Katherine Clark

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New Hampshire for her personal story. It is moving, it is courageous, and it makes a difference. We so appreciate your words because your story is our story, and it is the story of our daughters, our nieces, our granddaughters, and ourselves. Approximately 20 percent of women who go to college will be sexually assaulted, and according to the Department of Justice and the Center for Public Policy, 95 percent of those women will not report their crimes because they don't think they will be believed. They think they will be humiliated and shamed. As Emily Doe said so eloquently and brutally frankly in her statement to her rapist Brock Turner, the judicial system and institutions will blame the victim. She had her consent questioned even though she was unconscious. Another college student recently in the news in Massachusetts went to WPI, and when she was lured to a rooftop and raped by a university security guard, she was questioned in the courtroom on her so-called risky behavior of drinking alcohol, not getting off the elevator when the guard followed her on, and that she had ignored training on personal safety. Recently at Harvard, an alumni group president of an elite men's club offered that the suggestion of making the club coed was not a good one because it would potentially increase sexual assault at the club, not decrease it. Alcohol, trusting security guards, the mere presence of women, none of it justifies rape. Alcohol highlights the deeply rooted ideas of entitlement that we have, and in rapists--and in, too frequently, mass shooters--it is what Michael Kimmel terms ``aggrieved entitlement,'' a powerful toxic world view that justifies violent action against children, women, elderly, or the LGBTQ community because the perpetrator believes they can act with impunity. So how do we begin to change this horrifying landscape? First, we need to collect data. We need to understand who is perpetrating these crimes to understand how we can get to better solutions. A lack of accurate capture and analysis for understanding perpetration has caused us to not be able to frame the questions for better solutions. Second, we have to look at funding. Cuts to social services for domestic violence and sexual assault are ones that we simply can't afford in our very first line of defense and the funding that is so necessary to build communities. We also need to talk to our children about sexual assault. A No More study revealed 73 percent of parents with children under the age of 18 have never talked to them about sexual assault, domestic violence, or even alcohol. And we certainly aren't talking about double standards, power imbalances, bias, and bigotry. Finally, we need to look at our institutions: higher education--our colleges and universities--community policing, and our criminal justice system. We must enable transparency and accountability and counteract our deep cultural questions and questioning and disbelief of victims and stereotypes that enable entitlements to flourish violently. The work that Representative Kuster has called for tonight begins with us, and I thank her again for her leadership and her bravery and her friendship not just to me, but to all women.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. ``Then, I decided it was my only night with her, I had nothing better to do, so why not, there's a dumb party ten minutes from my house, I would go, dance like a fool, and embarrass my younger sister. On the way there, I joked that undergrad guys would have braces. My sister teased me for wearing a beige cardigan to a frat party like a librarian. I called myself `big mama', because I knew I'd be the oldest one there. I made silly faces, let my guard down, and drank liquor too fast not factoring in that my tolerance had significantly lowered since college. ``The next thing I remember I was in a gurney in a hallway. I had dried blood and bandages on the backs of my hands and elbow. I thought maybe I had fallen and was in an admin office on campus. I was very calm and wondering where my sister was. A deputy explained I had been assaulted. I still remained calm, assured he was speaking to the wrong person. I knew no one at this party. When I was finally allowed to use the restroom, I pulled down the hospital pants they had given me, went to pull down my underwear, and felt nothing. ``I still remember the feeling of my hands touching my skin and grabbing nothing. I looked down and there was nothing. The thin piece of fabric, the only thing between my vagina and anything else, was missing and everything inside me was silenced. I still don't have words for that feeling. In order to keep breathing, I thought maybe the policeman used scissors to cut them off for evidence. ``Then I felt the pine needles scratching the back of my neck and started pulling them out my hair. I thought maybe, the pine needles had fallen from a tree onto my head. My brain was talking my gut into not collapsing. Because my gut was saying, help me, help me. ``I shuffled from room to room with a blanket wrapped around me, pine needles trailing behind me, I left a little pile in every room I sat in. I was asked to sign papers that said `Rape Victim' and I thought something has really happened. My clothes were confiscated and I stood naked while the nurses held a ruler to various abrasions on my body and photographed them. The three of us worked to comb the pine needles out of my hair, six hands to fill one paper bag. To calm me down, they said it's just the flora and fauna, flora and fauna. I had multiple swabs inserted into my vagina and anus, needles for shots, pills, had a Nikon pointed right into my spread legs. I had long, pointed beaks inside me and had my vagina smeared with cold, blue paint to check for abrasions.''

