dren’s father a Bachelor’s degree in business every few days, or texted. Her voice was eighth grade. I tried to give pep talks. from Wharton School of Business in PA. I truly hers again . . . her laughter, her ex- I wanted to get them involved and tell give you this detailed background for to you pressions, her humor. I felt she was finally them how good they could be, how see that we are a well educated and success- back with us. She had left her boyfriend and much we are counting on them, what ful family. We are a white, mid to upper mid- went into a sober living home. Life was good they need to get a good education and dle class who have always lived in a beau- and I was so grateful to have my daughter, contribute something back to society, tiful neighborhood surrounded by loving my best friend, back. and how fortunate and lucky they are families whose children played outside, About 3 months into her sobriety she de- to be in this little town. joined peewee soccer, little league, softball, cided to reach out and try to get her boy- After I finished speaking—they were basketball and girl scouts to name but a few. friend sober as well, the beginning of the We were the home in the neighborhood where end. At exactly month 4 she went to his attentive and cooperative—there was a all the children loved to play. We took our house and he had a ‘‘surprise’’ for her. She group of them. They asked: Can we children to drive in movies, camping, the was new in her sobriety, just once she said, talk to you privately? I will never for- beach, museums and always visited their and she fell back down the rabbit hole. I get this. These were 12- and 13-year-old

VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:16 Feb 24, 2016 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00025 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G23FE6.050 S23FEPT1 smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with SENATE S950 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE February 23, 2016 boys and girls. There had to be six or door neighbor, the majority leader’s then acting Director Botticelli of ONDCP, seven of them. I went in the back room home—Kentucky and West Virginia. DEA Administrator Michelle Leonhart and and sat at a table. They started talking This is Emily from Louisville, KY. seven meetings with Senator’s staff. In 2015 I had thirteen meetings scheduled. I am not and telling me their stories. These My name is Emily Walden. I am a mother going away! We need change to curb this hor- were stories they had watched and who lost my 21-year-old son to a drug over- rible epidemic that started with prescribed were telling me. This was the first time dose in 2012. My son TJ came from a good opiates and the mistakes that were made I had ever heard from a child up close family, was a member of the Kentucky Na- need to be corrected. and personal who said: My dad worked tional Guard and the most respectful young How many people have to die? How many man you could have ever met. TJ made an more people have to become addicted? The at the mines. He had a back problem. initial poor decision that led to an addiction He got hurt. They kept giving him FDA is sending the wrong message to physi- to the drug Opana; he had unlimited access cians by continuing to approve opioids dur- pills. We lost our house. Mom and dad to this drug during that time. TJ did not ing the worst drug epidemic our country has were fighting. They got divorced. We want to die from this. He tried very hard to ever faced. lost everything. I’ve got nothing now. overcome his addiction and I tried very hard The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. to save his life. I started researching the My grandparents were watching me AYOTTE). The Senator’s postcloture while I was trying to take care of us. drug Opana about five years ago and would like to share with you what I have learned time has expired. My dad is an addict. Mr. MANCHIN. I ask unanimous con- I heard these stories from these five that illustrates the need for changes to our FDA policies and approval processes for all sent to continue. kids. They were all pleading. opioid drugs. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without Now fast forward to the year 2015. I The drug Opana contains the opioid objection, it is so ordered. go back to the same school. These kids Oxymorphone which was removed from the Mr. MANCHIN. Thank you, Madam that were 12 years old are now seniors market in 1979 due to the overdose deaths President. in high school. The same group wants and addiction this drug was causing across The FDA is supposed to be protecting pub- to talk to me. They had lived a clean our country. lic health and yet over 200,000 people have life, but I think about what they have In 2002, the FDA started holding IMMPACT died and they have failed to put appropriate gone through and what they have seen. meetings every year allowing pharma- restrictions on these dangerous drugs to pre- ceutical companies to pay money to be in- vent overdose deaths. I want to know why Then I sit down with another group of cluded in discussions and changes to clinical 12- and 13-year-olds from the same there is one death from something such as trials, design. ecoli and every head of lettuce is pulled from area. They are telling me stories about We call that pay to play—the impact it has the shelves in ten different states but opioids how they are watching their lives be- because they are able to go to these types of have killed thousands of people and they are fore them when they watch a boyfriend settings and get absolute front row seats considered safe and effective? How can that or a stepfather because the family had with the people they are trying to persuade be? broken apart, the mother remarried or to take another look at these drugs that When is the FDA going to put human