The presiding officer does any senator wish to vote or change their vote . If not, on the schumer amendment number 3483, it is not agreed to. 42 aye, 54 nay. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Portman mr. President , i rise today to urge my colleagues in the house of representatives to pass the legislation we passed here in the senate a few weeks ago called the comprehensive addiction and recovery act, or cara. We passed it on march 10. That was 27 days ago, almost a month. Every day we lose about 120 americans, they say, to drug overdoses. That means during that time period, those 27 days, weve lost about 3,240 additional americans who we represent to Substance Abuse and death from heroin and Prescription Drug overdoses. Since 2007, drug overdoses have killed more people in ohio than any other cause of accidental death, surpassing car accidents. Its probably true nationally now as well. Addiction is treatable, but nine out of ten people who need treatment arent getting it. Thats a tragedy, and it shows that the system we have right now just isnt working. Tha gs what the legislation is thats what the legislation is intended to address among other things. In one fiveday span since we passed car spa, in cara, in cleveland, ohio, we have had five people die from heroin and fentanyl overdoses. Eufrgs i was in athens, ohio and received a tour of the rural womens recovery facility. Two doctors took me around. I met with some of the brave women who stepped forward to treat their addiction issues, some of them there with their kids. They have an amazing success rate. I will tell you, three days after i left athens, ohio, 40,000 worth of heroin was seized at a traffic stop very close to this treatment center. Its everywhere. It knows no zip codes. Its in your rural areas, your suburban areas, your inner cities. States are starting to take action. Ohio is taking action. Your states are taking action. Communities are taking action. Local leaders know this is a problem, but they want the federal government to be a better partner. And thats what cara provides. It provides best practices from around the country. It provides more funding for some critical elements, but evidencebased, based on research, what actually works. Our states and local communities are desperate for this right no right now. This legislation, by the way, mr. President , is not just bipartisan but its also bicameral. In other words, we spent the last three years putting this bill together not just republicans and democrats across the aisle but also with our colleagues in the house. Im encouraged by the fact that the cara legislation in the house has 113 cosponsors. It is bipartisan. It is based on good evidence. It is based on a lot of work and effort. Today i heard through a media account that one of the house leaders said there is interest in moving something even this month. Thats great. But he also talked about hearings and markups and so on. Lets be sure that the hearings and markups dont delay what we know we should do, which is to pass the cara legislation. Its been bicameral, its been bipartisan. Its passed the senate with a 941 vote. And that never happens around here. 941. This is legislation that we know will make a difference right now in our communities dealing with a crisis we all face. Lets move this legislation. I say to my friends in the house, with all due respect, this legislation has been carefully crafted and weve done the hard work. I mentioned we spent three years of fact finding on this bill. We didnt think we had all the right answers so we went out to experts all over the country. We took time to listen. We consulted with them. We listened to experts, doctors, Law Enforcement, patients in recovery. We listened to the drug experts in the obama administration. Such as the White House Office of National Drug control policy, ondcp. Theyve been very helpful. We brought in people from h. H. S. , from the health and human services, and listened to them. We brought in people from my home state of ohio and other states around the country. Weve heard from Family Members, many of whom have channeled their grief at losing a loved one into advocacy for the cara legislation because they know its going to help. One of them testified here in the Judiciary Committee when we marked up the legislation, had our hearing beforehand, tonda duray from carolton, ohio, she talked about having lost her daughter. She was a very Successful High School student, engaged to be married, everything was going great. As she turned 21, she made a mistake. She tried heroin. She went into recovery. She relapsed. She ended up dying of an overdose. This unfortunately is a story thats retold all over our country. Its moms, its dads, its aunts and uncles, its brothers and sisters who come forward to tell us about these tragic stories of losing a loved one. They want this legislation to pass because they know its going to help another Family Member or a friend or coworker or someone else theyve never met but who they want to help so they dont have to go through the grief that theyve gone through. Senator sheldon whitehouse, democrat, and i have worked on this legislation together along with many other people in this chamber. Weve also worked, as i said, with many on the house side. Weve worked with folks on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the capitol because this has become an issue that affects us all and its a nonpartisan issue. We have to move it forward. We had five forums that we held here in washington, d. C. , bringing in experts to get counsel and advice. They helped us develop a legislative proposal that was thoughtful because it actually addressed the real problem. In april of 2014, we had a forum on the criminal Justice System which included alternatives to incarceration. And youll see that in our legislation. The notion is for people who are users, who get arrested for