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I was regrettably detained on June 8th, and I was not present for Roll call number 276. Had I been present, I would have voted no.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia for his work and leadership on the underlying bill. We know that addiction does not wait until adulthood. A majority of adults in substance use treatment start using before turning 18. My amendment would direct the GAO to study research and programs carried out by the Department of Justice and its grantees and report on those programs' findings and work regarding substance use and substance use disorders among adolescents and young adults. The amendment would require GAO to report on any gaps in the research around adolescent and young adult substance use that have been identified by experts or Department of Justice officials. We need to understand what extended opioid use means for young brains and how it affects development and growth. We also need to understand how early exposure to opioids might change young people's needs with respect to treatment and support on the road to recovery. I would like to tell you about a constituent of mine named Chip. Chip was an athlete. He excelled at hockey and baseball. Playing sports was extremely important to him. But then, in eighth grade, he started drinking. Shortly after, drugs entered the picture, and Chip stopped caring about everything. As a young husband and father by the time he was 22, Chip always felt like something was missing. Anytime there was a problem, Chip reached for drugs as a solution. He received two OUIs in 1 year. He lost his license. He lost his family. He overdosed on heroin and became homeless. The addiction ruined his life and devastated anyone who cared for him. It was only when serving a jail sentence for a third OUI that Chip finally heard a recovering addict who came to speak to inmates, and for some reason he connected. Chip has been in recovery and has been clean and sober for 7 years. He works today as a recovery coach in my district, walking together with others with substance use disorder on the long road to recovery and a future. We owe it to young adults like Chip who were successful, ambitious, and energetic before opioids to understand what happened to them and how we can prevent it from happening to other adolescents and young adults. We owe it to them to understand how to help them seek and gain effective treatment. The more information we can collect about how addiction begins in adolescents and how to treat young adults, the clearer we can see where there are gaps in our understanding and the better chance we have of combating this horrific epidemic. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I am grateful to the gentleman from Wisconsin not only for the support of this amendment, but for all the work and leadership he has shown around this issue. We look forward to working with him to make sure this amendment is tailored to meet the needs of the underlying bill and to be in line with the Department of Justice's work and research. I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, a special thanks to Congresswoman Brooks, Congressman Kennedy, and Congressman Pallone for introducing this important bipartisan bill to address a devastating public health crisis. The opioid epidemic is a scourge on this country. In my district alone, 400 people have died in the last 4 years as a direct result. As we all know, there is no silver bullet to fix this problem. But what we can do and what we must do is find every possible way to help those people already affected and stop it from reaching more victims. When substance use disorder starts in adolescence, it affects key development and societal changes in young people's lives. It can interfere with the brain's ability to mature properly and have potentially lifelong consequences. We know that a large majority of adults in substance abuse treatment start using prior to the age of 18, and we need to make sure that the voices of adolescents and young adults are heard in this conversation. The underlying bill establishes a pain management task force that will include many different stakeholders and experts. This amendment would add an expert in adolescent and young adult addiction and a person in recovery from addiction to medication for chronic pain that began in adolescence or young adulthood to the bill's list of experts. This amendment would also call on the task force to consider the distinct needs of adolescents and young adults as it develops best practices for pain management and medication. Mr. Chairman, this is a commonsense amendment to help our young people dealing with this epidemic. I urge its passage. I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, my amendment is simple. It directs the task force to consider any potential benefits from increasing the electronic prescribing of opioids. We know that, with the increasing sophistication of health information technology, we have an opportunity to use that information for the benefit of our public health. We also know that paper prescriptions are subject to being stolen, copied, and misused. While that is a fact, 67 percent of prescriptions nationally are