life whatever, and the person that she is might have been taken off the market be- before the paychecks of Big Pharma? What cause they were deemed too dangerous. This with is a drug addict. This little child will it take? A million deaths? We need an is allowed to go on. It has been going on for FDA commissioner that will protect the citi- watches her mother get shot up and far too long, and the FDA is part of it. This zens of this country that is willing to take killed because of the drugs the boy- is part of the change that needs to be made the overall best interest of public safety into friend shoots into the mother. Can you and made immediately. consideration and not allow the pharma- imagine a 12- or 13-year-old having to Endo Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer ceutical companies to have him in their back live with this and see this happen in of Opana, attended each one of these ‘‘pay- pockets. My son TJ had a lifelong dream of their home? to-play’’ meetings. joining the military and fighting for his What we are asking is simply for the In 2003, Endo Pharmaceuticals brought the country. He would have given his life to pro- drug Opana to the FDA for approval and was Food and Drug Administration to tect and serve. He was one of the most patri- denied due to the overdoses that occurred otic young men and his country failed him. change, to be the watchdog to help us. during the clinical trials. Please do the right thing. Please do not let They are supposed to protect us. They In 2006, Endo Pharmaceuticals again one more mother get a knock on her door don’t say: I did my job. The pharma- brought the drug Opana to the FDA for ap- saying their child is gone and that they will ceutical company told me they made proval but this time using new clinical trial never [ever] come home [again]. There is no this drug, and this is the way it was that applied a modified process, called ‘‘En- greater pain than burying your child! My made. This is what it was supposed to riched Enrollment,’’ which removed patients son, my precious child with the most beau- with preexisting opiate sensitivities from do. We checked it out. Everything is tiful blue eyes, caring and loving heart, died the trial. The Enriched Enrollment process in part by the greed of big Pharma and— fine; leave it on the market. skews results and seriously underestimates Most importantly— You are not looking at the welfare of risks associated with the proposed drug in- the carelessness of the FDA. It is time for the people. You know what it does. You volved in the clinical trial. In addition, the change! know it is addictive. We have no treat- FDA ignored their own review guidance by ment centers. We are doing nothing to bypassing their advisory committee and ap- Another story from Kentucky. This treat this. We are not challenging proved Opana for moderate to severe pain. is in Northern Kentucky and this is these pharmaceutical companies who At the time Opana was approved, our coun- Kimberly’s story. are good companies. They do a lot of try was already experiencing an explosion of My name is Kimberly Wright. I am a overdose deaths and addiction from the over- good and put a lot of products out [mother from Northern Kentucky] who prescribing and misrepresentation of the works in the trenches to save the lives of there that are very good, but they are safety of opiates. In addition to causing people in my Community. NKY was hit by a bringing these opiates on the market thousands of deaths and addiction, the ap- pill epidemic around 2000. That pill Epidemic quicker than ever before, more power- proved use of Opana has now been directly has now turned into a Heroin Epidemic. ful than ever before, and they know implicated in an outbreak of Hepatitis C and Since 2013 the death toll continues to climb. what is going to happen. HIV cases in the State of Indiana. In 2015 we have had 1,168 overdose reverses. I am challenging all of them. I think The FDA has continued to use Enriched We still await the number of deaths. Our en- the FDA should challenge them. We are Enrollment— tire system is on the verge of collapse—our not going to approve more opiates. We Or pay to play— Courts, Police, Children’s Services, Jails. Our jails currently have 99% Heroin and Pill to approve new opiates and override or by- are not going to let you bring on the cases housed in the jails. Our Treatment sys- pass altogether their advisory committee for market stronger opiates that we know tem is seriously strained with not 1 new bed new opiate approvals and for new uses of opi- are addictive and will ruin people’s added in the last 10 years since this epidemic ates further contributing to the overdose lives. If they will do that and challenge started. We are in a War in [Northern Ken- deaths and addiction. These process changes tucky]. Every day we wait to see how many these companies to come out with new must stop. died that day. We have people getting in research and development that can sci- The year after my son died I traveled to their cars driving high on pills and Heroin entifically give us relief needed for peo- Washington DC for the first time in my life wrecking into innocent people and killing ple who have chronic pain without and was very fortunate to be able to meet them. This is the United States of America with the then Senate Minority Leader— making them addicts who lose their and this is a shame. We allow the FDA and lives—we should be able to do that in Now Senate majority leader— Big Pharma to profit off the deaths of an en- this great country. I am going to read Senator McConnell, the next year I had nine tire generation of young people. We are in ef- you a story from Kentucky, my next meetings which included a meeting with fect losing 2 jumbo jets full of kids every day

VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:50 Feb 24, 2016 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G23FE6.051 S23FEPT1 smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with SENATE February 23, 2016 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S951 in America due to Pills and Heroin. We need lives destroyed, lives changed. Few too At first, there were no consequences for ei- help. We are begging for help to stop this many lives are saved. ther the clinic owner or the doctor. Then madness. Our American families are losing Massachusetts. As the Presiding Offi- they started arresting the doctors for money our children at an alarming rate to overpre- laundering. Our State’s attorney has called cer knows, Senator MARKEY has been scribing Drs and Big Pharma. We beg you, the doctors drug dealers in white coats. The please help us stop this. working with me very closely and all of Board of Medicine is not protecting the pub- I lost my sister Alicia Cook on October 26, us on this horrible epidemic that we lic by allowing high-prescribing doctors to 2010, to an overdose. Alicia was a nurse with have. This is Sara’s story. She is from keep their license. Therefore, the plight of 2 young daughters. This Epidemic has no Amherst, MA. the drug-addicted babies and the devastation boundaries and it’s in every community in My nuclear family is middle class or the to the families continues to rise. When one the Country. Northern Kentucky has the working poor, but it is blended in that I was clinic owner was arrested, he was earning highest rates of HEPC, surpassing the Na- raised by my mother and step-dad, but my $150,000 a day. tional Level, due to heroin and pills being in- bio father’s side of the family would be con- I repeat, $150,000 a day. jected. We have a high rate of homeless chil- sidered well-off. Heroin first came to my Not one doctor in that clinic to date has dren due to their parents being dead or drug radar after my brother Donny became ad- addicted with no end in sight. We have 52% lost his license or his practice. dicted to pain pills after surgery, and heroin We only have the judicial system helping of grandparents raising their grandchildren followed suit after RX’s stopped. Then it to alleviate this in Florida. Doctors are now due to death and addiction. This is a night- seemed like it was everywhere around me: being charged with first-degree murder. It mare for parents. When our children were my nephew, my niece. Then we lost my cous- would be kinder for a doctor to lose his li- born we could have never imagined this in Cory, who passed in a sober house for his cense than to sit in a courtroom at their own would be our life. You don’t sleep at night addiction to alcohol, along with a needle and murder trial. from the anxiety of wondering if you are the an empty bag next to him. Cory is an exam- We have been unsuccessful in our efforts next parent to get that call that your child ple of a young man institutionalized by mul- for lawmakers to mandate that prescribers has overdosed. It’s like being in a constant tiple incarcerations and just when he would use the prescription drug monitoring pro- panic attack. It’s not normal to grieve the try to lift himself up, in he would go again. gram in Florida. Yet in this environment, loss of a child who is alive, for they are truly He was trying to get clean for his girlfriend there is a bill passing through the commit- lost. I [know lots of] parents who have lost and unborn child when he passed away, and tees allowing nurse practitioners and physi- their child and I can’t imagine their pain and he was happy, thinking he was getting bet- cian assistants to prescribe narcotics with- grief. I grieve for my addicted 26-year-old ter. Living with someone close who struggles out a doctor signing off on the order. I would daughter who is in the fight of her life [be- and then multiply that by two, and adoles- support this bill if they included the man- cause of] her Addiction. I watch her destroy- cence, young adulthood mixed in, and you date. And, of course, the FDA approved that ing herself every day. I don’t want to join have my descent as an empathetic aunt who children as young as 11 years old can be pre- the mothers who have lost their child to this felt powerless to change anything. scribed OxyContin. We definitely need an in- Epidemic. I know how I suffer now and I just Then the bottom dropped out. My cousin, vestigation. can’t go there. I will continue to fight for my John Ahern, passed at the end of August Madam President, as you can see, community. Will you [please] join me? after a long period of recovery alone in the That is Arlene’s story. woods. It didn’t matter he came from privi- these are problems that we have all Indiana is one of the States that has lege or was the nicest person I had every over the country. This is not just your been hit so hard also. This is Danielle’s known in my life for so long. He leaves be- State and not just my State. I know it story from Southern Indiana. hind three loving sons. They both couldn’t is hard. They say we need someone in access the help they needed at various My name is Danielle McCowan. I live in there, so let’s just go ahead and con- stages, including recovery, and died alone. firm Dr. Califf. Dr. Califf is an honor- southern Indiana and work as a server. It is my mission to stand up for them and About 2 and a half years ago a customer by able man. He is still there. He is going the young people like my niece who began to be there. He has been there for 1 the name of Josh Harvey left me his number. her struggle at 14, and now approaching 18 At the time he told me he was living in Chi- has some clean time. There are no support year. In the 1 year that he has been cago for school. Little did I know he was in programs in my community for this age there, we have basically put more opi- rehab there. Granted, I didn’t know