Transcripts For CSPAN Senate Panel Looks At Stopping Flow Of

State. This month, a Police Officer in ohio had a near fatal sentinel overdose facing overdose following routine traffic stop. ,e put on his mask and gloves arrested some individuals, went back to the playstation and the police station, noticed there was powder on his shirt, he brushed it away. He is a big man, and he fell to the floor unconscious and overdose. Canadministered nor immediately, but he was not enough, they had to rush into the hospital where two more narc an doses were administered and luckily his life was saved. He would have date have died if he had been alone. He also said, what if you got home and hugged his kid . This, it is devastating our communities and causing danger for Law Enforcement and First Responders. Isntanyl hundreds of times more potent than heroin. It can be deadly. We also know about other synthetic drugs coming into our country. This issue is getting worse. As i said, the number of overdoses and deaths have increased a medically dramatically. You might have seen a colleague include synthetic opioids in his worldwide threat assessment. He said his comments the deaths have increased 33 just between 2014 and 2015. Sadly, the death toll continues to climb. We will hear about this this morning. Fentanylunty in ohio, was responsible for over 200 deaths in 2016. One county. Later, you will hear from a medical example and medical examiner and he will cut you is our biggest killer. Often the user has no idea what they are taking. There is a new opioid cocktail called ray death. Death. Y it includes a mixture of various drugs. Heroin is the weakest drug in the mix. And about that. It is available on the street, this cocktail, for as little as 20. O even of these drugs are selling inexpensively, there is a high profit margin, making fentanyl appealing to the drug deal appeared it is estimated that a purchased for a few thousand dollars and can be used to make hundreds of of with profits into millions. Unbelievably, it comes to the u. S. Mail system. This is a shock to many of my constituents and others learning about this. Fentanyl is ahe smuggled into the United States from mexico and canada, primarily comes directly into the United States, and according to Law Enforcement and folks who were here this morning who would tell us about this, it primarily comes from one place, china. It is produced in laboratories and my understanding from Law Enforcement is that most of the fentanyl is intended for export one place, the United States. The number of chinese websites ready to ship, do a Google Search for fentanyl for sale, it produces a number of sites for the drug appears to be readily available. You can purchase a grant for 250, but it says the more you buy, the less you pay. To ease any concern about whether the purchaser will receive his order, the website guarantees discrete shipment with undetectable on careful packaging and careful packaging. The website with audience and offered express delivery to the United States. Many of these websites are so bee their seizure will not stopped by Law Enforcement, they will guarantee if youre it if the original gets seized, they will send you another one for free. Websites we viewed many clear if exclusively used express mail service as their career. That is the International Postal Service Operated by members of the International Postal union. Delivered through ems are passed through the United States Postal Service as the internet United States. Our goal today is to stop the strokes from exploiting our streams of mail into our country. Has beenber around us involved in this issue, on education and treatment and recovery. Weve passed two significant legislative initiatives in the last year in congress focused on this issue. Much broader it is than just interdicting, but we have to do a better job of interdicting. 9 11, congress identified weaknesses in International Shipping centers as a significant problem, and believe that advanced electronic data would make the country safer. When Congress First legislated, it left a loophole. 2002 mandatedof that commercial carriers provide advanced electronic data that could be used to identify certain packages being shipped in the United States. In the 2002 legislation, congress as the secretary of Common Security and the postmaster general to the side of the Postal Service should be subject to the same requirements as private carriers. Today, no determination has been made. Our country is less safe as a result. As such, the difference between privatermation commercial carriers are required to provide is very different from the Postal Service. They both serve the same function delivering packages to our communities. The Postal Service handles a hiring handles a higher volume of International Packages than the private carriers combined. The name and address of the person receiving the package, description of the conference, the weight and the value of the contents. This information is transmitted to customs and Border Protection. Based on this information, cpb targets suspect shipments for additional scrutiny and selects packages of mustard packages it wants to inspect upon entrance in the United States. None of this applies to the Postal Service. The Postal Service handles hundreds of thousands of packages every day. Services ional packages shipped to the Postal Service are shipped through Service Centers. How these packages are processed are completely different at each of the centers. For the most part, cbd is tasked with identifying packages for shipment it wants to inspect. If the Postal Service locates those packages, it percent from the cbd. It isnt that easy. Due to the hundreds of thousands of packages, the Postal Service is left to manually shift through sift through the packages. All International Packages are required to have certain information attached to them including the sender, recipient, description of the contents, weight and value. But the information is not electronic and not transmitted in advance. It is not useful to Law Enforcement. Essentially, is useless. The upu says it will require Member Companies never countries to have a barcode. That is fine. Information beg on the barcode until 2020. Were told mad closer to 2022, but there is no cure guarantee we are told is closer to. 022, but there is no guarantee americans are dying every day from these poisonous drugs and we must act. We have to stop this fentanyl and other synthetics are coming in. The Postal Service is trying to use electronic information at jfk to help cpb identify these packages. It is a Pilot Program. The Postal Service is providing iectronic data that for that weigh less than four pounds. Once the Postal Service shares the information, cpb uses the information to identify packages wants to inspect. The Postal Service locates and present these packages for inspection. This is a step in the right direction, in my view. Notr nearly 15 years of doing this, the results today are lacking. In 2016, december 2016, the Inspector General found the Postal Service failed to present all of the packages cpb request for inspection and there was no draft electronic data associated with it. I understand the Postal Service is taking steps to remedy this issue, sending packages from inspection. I look forward to hearing details about that today. Without this electronic data, we will miss a significant portion of these packages. This Pilot Program is on having at one location. Serviceeas other stations are sifting through packages like a needle in a haystack. We need this information now. Weve been working in a bipartisan way to solve this problem. It is why we introduced. Egislation it is aimed at providing the postalformation service should be providing for International Mail. We have 60 cosponsors in the senate. And the house, theres companion legislation that has 128 bipartisan cosponsors. Our focus today is getting input from this Pattern Panel of witnesses. Again, thank you all for being here. I think my colleagues for being here. I would like to turn to the Ranking Member. This is an all hands on deck moment for our country. We welcome the members of the panel. Those of thenk committee for the good work they have done to get us ready for this day. The focus on todays hearing is more about at least one of the ways these drugs are getting into communities. And what we can do to stop them. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses, we look forward to hearing from our witnesses so that we can better understand the processes used by the Postal Service, private shippers and identify packages and stop alyssa packages. I look for to learning more about the relationship between shippers and federal agencies, while identifying areas where we need to push for improvements. Joining in todays discussion is the Postal Service, which in partnership with the cbp is our first line of defense in preventing the flow of Illegal Drugs and contraband into our country. As a some of you may recall, protecting and improving the mill system in this country has been one of our biggest priorities, certainly one of my biggest priorities were a number of years. The Postal Service is vital to our economy. Trillion dollar mailing industry. The industry is facing solvency if congress is not pass copperheads of reform. And i can that legislation will free of liens of dollars that the Postal Service can use not only to invest for the future and improve customer service, but also shore up mail security. It is worth noting that despite financial uncertainty, the Postal Service rectify them has grown significantly in the past three years. In fact, it has nearly doubled. Growing from 150 million pieces and 2013 to more than 275 million pieces in 2016. There is no question that handling that increase volume addition to domestic strain onis putting a our stretched resource. Unlike private carriers, the Postal Service is required to mail it receives in a timely manner. This is due to our International Postal union. It also ensures we can mail overseas. The state department represent does represent the universal postal union, they will be here with us today to discuss their involvement in this key organization. Look forward to hearing from our Postal Service and state Department Witnesses about our commitment to promoting the exchange of advanced electronic member countries as a means to combat shipment of drugs and other illegal goods. All packages are screened initially before being presented to the Postal Service, cbp can and often does target packages for additional screening. Cbp, which is also joining us screened based on country of origin or scanned by the Postal Service. The Postal Service and cbp have been working closely together on a Pilot Program that allows them to use advanced electronic data on small packages from china arriving at jfk airport. While the Postal Service provides other countries with advanced electronic data about mail originate in the United States, we dont always get the same information from other countries. This makes it harder for cbp to do its job. Its packages arrive here. At jfk is aogram rare exception. I hope we can learn today whether there are recommendations to improve and expand this program. As my colleagues have heard me many times, find out what works and do more of that. Private carriers are also joining us here today, and have the fencedb with electronic data. Unlike the Postal Service, private carriers have integrated Automated Systems throughout the world and can refuse to accept the package and origin that does not contain any shipping manifest data. Learning how the process is used can hopefully help us fill in the gaps exploited by smugglers. I also look forward to identifying ways covers can ensure federal agencies as well as our state and local partners have the resources they need to combat the Opioid Crisis on the ground. Specifically, im eager to hear from our witnesses on the second panel, each of whom serve on the front lines of the nations Opioid Epidemic in capacities from Law Enforcement to medical doctors and addiction expert. They will give us firsthand perspectives on the challenges we face in fighting opioid addiction and the strategies that have proven effective. , ohioularly in delaware and nationwide. I look forward to a discussion of ways to reduce americans access to end the use of synthetic opioids, this is only part of the equation. You must not lose sight on the need to focus on the root causes of our nations considerable demand for drugs. Not just the symptoms. It will onlyhat, continue worsen and smugglers around ourays to get blocking of dangerous drugs. According to the centers for disease control, over 33,000 americans suffered an opioid related death in 2015. That is roughly the population of our capital in delaware. My home state of delaware has not been immune. None of our states of been immune. Delaware to the division of forensic science, in 2015. E 222 lester, 308. Last year, there were 308 deaths. These numbers are staggering. Substance abuse is a Conference Problem with consequences for everyone. We cannot Pay Attention only to the symptoms of the problems without trying to address the underlying cause. Overdose deaths are preventable, so is the crisis worsens need to Work Together to provide funding to help save lives. In closing, i believe it is google to note that access to health care plays a pivotal role in combating addiction. Unfortunately, proposals to repeal this Affordable Care act in people to the progress in addressing the nations Opioid Epidemic. As well know, medicaid is the single largest payer of Substance Abuse services in our nation. Paying for one third of all medication assistance treatment. Current plans to repeal the Medicaid Expansion and add program caps threatened to make the Opioid Crisis worse as millions will be at risk for losing coverage for Substance Abuse prevention and Recovery Services just of the time we need the most. Tong forward, i look forward working even more effectively with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to it address the underlying causes of the epidemic and learning what we can do and how we can bring about substantial, lasting change. Thank you so much. Thank you. we have a college who is not on the committee today. She is the coauthor of the stop acts. Even if she is not a member of the committee, would like consent that should be allowed to participate. [laughter] mr. Portman without objection. Today is her birthday. Mr. Portman you chose to spend your birthday with us. I would like to recognize the senator. We would like to other members would like to make a brief Opening Statement, i know she has some real keen be. If you would like to make some remarks. Thank you. It is a celebratory moment to be with you on the subject subcommittee on my birthday. It was amazing to meet some of the witnesses out there, and i think youll learn a lot from hearing about them. Ronernever heard the corn become this, but the medical examiner was very mining. We are still investigating the death of prince in my state, but it is not just him, it is moms and others. I look at this in three ways. This framework i think the start of us thinking that way, and i want to thank senator portman for his leadership on the bill. We worked in a bar person bipartisan way. , trying to reduce the