Elijah Cummings

Mr. CUMMINGS

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. In closing, Mr. Chairman, this is a very, very important piece of legislation. I think it was Mr. Pascrell who said that we must act with a sense of urgency. And he was absolutely right. As we stand here today, there are so many people who are becoming addicted to drugs; there are people who are literally robbing their own relatives and robbing their neighbors to get the funds for drugs. There are even people who are seeking drug treatment and finding it difficult to get that treatment. But what we have tried to do here today through this bill is to address this problem as best we could. One of the things that I must express appreciation for is Mr. Souder's candor with regard to this whole issue. Consistently, even when there were instances where the President's priorities seemed to be, and ONDCP's priorities seemed to be, a little out of line with the things that we felt should be done to most effectively and efficiently address this problem, Mr. Souder, every step of the way stood up and said, look, we are going to do what is right. We worked together very cooperatively. I really do appreciate it. It does mean a lot to me as a Member of this great body. I can say to all of our Members that this is legislation that we all should vote for. It should be a unanimous vote. I urge all Members to vote for the bill. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I support the amendment. I think it is a step in the right direction. There are so many young people who find themselves getting into difficulty with drugs. The fact is when it predated their getting Federal funding for schooling, that is one thing; it is another thing when it happens during the time that they are getting the Federal funding. I would like to see it all eliminated, but the fact still remains that I think this is a good amendment. It is a step in the right direction. It is one that I have heard a lot of concern. Every time I do a town hall meeting on scholarships, this issue comes up. I support the gentleman's amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman for yielding. First of all, I want to compliment Mr. Baird and the other cosponsors of this amendment. There is no doubt about it, Mr. Souder and I, over and over again we see, as the ranking members of our subcommittee, so many of our members coming to us and telling us about the problems with methamphetamines in their districts. We have traveled across the country and listened to the testimony of various members and police and law enforcement folks and people who are trying to address this problem. And it is, in fact, a growing problem. While we have seen a lot of emphasis put on it, I think that this amendment goes very far to try to shine even more light on this tragic problem. And one of the things that we found so interesting about the whole methamphetamine situation, it is a little different than other drugs in that you have to have a clean-up. We spent a lot of money for clean-up. And we find many instances where children are tremendously affected because they have to be placed in foster care programs, because they have to be literally taken out of the house, the house usually has all kinds of problems, and they end up basically with no parents that are available to take care of them. So it has been a tremendous strain on our law enforcement agencies, our foster care agencies. I see this as a step in the right direction, and I would trust that we would support this amendment. I want to thank Mr. Souder for yielding.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to use the time in opposition to support the amendment.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Washington (Mr. Larsen), another leader in the Meth Caucus.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I just want to thank the gentleman for this amendment. It is a very important amendment, and I have no doubt that it makes the bill a better bill. One of the things we have seen in my district and all over the country is that there are these cycles of drug addiction; and I think one of the saddest things, and I saw this as a lawyer, too, when I practiced, is to represent a parent and then a few years later see a child come in. They both have been drug users. So the cycle of drug addiction keeps going around and around. So I think that is a very, very important piece to look at, how the children are affected. As far as the nontraditional places with regard to drug courts is concerned, I think that is another good idea. I think what happens too often is that you have young people who will experiment or they get involved, but there are even a lot of times you do not think about consequences. They do not think about how they may have to very well come in contact with our judicial system. I think that this is an excellent way that we need to look at that, figure out ways by which we might do that; and I support the gentleman's amendment.

Mr. CUMMINGS. I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to use the time in opposition to support the amendment.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I fully support this amendment, and I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Boswell) who is a member of the Meth Caucus and has been just a tremendous leader with regard to this issue and so many others, too.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, may I inquire as to how much time we have?