about his group, and especially for non-White young ate drugs on the market without even addiction for over a year because we hadn’t people like my niece and nephew. They are going through a clinical overview. If stayed in constant contact. Over a year or so both of Latino descent. Please do something. ago I found out about his heroin addiction. that change were going to come, it He still told me little about it. I do know it People are begging us everywhere in would have come by now. I am sure he started out with prescription pills and later this country to help them, and basi- could have had input, and I would hope went to heroin when the pills became harder cally it starts with treating this as an that he would. to get. He served a month in jail in Michigan illness and not as a crime. It starts Dr. Califf has called a lot of our col- for the entire month of this past July over a also with having clinics, having basic leagues and said that these changes heroin related charge. He came home imme- places where we can serve them and will be coming. This Senator will tell diately after and overdosed that same week- help them get clean. They cannot do it you the changes they recommended end. Luckily, his dad saved him that time. when they said they were going to Now he got enrolled in college and was going by themselves, and they are the first to to an outpatient program doing better. Or so tell you. The stories I am reading here make changes. They said: We are going we all thought. School let out for break and exemplify that so well. to make sure that we are going to start I guess it all went downhill. He came to me I have a Florida story here, and Flor- listening to our staff and people who on November the 4th telling me he had used ida has also been ravaged. Florida was are reviewing these drugs. a couple of times and wanted my advice. I a problem that we had in West Virginia They are going to listen to them, but suggested an in-patient program. He went to because of the pill mills there. People there is no mandate that they will Wellstone after he left my house. He sat for would take the bus down or they could have to follow. several hours and finally was given a room. This Senator has a piece of legisla- I went and checked on him 2 different times take a cheap flight down to Florida, buy all the pills they could and come tion that the Presiding Officer coau- while he waited to make sure he was there. thored, and I appreciate that very Thursday I didn’t receive any calls. Friday back. Florida has been very helpful in nothing either. Then Saturday morning, the the last years trying to stop the pill much. Basically what we are saying is 7th of November, his mother called me to epidemic. this: When you have your advisory break my heart. He had passed away that This is Janet from Fort Lauderdale. committee—and every drug must go Friday, the 6th, over in Louisville and didn’t Dear Senator Manchin. I appreciate you through an advisory committee’s opin- know who to contact until that Saturday taking the time to stop the appointment of ion, and if they recommend as they did morning, I guess. He had checked himself out Dr. Califf from becoming the FDA commis- with Zohydro to not let it go on the of Wellstone, broke into his house, took his sioner. I founded STOPPnow—Stop the Orga- market, that cannot be bypassed, ne- Xbox which he later either pawned or traded nized Pill Pushers now—due to all the drug- glected, or pushed aside. Our bill would for heroin. Never in a million years did I addicted babies I was caring for as a neo- basically state that they must bring it think I’d become close to anybody addicted natal intensive care nurse at a children’s to heroin. It doesn’t discriminate. It can get to the people’s representatives in Con- hospital in Broward County, FL. We started gress and state why it is so very impor- ahold of any and everybody. Never in my life holding protests in front of the 150 pill mills have I been so depressed or heartbroken. All that were in Broward County alone. Many tant for them to bring this new high- I want is his story shared. He was my happy parents came out to protest with us. Parents powered drug to the market—as if we ending gone away too soon. from all over the country contacted us as don’t have enough. They continue. They continue on, well. Too many parents are crying them- The United States has 5 percent of these stories, the heartaches and the selves to sleep over the loss of their child. the world’s population but consumes 80

VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:16 Feb 24, 2016 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00027 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G23FE6.053 S23FEPT1 smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with SENATE S952 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE February 23, 2016 percent of these addictive opiate drugs. the vacancy to be filled while Presi- so many others thought were so impor- Something is wrong. Something must dent Obama was still in office. Right tant to our country. I didn’t feel the change. away—before the Nation had a chance Members on that committee rep- I thank the Presiding Officer for al- to take in and mourn the loss of a Su- resented the full spectrum of perspec- lowing me to be able to read the letters preme Court Justice, a man who seri- tives, and I decided then and there to of people who have been affected by ously believed in the Constitution—Re- run for the U.S. Senate to give Wash- this all over this great country in all of publican leaders injected politics and ington State families a voice. our States. I know we feel the pain, partisanship into a process that should Now, as a U.S. Senator, I want my and we are going to try to make these be about our obligations as Americans. questions answered. I want to make changes and make sure this agency will The Constitution is very clear. Let sure my constituents have a seat at the do what it is supposed to do. me take a moment to read from it di- table and I get to push nominees for I yield the floor. rectly. the highest Court in the land on the Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I In article II, which clearly defines issues I care about most, but I can’t do ask unanimous consent to speak as in the powers of the President, section 2 that if Republicans play election-year morning business. states that ‘‘he shall nominate and by politics and don’t even allow us to have The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without and with the Advice and Consent of the that debate. The American people will objection, it is so ordered. Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, not have a voice, the Court will be dys- REMEMBERING JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA other public Ministers and Consuls, functional for a year longer, and Re- Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, Judges of the supreme Court and all publicans will have politicized a proc- first of all, I want to take a moment to other Officers of the United States.’’ ess that should be above this sort of honor the life and service of Supreme Madam President, this could not be petty partisanship. Court Justice Antonin Scalia. more explicit. The President ‘‘shall Many Republicans may not want to Justice Scalia was a dedicated public nominate’’ and shall appoint with ‘‘the hear this, but Barack Obama is still servant who gave so many years to our Advice and Consent of the Senate’’— President Obama for almost a full year courts and our country. He and I didn’t not shall nominate in the first 3 years, more. This Senator is hopeful that Re- agree on every issue, but his intellect, not shall nominate unless the Senate publicans will step back from this very passion, and commitment were unques- leadership wants to keep the seat open dangerous and very partisan path they for a while. The President ‘‘shall nomi- tionable. I know he will be missed, and are on and work with us to consider nate.’’ That is his responsibility. the thoughts and prayers of Wash- and confirm a nominee in a reasonable ington State families go out to his Then it is our responsibility in the Senate to consider, advise, and ulti- timeframe. family. Families across the country deserve mately help make sure that the va- FILLING THE SUPREME COURT VACANCY to have a functioning Supreme Court cancy is filled with a qualified person. Madam President, people across the and a Congress that works well enough country are now looking at what is Of course, the Senate has the right to weigh in with our advice and consent. to allow this to happen. happening here in Congress, and they Thank you, Madam President. It is our job to vet nominees sent to us are frustrated. They look at the many I yield the floor. by the President, to make sure they challenges we face as a Nation, and I suggest the absence of a quorum. are qualified for the job, and to deter- they want Democrats and Republicans The PRESIDING OFFICER. The mine if they meet the basic standards to work together to tackle them to clerk will call the roll. of honesty, ethics, qualifications, and make sure our government is func- The legislative clerk proceeded to fairness. Personally, this Senator will tioning and that it is working for all of call the roll. want to evaluate if they will be inde- our families, not just the wealthy and Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I pendent, evenhanded in deciding cases, few. ask unanimous consent that the order and if they will uphold our rights and Madam President, I share that frus- for the quorum call be rescinded. liberties, including the critical right to tration. We have been able to get The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. privacy. GARDNER). Without objection, it is so things done when Democrats and Re- Republican leaders are not objecting ordered. publicans work together to break to a person; they are objecting to this through the gridlock. That shouldn’t Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I President being allowed to do his job. ask unanimous consent to speak for up end just because it is an election year. That is not advice and consent; it is po- It certainly should not end when it to 20 minutes. liticize and obstruct. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without comes to one of our most important Republicans say there is a precedent objection, it is so ordered. roles here in the Senate, working with to stall on Supreme Court nominations the President to evaluate and confirm in the last year of a President’s term. CLIMATE CHANGE judges for the highest court in our That is not true. President Reagan had Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I land. Justice Kennedy confirmed with a am here now for the 128th time to urge The Supreme Court plays such an im- unanimous vote in a Democratic Sen- that we wake up to the ugly changes portant role in protecting the rights, ate in his last year in office. that carbon pollution is wreaking on liberties, and responsibilities of all Since 1975, the average number of our climate. It is happening all around Americans. Over the years the Court days from nomination to final Senate us, and it is happening right now, not has made decisions that have moved vote is about 70 days. So this kind of in some far-off future. our country in the right direction, and obstruction and partisanship is abso- As humans we are terrestrial beings. it has made decisions that have set us lutely wrong. People across the coun- We live on the land. So naturally we back. When the Court can do its work, try will not stand for it, and I hope our pay more attention to the experience it offers certainty to people across