possession, lets not just throw them in jail because that hasnt worked. Lets get them into treatment and get them into a Recovery Program that works. In july 2014 we held a forum on how women are impacted by this drug epidemic, looking particularly as addiction and treatment responses. Some new data thats out there now shows that most of the people who are suffering from heroin and Prescription Drug addiction are women. In december of 2014, we held a forum on the science of addiction, how we could get at this from a medical point of view, how we can come up with better medical approaches to this, to be able to stop the craving, to deal with the addiction problem, to get people through withdrawal. We also talked about how to address some of the clot ral consequences of addiction. Collateral consequences of addiction. In april of 2015, we held a forum on our youth and how we can better promote drug prevention. After all, keeping people from getting into the funnel of addiction in the first place has to be a priority to avoid going down that funnel of addiction, with he need better prevention, better education. That is part of our legislation. We also had input there about whats working in recovery and whats not working in recovery. We held a forum in july of 2015 to talk about our veterans, to talk about the very sad situation with veterans who are coming back to our shores who have ptsd, posttraumatic stress syndrome, who have brain injuries. Some recent data shows that about 20 of those returning veterans with those issues are becoming addicted to Prescription Drugs or heroin. Therefore, Veterans Courts is a major part of our legislation to help these drug courts that are focused on Mental Health and addiction specifically for our veterans. And ive seen them in ohio. Theyre working. Theyre working great. Its unbleesm. I talked to a guy been in and out of the system his whole life. Hes about 45 years old now. He finally found this court that was going to help him. Took him out of jail, got him into treatment. Hanging over his head the possibility of incarceration if he didnt do the right thing and stay clean. Hes now a senior at the Ohio State University about to get his degree and hes back reunited with his family for the first time in years and hes clean. It can work. The final result was a legislative text that reflected this open and deliberative process ive talked about. This bill, just like the research it supports, is evidence based. We didnt ask who had the idea. We just asked whether it was a good idea. Its no wonder that cara has support from 130 National Groups now, from the fraternal order of police to stakeholders in public health, doctors and nurses, those in recovery, experts in the field, people who actually know whats going on because theyre in the trenches working on this. They want this bill passed. They know it will help them and help them now. Mr. President , as i said, the vote was 941. This means 94 senators say this bills ready to go and these are senators from every state in the union now that support this legislation, therefore representing every Congressional District in the United States of america. It makes sense. It expands prevention and educational efforts to prevent opiate abuse, the use of heroin, Prescription Drugs. It increases Drug Disposal sites to get medications out of peoples hands and get it in the right hands. It takes this medication off the bathroom shelves. It has a Drug Monitoring Program to get at the overprescribing issue. So many people who are currently addicted to heroin started with prescripon drugs. In fact, the majority did. Theres different data out there but its very clear. Prescription drugs is a huge part of heroin addiction. It also authorizes Law Enforcement task forces to combat heroin and meth. Law enforcement has an Important Role to play here. It expands training and the availability of senate loax honor na naloxone or narcan. This is to firefighters. When you go to the firehouse in your state or for those listening in the house, to juror district, ask them. Are you going on more fire runs or are you going on more runs to help people with overdoses. They will tell you what they tell me, overdoses. Thats what its come to. Thats happening in your Fire Department in your community. By the way, to tell you how much this law can make a difference because we do help get the training to be able to use narcan and get the narcan or naloxone into the right hands. To tell you how much this will help, ohio Public Safety officials have administered naloxone over 16,000 times, 16,000 overdoses that might have otherwise resulted in someones death because for the most part this miracle drug works. First responders know how important it is. Thats why again the fraternal order of Police Supports this bill. They want to equip their officers, but so do the firefighters. Cara also supports Recovery Programs. Including youth and building recovery to avoid people getting into addiction in the first place. It also creates a National Task force on recovery because theres a lot of information out there that we need to bring together to find out what works and what doesnt work precisely in terms of dealing with the collateral consequences imposed by addiction. It also expands treatment for pregnant women who struggle with addiction and provides support for babies who suffer from whats called neonatal abstinence syndrome. What does that mean . That means babies are born addicted. In ohio, tragically, weve had a 750 increase in the number of babies born with addiction in the last 12 years. So ive been to the hospitals, ive been to st. Ridas in lima, ive been to cleveland and Rainbow Babies and were cincinnati childrens. These are tiny babies who are addicted and you have to take them through withdrawal. And these compassionate nurses and doctors who are doing it, god bless them, i ask them, whats going to happen to these