ordered electronically, but the rate for controlled substances is less than 1 percent. Electronic prescribing of opioids has the potential to provide data to help us identify problems, whether from a user or a prescriber, and focus our interventions on saving lives and preventing addiction. Back home in my district, Cambridge Health Alliance has adopted electronic prescriptions for controlled substances and have found it reduces fraud and allows administrators to track prescription patterns and detect overprescribing. Electronic prescriptions can be a key tool in fighting this epidemic. I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, my amendment would direct the task force to consider the programs and research relative to adolescents and young adults. We know that addiction and recovery often start early, and we need to focus research on how to address the unique needs of our adolescents and young adults. We need to understand how years of opioid abuse can affect the development of the brain, how it affects the development of coping skills, and how we can best support our kids in long-term recovery. Most importantly, there are many gaps in research on this subject, and we need to know the status of the current research and where we need to focus our resources. Recently, I met a constituent named Ryan. In seventh grade, he started taking drugs. When he did, he told me he felt like he finally fit in, like he had found the answers to the problems he felt and the pain he felt. By the time he was 13, he started drinking, taking pills, and stealing money from his family. His mother was panicked. The minute he walked out of the house he had to get high. He also felt powerless. At 15, he became convinced he was a bad person. He felt ashamed that he couldn't change, not even for his mother. The last time he relapsed, his mom told him he couldn't see friends anymore, and he threw a piece of glass at her. She looked him in the eyes and said: I don't know who you are anymore. He went into treatment for three additional months, and that treatment is what changed his life. He said that it saved him. One day at the sober house he remembers sincerely laughing for the first time, and he thought: There's hope for me. All these little things he forgot about himself, like humor, kindness and empathy. He said: I no longer felt like the shell of a person. He asked for our leadership for two things: the people in recovery need not to be ashamed. It is not what defines them, even when their addiction starts very young; and that we need to come up with funding for treatment. Ryan is an inspiration to me, and we owe it to the young victims of this epidemic to focus on the unique impact of this public health crisis on adolescents and young adults. I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, again, I just want to thank the gentlewoman from Indiana for all her leadership and advocacy, and my good friend and colleague from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy) for his as well. This bill and their work will make an incredible difference to families across the country. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I am pleased to join with Representative Barletta to introduce this important bill to help the most vulnerable victims of the opioid epidemic. In every corner of our country, the opioid crisis is having a devastating effect. In Massachusetts, last year 1,379 people succumbed to fatal overdoses. Nationwide, drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death and we lose 129 people a day to fatal drug overdoses. This epidemic doesn't see race, gender, income, or political ideology and does not spare newborns and infants. We know that every 25 minutes a baby is born suffering from opioid withdrawal symptoms. This is a condition known as neonatal abstinence syndrome. While there is no silver bullet to address this crisis in our country, this bill takes important steps to help. This bill, the Infant Plan of Safe Care Improvement Act, strengthens and updates the care plans required by the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974, also known as CAPTA. CAPTA itself is up for reauthorization. This is just one portion of that important legislation where timely reauthorization will protect children in many different and difficult situations. This legislation will help infants by ensuring that States have access to the best practices for establishing safe care plans for newborns with prenatal substance exposure. It will also improve accountability by collecting data on the incidence of babies born exposed to drugs and the care that is provided to them and their families. Perhaps most importantly, it will prevent tragedies by ensuring that babies and their moms and their families have the supports they need to be healthy and to build a future. We know that children have the best opportunity to thrive when their parents and caregivers are at the center of care. I am grateful to the partnership with Representative Barletta and glad that we are taking this important step with this bill to ensure that the whole family is healthy and successful and supported. I urge my colleagues to support this bill. I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott).