the Republican leaders will back down and where we live—things such as increas- country when it comes to their rights do the right thing because evaluating ing average temperatures on the land as workers or as patients or as con- and confirming Supreme Court Jus- and changes in extreme weather when sumers or as women or as citizens. At tices is one of the most important roles it hits the land. We don’t so much pay its best, it helps our judicial system we have in the U.S. Senate. attention to what is happening in our rise above politics, above partisanship, In fact, it is this issue that actually warming and acidifying oceans. and above the spats and sniping of the pushed me to run for the Senate in the The oceans are a big deal in climate moment. In order to do that, the Court first place. Back in 1991 I was a State change. For decades the oceans have must have a full bench. It cannot have senator, a former school board mem- absorbed more than 90 percent of the vacancies leading to potential dead- ber, a mom. Like so many people at excess heat trapped in the atmosphere locks at every turn. that time, I watched the Clarence by greenhouse gas emissions. Of all the That is why I was so disappointed Thomas confirmation hearings. For different places the excess heat goes, 93 that hours after Justice Scalia passed days I watched in frustration. percent is into the oceans. What we see away, Republican leaders jumped out I couldn’t believe this nominee in the atmosphere—the temperature of the gate to say they would not allow wasn’t pushed on the issues that I and changes we have already measured, the

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Scroll forward to the decade 2005 to and oysters, make their shells from A study published in the journal Na- 2014, and the number of flood days in calcium carbonate, and calcium car- ture Climate Change found that the Annapolis jumps to 394 from 32—in one bonate dissolves in acidified seawater. oceans have absorbed as much energy decade—and 219 flood days were re- Here is how Bob Rheault, executive just since 1997 as they had in the pre- corded in Charleston. director of the East Coast Shellfish ceding 130 years—as much in 20 years, Sea level rise brings coastal erosion, Growers Association, put it: less than 20 years, as they had in the and it brings saltwater inundation of The only thing we know for sure is that preceding 130 years. coastal marshes and habitats. It ampli- the larvae, in that first 48-hour period before According to an Associated Press fies the effects of storm surge and they start feeding, are tremendously suscep- write-up of the study’s findings, ‘‘Since flooding as storms ride ashore on high- tible to dissolution. Their energy budget goes negative because they haven’t started 1997, Earth’s oceans have absorbed er seas. It changes flood zones and af- to feed yet, and if they haven’t got enough man-made heat energy equivalent to a fects flood insurance for homeowners. energy in that egg and they’re starting to Hiroshima-style bomb being exploded These are real problems, and they are dissolve, then it takes extra energy to lay every second for 75 straight years.’’ serious problems. down shell, and they sometimes don’t make That is the energy load of heat that Dr. Strauss explains in a New York it. has gone into our oceans—a Hiroshima- Times article this week: Here we see normal, healthy oyster style bomb exploded every second for 75 It’s not the tide. It’s not the wind. It’s us. larvae in those first few crucial days of straight years. What does all that ex- The main culprit is carbon dioxide development, compared to larvae grow- cess energy mean for the oceans? It building up in the atmosphere, which ing in more acidic ocean water. means that sea levels are rising, in again in 2015 reached new record levels. NOAA scientists have projected that part due to melting glaciers but also To put a little context on this, for as the world’s oceans and coastal estu- because of expanding ocean water. It is long as human beings have inhabited aries will become 150 percent more basic physics, explained by the prin- planet Earth, we have existed safely in acidic by 2100. This could mean disaster ciple of thermal expansion. When the a range between 170 and 300 parts per for shellfish—a $1 billion industry ocean warms, it expands. It can’t go million of carbon dioxide in the atmos- around the country. U.S. shellfish pro- down, so it comes up along our shores. phere. Unfortunately, we broke beyond duction is currently expected to see a We have measured sea level rise in 300 parts per million early last century, 10- to 25-percent reduction in the next Rhode Island since 1930. Since then, the and we haven’t looked back. We have five decades, according to the Woods water level is up nearly 10 inches at the now exceeded 400 parts per million. Hole Oceanographic Institute. Again, tide gauge at Naval Station Newport, Among its harms, this excess carbon pardon me for being serious about this, and rates of sea level rise are on the in- dioxide has a particularly damaging but it is currently predicted that a crease worldwide. Since 1993, global sea chemical effect on our oceans. Oceans, major industry in my State is going to level has risen at a rate approximately in addition to absorbing 90 percent of be knocked down 10 to 25 percent be- double the average rate observed the heat, I pointed out, are absorbing cause we are making our oceans acidic through the 20th century. It is accel- about 30 percent of the carbon diox- with carbon pollution. erating. ide—it goes right into the oceans— A study published last year found Current forecasts confirm that if we roughly 600 gigatons since that Rhode Island’s shellfish popu- do nothing to curb greenhouse gas preindustrial times. As all that carbon lations are especially vulnerable. Mark emissions over the next