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me just say this. I want to congratulate Mr. Chabot and all the members of the Meth Caucus, because I think they have done, I know that they have done an outstanding job. I certainly congratulate Mr. Souder, too. We have seen meth and the effects of meth, and I can tell you that while I am from the inner city of Baltimore, I have seen the effect that crack cocaine and heroin and various other drugs have had on populations; but I was, to be very frank with you, a bit shocked at the effects of methamphetamines. I think the thing that struck me tremendously was the fact that these drugs could be easily manufactured and that somebody could actually, literally, look at a Web site and put together these drugs and the next thing you know you have got quite a few people using them. We had testimony that came forward during one of our field hearings in Indiana, I think it was, where they were talking about how one person would learn how to create the lab, and then the next thing you know, they teach somebody else, and they teach somebody else, and the next thing you have a whole string of them. I give Mr. Souder and all the members of our subcommittee a lot of credit. We try to address all of these problems, whether it is meth in the rural areas of our great country, or whether it is crack cocaine in urban areas. And here, this is another effort, as I said a little earlier, for us to address the problems of drugs in our country and the fact that it is destroying so many families, so many communities, and so many people. A lot of people don't realize it, but when somebody becomes addicted to a drug, it not only affects them but it affects their families and it affects support agencies and it affects their entire neighborhood. And we have seen those effects. So with that, Mr. Chairman, I support this amendment and I congratulate the sponsors. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I wanted to just state that I wholeheartedly support the amendment. I think it makes a great bill an even better bill, and I thank the gentleman for sponsoring it.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I think this is a wonderful and very appropriate amendment. I think many Americans were shocked when they learned of this tunnel. As Mr. Filner said, heaven knows what may have gone through it. But I see another benefit, not only dealing with the drug issue, but certainly we are concerned about making sure that our homeland is properly secure. As he said, 300,000 to 400,000 people go across the borders legitimately every day. The fact with someone or any persons coming up with this scheme by which to go around the system that we have created, it cries out for ONDCP to look at it and I am sure other agencies are looking at it, too. I support the amendment and thank the gentleman for offering it.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The Graves amendment requires ONDCP to produce a study on why the Department of Health and Human Services provided sponsorship support and sent HHS employees to a 2005 conference on methamphetamine and harm reduction. In my opinion this amendment is totally unnecessary. The information sought could be obtained through regular oversight channels, and the request does not belong in an authorization statute. In addition, the amendment is an implicit ideological attack on harm-reduction efforts, such as needle exchange programs. The purpose of needle exchange programs is to reduce the risk of transmission of HIV among injection drugs users. The amendment presupposes that needle exchange and prevention are incompatible, and that HHS participation in a harm-reduction conference cannot be constructive. That assumption is simply false. HHS, the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization, and other health organizations have conducted comprehensive reviews of the research on needle exchange. Their research establishes the following conclusions: Needle exchange programs reduce the risk of transmission of HIV among injection drug users; they do not increase or encourage drug use; and they can be an important bridge to treatment aimed at achieving abstinence from drug use. Needle exchange can be an effective component of a strong, comprehensive drug reduction program. HHS and its drug prevention agencies have valuable expertise. HHS can and should provide information on treatment and prevention in settings where those subjects are discussed. For those reasons, I oppose the amendment. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Again, I reiterate. I think there are other ways to get this information. What is said during these conferences is not the responsibility of HHS, and I just think when we are in a situation where we are trying to make sure that we use our tax dollars efficiently and effectively, to go at trying to acquire this kind information through this method, an amendment on a very significant bill, I think is just inappropriate. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I too stand in support of Ms. Hooley's amendment. We have spent a tremendous amount of time in our subcommittee on methamphetamine. We see it as a problem that is spreading in many instances like wildfire. And I want to thank Ms. Hooley for her leadership and for the amendment. We have expressed on numerous occasions to the drug czar the fact that we see methamphetamine and addressing the methamphetamine problem should be a major, major priority. And I think that this just helps us along the way with regard to addressing this very significant problem, and again I congratulate the gentlewoman and support this amendment.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I strongly, by the way, support this amendment. Ms. Jackson-Lee talked about a recent Washington Post article from February 10 describing how girls are trying alcohol and drugs at a higher rate than boys, and then she went on to talk about the national survey on drug use and how it found that some 730,000 girls between the ages of 12-17 started smoking cigarettes in 2004, and it got compared with 565,000 boys, and then the 675,000 girls starting to use marijuana compared to 577,000 boys. It seems that there is something going on here that we definitely need to look at. I know the chairman will work in conference to try to make sure that we address all of these problems. I would definitely support the amendment.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, we certainly join in support of the amendment. We think it is a good amendment.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I, too, support this amendment. I want to thank Mr. Lynch for his leadership. OxyContin is something that we have taken a look at, and we realize that it has had, as Mr. Lynch has described, just all kinds of damaging effects. I think that the good thing is that this gives us an opportunity to get more information about it, because I think it is almost impossible to truly make good policy unless you have an adequate amount of information. So I think this will be helpful to our subcommittee as we move forward in trying to address this issue. The interesting thing that we note is it seems as if from time to time, and depending on the area in the country, certain drugs seem to become the drug of the time. And so what we are constantly trying to do is make sure that we have every bit of detail that we possibly can so that we can create the kind of policies to effectively counter the abuse of certain drugs. So, again, I applaud Mr. Lynch. Thank you for bringing this to us. I thank you for yielding me time.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I support this amendment. I think we have a situation where I have been a big proponent of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, but I think we have to be very careful in how we spend our money. There are parts of our country that are suffering tremendously with regard to methamphetamine. And I do not think it is unreasonable to take that 10 percent and make sure it is directed towards that problem. The fact still remains, and one of the things that I do like about this amendment is that if there is a decrease in the methamphetamine labs, then that money is then put back to be used for other purposes. I think that makes sense. Perhaps we ought to do that more in other legislation that we pass out of this House. I support the gentleman. Our subcommittee has been very, very concerned about methamphetamines. This is just another way that perhaps we can prevent some of our young people from going that route. During much of the testimony by the way that we received, there was a lot of testimony with regard to young people now looking more and more at ads, by the way, on the Internet. And I think that just as we have to adjust when we find that certain drugs become the drug of the day or the drug of the year, we have to adjust our methodology, too, and the amount of money that we are spending with regard to, like I say, a program like this for addressing methamphetamines. I support the amendment. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder).

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder).

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me just say this: I think that Mr. Souder makes a very good point. One of the things that I think we probably need to see, and particularly our young folk, is the devastation of meth and to see what it causes people to do to themselves and the effect that it has had on communities. I am convinced that if our young people just had any idea of what happens to people when they use meth, I think some of them would turn around. During one of our hearings, we were shown numerous pictures of young people. One picture was taken before they used meth and then another taken even sometimes two or three months later, and the difference was incredible. Many of them looked like they had aged about 10 years in about three or four, five months. Many of them looked very drawn and, I mean, just had all kinds of blisters and marks on their faces and their bodies. If there is one thing that we have learned about certain actions of young people, many of them want to continue to look good. We discovered that when we dealt with the whole issue of steroids. So I think it is important. We have not seen the kind of reduction that we would like to see in methamphetamine use. As a matter of fact, it is pretty stable, but we would like to see it go down, and I think that this is the appropriate approach. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.