babies. They tell me, rob, we dont know. We dont know what the longterm consequences are. This is so new. But its dramatic and its happening in all of your hospitals. These neonatal units are now taking on a whole nother task which is helping babies through withdrawal. I visited folks who are not only pregnant and addicted and talked to them about what theyre going through and what the consequences are going to be and its sad and many of them say, rob, the grip of addiction is so great, so great im now in treatment but i worry about whats going to happen to my baby. We also expand treatment for expectant and postpartum women for this reason. And these expectant and postpartum women who need this help can make the right decision with more help from us. It expands residential treatment programs for pregnant women who are struggling with addiction. It would create a Pilot Program to provide familybased services to women who are addicted to opiates. Cara also helps veterans, as i said. It allows those veterans to get into a Veterans Court where they can be helped to walk through how you get out of this addiction, how you get into recovery. You can get support from other veterans around you to provide the kind of help you need, to get out of this cycle of incarceration and addiction. What do we say to the 40 million americans 40 million americans who are struggling with addiction when they ask, why dont you guys act . The senate acted 941. Why cant we get this done . Its time to move. They shouldnt have to wait. We shouldnt have to wait. To those 40 million, by the way, who struggle, to those who think they cant overcome this addiction, to those who believe theres no one out there to help them, the message is you are not alone. There is hope. You can beat this. Ive seen it. There are people who care and want to help. There are so many heartbreaking stories of addiction but there are also so many stories of ho hope. I think about have vanessa per. Shes from nelsonville, ohio. Vanessa became addicted to heroin. Once she became addicted, she also became a victim of sex trafficking. These two are related. In ohio, they tell me that most sex trafficking has now to do with heroin addiction. In other words, the trafficker gets these women, usually women, addicted to heroin and thats one way they become dependent on their trafficker. What vanessa tells me is that it took her a long time to turn her life around but she was courageous and brave enough to seek treatment and shes now back on track. For the last six years, shes been helping others. Again, taking her experience and using it to help others to deal with their addiction. Shes on the board of a group called freedom a la cart. Its a company in columbus, ohio, i visited last month which provides Job Opportunities for trafficking victims. They do a heck of a job and they teach these women a trade, too, the culinary arts. And now so many of these women who have been trafficked, who have been heroin addicts are back on their feet, reunited with their families. Knowing the dignity and selfrespect that comes from the work theyre doing and from helping others. There is hope. Treatment can work. Mr. President , leaders in the house say they want to move antiheroin legislation through regular order. Again, i heard today that one of the leaders said that theyre planning to take action. Ive had conversations with speaker ryan on this issue. Ive had conversations with other leaders in the house on it. I take them at their word. Im hopeful we can see the house begin to act next week when that chamber returns. But i will say this. The house must act and they must act soon. Im not going to be patient on this. This is urgent. And peoples lives are at stake. The house must pass this bill so the president can sign it and so it can begin to make a real difference in the lives of the people we represent. This is our responsibility. We need to take advantage of this opportunity that the senate has given us by this huge vote 941 to get this legislation to the president and get it enacted into law. Thank you, mr. President. I yield back my time. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from michigan. Ms. Stabenow mr. President , id like to speak about two different subjects today and they both are connected in the sense that they involve lack of action and people counting on us to act as United States senate. The first involves the fact that today we still in the city of flint, michigan, dont have people who can drink the water coming out of the tap. Now, i think any one of us would have troab trouble if that was e day. But were talking about months and months and months, going on two years now that we have seen a system completely broken down because of decisions, because of lack of treating the water, a whole range of things. From my perspective, the most important thing is the fact that people still dont have access to clean, safe water. They cant bathe their babies. They cant take a shower themselves. I mean, i cant imagine what it must be like for families in flint who are waiting and waiting and waiting for help. I want to thank president obama for doing what they can do through the administration to help from the standpoint of health and nutrition and education, but the fundamental problem is fixing the pipes, replacing the damaged pipes. So as my colleagues know, we have been working very hard and developed a bipartisan proposal, and i want to thank the chair and Ranking Member of the energy committee, senator murkowski and senator cantwell for working with us and for so many colleagues who are now bipartisan cosponsors on a bill with senator peters and i, and i want to thank senator inhofe as chair of e. P. W. And Ranking Member senator boxer and so many people who have come together to support this effort, not only for flint, but we now are seeing headlines across the country about other areas where lead poisoning in