decades, the is absorbed into the oceans, it changes Gibson is the deputy chief of marine oceans could rise as much as 3 or 4 feet the oceans’ chemistry. It makes the fisheries at the Rhode Island Depart- by 2100. Our State coastal management oceans more acidic. The chemical reac- ment of Environmental Management, agency predicts that we could see as tion is simple, but the effects on the and he calls ocean acidification a ‘‘sig- much as 7 feet of sea level rise in the ocean are serious. nificant threat’’ to local fisheries. I Ocean State, in Rhode Island, by the This chart shows ocean pH—or acid- don’t know how many Senators are ex- end of the century. I hope my col- ity—over the past 25 million years, and pected to forget or ignore a significant leagues understand that when I come we can see some variation across those threat to an industry in their home to do this, I am deadly serious about millions of years. This is what is pro- State because it is inconvenient for things that are predicted to happen in jected for the next 100 years: pH drops lobbyists and for the fossil fuel indus- my State. equals acidity rises. try, but I don’t think that is a fair This week, the Proceedings of the According to a research article pub- thing to ask of me. National Academy of Sciences reported lished in the journal Nature Geo- But acidification is not the only that global sea levels are rising at science, the rate of change in ocean problem for fishermen. In a 2015 survey their fastest rate in nearly 3,000 years. acidity is already faster than at any from the Center for American Progress, That study also estimates that about time recorded in the past 50 million 40 percent of fishermen in the North- half of the 20th century sea level rise years. Scientists go back and they can east reported catching new fish species would not have occurred without glob- see this in the geologic record. We have they don’t usually see in the waters al warming. broken every record for 50 million they fish. Rhode Islanders are starting The lead author, Dr. Robert Kopp, an years—millions of years before human to catch tarpon and grouper, usually earth scientist at Rutgers University, beings were ever on the planet. tropical fish; our valuable winter floun- explained in the New York Times: This all may sound esoteric, but it der fishery is virtually gone; and our Physics tells us that sea-level change and has real hometown consequences for lobstermen have to go farther and far- temperature change should go hand-in-hand. Rhode Island, where coastal life defines ther out to sea to find cooler waters This new geological record confirms it. our heritage, our culture, and our econ- where they can catch their lobsters. Sea level rise matters to my con- omy. Fishing is big business in my Among the fishermen surveyed, 80 stituents and to all coastal commu- State. Rhode Island’s annual farmed percent of those who noticed ‘‘warmer nities. A related study, led by Dr. Rob- oyster production, for instance, is val- water temperatures’’ attribute it to ert Strauss, found that approximately ued at over $5 million. But carbon pol- climate change. This is new. When I three-quarters of the tidal flood days lution is changing the very chemistry first got to the Senate, if I went down now occurring in towns along the east in which those oysters must survive. to Galilee—Rhode Island’s largest fish- coast are a result of the rise in sea Research on the effects of ocean ing port—and tried to talk to the fish- level caused by human emissions. For acidification on shellfish and other ma- ermen there about climate change or example, looking at tide gauge data, 32 rine life can barely keep up with a rap- ocean acidification, I was lucky if they flood days were recorded in the decade idly acidifying ocean—another reason didn’t throw me off the pier. They from 1955 to 1964 at Annapolis, MD, and we need more money for research. didn’t want to hear about it. But then 34 flood days were recorded in that Change is coming at us faster. We have it started to hit home. Now fishermen

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They know these waters, and I will never forget our road trips determines there is an imminent dan- when they say that the ocean has across Montana. There were times ger to the public health and safety, but changed and it is getting weird out when we would spend countless hours the Controlled Substances Act does not in a small, little compact car—I am there, we should listen. They are on define what constitutes an imminent used to driving my big Ford pickup— the water every day, and they see these danger. S. 483 clarifies the Attorney that we would rent and literally drive changes happen before their very eyes. General’s authority under this provi- I hope my Republican colleagues are thousands of miles across Montana and visit all the small towns. sion by specifying that imminent dan- like those fishermen. I am sure some of ger means that, ‘‘due to failure of the them probably want to throw me off a Nobody was a greater advocate for rural Montana issues—somebody who registrant to maintain effective con- pier for all these talks, but mostly trols against diversion or otherwise they probably just don’t want to hear lived it and breathed it her entire life— than Alee Lockman. In fact, one of the comply with the obligations of a reg- about climate change. But what I am istrant under this title or title III, hoping is that soon they will hear it best nights of the month was our there is a substantial likelihood of an from the fishermen in their own monthly tele-townhall meeting, where immediate threat that death, serious States, or their farmers or their for- tens of thousands of Montanans would bodily harm, or abuse of a controlled esters, and that they will hear it from know Alee’s voice because she would substance will occur in the absence of their State health officials, their State always introduce me. I always took an immediate suspension of the reg- emergency officials, their own State pride in announcing: ‘‘You just heard universities, and they will listen. When from Alee Lockman from Brockton, istration.’’ they do, they will realize the fossil fuel MT.’’ It is the intent of the bill authors I could always count on her to pro- industry has been duplicitous with that the phrase ‘‘substantial likelihood vide wisdom and much needed insight, them and has been leading them away of an immediate threat that death, se- particularly when it came to my pro- from their own State’s best interests. rious bodily harm, or abuse of a con- lific social media feeds. Sometimes They will learn that the fossil fuel in- trolled substance will occur’’ include Alee would place guardrails around dustry lobbyists are false friends as situations where evidence of diversion what I probably should or should not well as greedy ones. indicates there is a substantial likeli- be saying. We have a clear scientific under- We are going to miss Alee Lockman. hood that abuse of a controlled sub- standing of the problem. Yet relentless Alee has gone on to pursue a great, new stance will occur—that is it is the in- fossil fuel opposition prevents us from opportunity, which I am very excited tent of the authors that this language moving toward a solution. It is a dis- about for her, and I wish her the very authorize the Attorney General to grace, frankly. best. issue an immediate suspension order in It is time to pay attention to reality, I wish to thank Alee Lockman for cases where evidence of diversion to the evidence, to what our farmers her service to the people of Montana, points to a substantial likelihood of and foresters, and, yes, our fishermen to this Nation, and to this institution. abuse, provided the other conditions are telling us. It is time to shut off the You are going to be missed, Alee, and for issuing such an order are met. toxic polluter-paid politics that cloud we wish you the best of luck in your fu- In addition to these important clari- this issue and give Washington a dirty ture endeavors. name. It is time, indeed, to wake up. fications, S. 483 will also facilitate Mr. President, I yield the floor. f greater collaboration between reg- I suggest the absence of a quorum. MORNING BUSINESS istrants and relevant Federal actors in The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, I ask combatting prescription drug abuse. In clerk will call the roll. unanimous consent that the Senate be particular, the bill provides a mecha- The legislative clerk proceeded to in a period of morning business, with nism for companies who inadvertently call the roll. Senators permitted to speak therein violate the Controlled Substances Act Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, I ask for up to 10 minutes each. to submit a corrective action plan to unanimous consent that the order for The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without remediate the violation before their the quorum call be rescinded. objection, it is so ordered. registration is suspended and the sup- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without f ply of drugs to patients is interrupted. objection, it is so ordered. This provision will encourage greater TRIBUTE TO ALEE LOCKMAN ENSURING PATIENT ACCESS AND self-reporting of violations and pro- EFFECTIVE DRUG ENFORCEMENT Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, I rise to mote joint efforts between government ACT recognize Alee Lockman. and private actors to stem the tide of Alee Lockman is the pride of Brock- Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, today I prescription drug abuse. It will also ton, MT. In fact, Alee grew up on her wish to discuss S. 483, the Ensuring Pa- help ensure that supply chains remain family’s wheat farm 10 miles north of tient Access and Effective Drug En- intact for legitimate uses such as the Brockton in eastern Montana. Alee is forcement Act, which the Judiciary alleviation of pain and illness. also the pride of Froid High School, a Committee reported out by voice vote classic high school in Montana. She right before we went into recess. At the S. 483 takes a balanced approach to was the valedictorian of a graduating outset, I would like to thank Senator the problem of prescription drug abuse. class size of six. Alee graduated from WHITEHOUSE for his important work on It clarifies and further defines the At- Froid High School and went on to Har- this bill. He and his staff have been torney General’s enforcement powers vard and graduated in 2010. crucial partners in helping to move while seeking to avoid situations that Alee Lockman also served as my this legislation forward. may lead to an interruption in the sup- communications director for the past 3 S. 483 will bring much-needed clarity ply of medicine to suffering patients. It years. She came back to Washington to several key provisions of the Con- reflects a measured, carefully nego- when I was elected to the House and trolled Substances Act. In particular, tiated compromise between stake- served on my team there. She worked it will better delineate the standards a holders and law enforcement that will on my campaign staff as well when we company must satisfy in order to ob- enable both to work together more ef- ran for the U.S. Senate. And thanks to tain a Controlled Substances Act reg- fectively. I thank Senator WHITEHOUSE Alee’s tireless work and strong work istration and the circumstances under again for his work on this bill and urge ethic, we were able to win that race, which a registration may be suspended my colleagues to give it their strong and she came over to the Senate side without an adjudicative proceeding. support.

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