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) for his leadership on this issue and so many involving the welfare and health of our children. I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Again, many thanks to the gentleman from Pennsylvania for his partnership and his leadership on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I am particularly proud that this legislation takes a comprehensive look at not only protecting our newborns and infants but at putting the supports in place to ensure that their mothers and fathers and grandparents and families have the services they need and deserve to have the best outcomes for these babies and children and their family units. I am very pleased that this bill is before us today, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Dold for joining me in this legislation, and I also thank the family of Alex Laliberte for sharing their story. We offer our deepest sympathies. Mr. Speaker, across Massachusetts and the Nation, too many parents are desperately trying to save their child from the deadly grip of the opioid crisis. In the past year alone, this public health crisis has claimed nearly 1,400 lives in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The bill before us today, Lali's Law, is a critical part of addressing this crisis. Naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, is a lifesaving drug. It stops the effect of heroin within minutes after it is administered, and it allows breathing to resume. But it is critical that it is widely available. Under this bill, States that have authorized a standing order that allows anyone to obtain naloxone from a pharmacist would be eligible for a grant that can be used for public education campaigns and training for healthcare providers and pharmacists. I want to share the story of a family from my district that illustrates the difference training and the availability of Narcan can make. One night, a 911 call came in, a desperate and frantic new mother with a very young baby who was unresponsive. The first responders arrived at the scene, but despite their best efforts, this baby was not reviving. A responding firefighter relied on his training and quick thinking to save this child's life by administering Narcan. It worked. Even though the mom had not revealed that she was addicted to prescription painkillers, the first responder knew the symptoms and made the right guess and saved this child's life. If he had not been trained to administer Narcan and not had the lifesaving drug with him that night, that baby would not be alive. But the man was, and now the baby and mom have a future. This crisis presents an urgent calling for all of us, Democrats and Republicans alike, to put aside our differences and do what we can to save lives. That is what we are talking about here: increasing the availability of Narcan will save lives. I am happy to join with my friend from Illinois to offer this important bill. I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding. Mr. Speaker, over the last decade, we have seen a staggering increase of opioid overdose deaths. In 2015, this epidemic claimed 125 lives in my district alone. There are a lot of different causes of this crisis, but the number of prescription opioids in circulation is a critical factor. Over the last 15 years, the amount of prescription painkillers has quadrupled and generic Vicodin is now the most prescribed drug to Medicare beneficiaries. Now, we know that often patients don't use all the opioids they are prescribed. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, over 70 percent of adults who misuse prescription drugs get them from friends or relatives. Millions of half-filled bottles of unused and unwanted prescription drugs line our families' medicine cabinets, and too often that is where opioid addiction begins. One promising way to reduce the amount of unused and unwanted painkillers that are fueling this public health crisis is by allowing patients and doctors to only partially fill opioid prescriptions. By allowing pharmacists to partially fill a prescription for opioids at the request of a patient or doctor, we can reduce the number of unused pills and help stop pill diversion and misuse. Currently, the DEA allows partial filling of prescriptions for many drugs, but the regulations are narrower and less clear for opioid drugs. That is why I, along with Representative Stivers, have introduced the Reducing Unused Medications Act. This legislation will resolve any ambiguity and clearly establish that a prescription for schedule II substances, like opioid painkillers, may be partially filled upon the request of a patient or doctor. We have all heard the stories. Just last weekend I ran into a dad whose son had been given a 30-day prescription of opioid painkillers for having a wisdom tooth taken out, and he had just received an unwanted prescription, also for 30 days, after having minor surgery. This bill will empower patients to manage their prescriptions and can be a critical tool in an effort to address the opioid epidemic. This is a commonsense bill that will help us stop the misuse of prescription drugs that has fueled the use of heroin and this opioid epidemic.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Stefanik for telling us of the work of St. Joseph's and highlighting the importance of the impact of this crisis on veterans. I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur).

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Kaptur for putting a face to this addiction with the moving stories of Matt and Tracy. I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot).

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio for reminding us that even rural America has not been spared this epidemic. I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).