Rob Portman

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I wish to start by commending the majority leader who just came to the floor and offered a motion to go to conference on CARA, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016. This is an incredibly important piece of legislation because it will allow the U.S. Congress to be a better partner in fighting against this heroin and prescription drug epidemic that is seizing our communities. This is a big step today because it says we are going to send a few Senators over to work with the House to come up with a consensus bill between CARA, which passed in this body on March 10, by the way, by a 94-to-1 vote. That never happens around here, and it happened because after 2\1/2\ weeks of debate on the floor, everybody realized this is an issue that had to be addressed and that the legislation we came up with was the sensible and responsible way to do it. It was legislation we developed over a 3-year period. Senator Whitehouse and I were the leads on it. We had five conferences here in Washington, bringing experts in from around the country. We took the best ideas, regardless of where they came from, and came up with a way to deal with the prevention and education aspect of this, to prevent people from getting into the funnel of addiction in the first place, but then, for those who are addicted, to treat addiction like the disease that it is, to get them into the treatment and recovery services that they need, as well as to help our law enforcement; specifically, to help our law enforcement with regard to Narcan, which is naloxone, which helps to stop the overdose deaths. We also help to get prescription drugs off of people's shelves and to avoid this issue of people getting into the issue of opioid addiction, sometimes inadvertently, through prescription drug overprescribing. This is a bill that actually addresses the problem in a responsible way. It is comprehensive. The House then passed its own legislation. They passed 18 separate bills, smaller bills, not as comprehensive but which included some good ideas that were not in the Senate bill; one, for instance, raising the cap on doctors who are treating people with Suboxone. Some of those ideas should be incorporated as well, but the point is, we have to move and move quickly. If we think about this, since the Senate passed its legislation, which was on March 10, we have unfortunately seen roughly 129 people a day lose their lives to overdoses. So many thousands of Americans have lost their lives even since March 10. This legislation takes the right step to address that problem and not to address just those who have overdosed and died but those who are casualties of this epidemic, who have therefore lost their job, lost their family, lost their ability to be able to function. As I talk to recovering addicts around my State of Ohio, I hear the same thing again and again: The drugs become everything, and this does cause families to be torn apart. It does cause crime. When I talk to prosecutors in my State, they tell me that most of the crime--in one county, recently a county prosecutor told me that 80 percent of the crime is due to this heroin and prescription drug epidemic. So this is one we must address for so many reasons, and we must address it right away. I am pleased we are finally appointing conferees. I hope the other side will not consider blocking this because we need to move on with this to get this legislation to the President's desk. We have been talking with the House about their legislation that was passed subsequent to our legislation and talking about how to make some of these compromises to be able to come up with a consensus bill. I think we are very close. Again, I think there are some ideas in the House bill we should incorporate, and I think there are some ideas in the Senate bill that must be included in the House bill that are not included now. I think one is with regard to recovery services. We know that the best evidence-based treatment and recovery can make a difference in turning people's lives around, and therefore we do support recovery services. For those in the field, they will tell us it is not just about the medication-assisted treatment, it is that longer term recovery that creates the success we are all looking for. Then, on the prevention side, we have focused more specifically on a national awareness campaign to get people again focused on this issue of the link between prescription drugs and the dangers there that are narcotic prescription drugs and the opioid addiction issue. I can't tell you how sad it is to talk to parents back home who have lost a child because that child started on prescription drugs. In two cases, I can tell you about parents who have come to talk to me--one testified at a hearing that we had back in Cleveland, OH--two cases where the teenager went in to get a wisdom tooth extracted and was given painkillers--prescription drugs--and from that became addicted and from that went to heroin and from that, sadly, had an overdose and died. So I think this awareness is incredibly important because most people don't realize that four out of five heroin addicts in Ohio started on prescription drugs. That awareness alone will save so many lives and create the opportunity for us to keep people out of that funnel of addiction in the first place. The grip of addiction is so strong that once you are in it, it is a huge challenge, but it is one that can be overcome, again with the right kind of treatment and the right kind of recovery. Again, I am pleased that the majority leader came to the floor today to actually begin this process of the formal conference, to get this bill to the President's desk and, more importantly, to get this bill out to our communities so it can begin to help and it can begin to turn the tide. It is not getting better. I wish I could say it was. When I talk to people who are staffing the hotlines back home, they tell me, unfortunately, there are more calls coming in. When I talk to people in our hospitals, they tell me, unfortunately, there are more babies born with addiction who are showing up in neonatal units. There has been a 750-percent increase in my State of Ohio in babies born with addiction just in the last dozen years. Unfortunately, when I talk to people about the emergency room--I talked to an emergency room nurse last weekend when I was in Cleveland. I was at a festival talking to people, and an emergency room nurse came up to me. I heard the same thing I have heard many times, which is you have to do something about this issue. More and more people are coming to our emergency rooms seeking help. Of course, it is creating an issue in terms of jobs and employment because people who are addicted often are not able to work, cannot hold down a job, and cannot pass a drug test. So it is affecting our economy in so many ways, and of course affecting our families. Ultimately, it is about individuals not being able to pursue their God-given purpose in life because these drugs are getting them off track. CARA passed in the Senate by a 94-to-1 vote, as I said. So there is common ground here among Republicans and Democrats alike. This is not a partisan issue. It never has been. From the start, over the last few years we have worked together. In fact, we worked with the House, not just bipartisan but bicameral, and put together legislation both Chambers could support. There were about 129 House Members who were cosponsors of the legislation that passed the Senate. Initially, we took ideas from the House and the Senate, and this is why I am a little frustrated, frankly, that we haven't made more progress already. Now is the time to move. Let's get this done before July 4. Let's get it done next week. Let's get it to the President and to our communities. There is no reason for us to wait. With this step today, of the formal naming of the conferees, there is no reason for us not to move forward with this and move forward with it in a way that shows we can work together as a House and Senate to solve these problems. Some have said: Well, there might be some other ideas that will come up. That is fine. I hope there will be lots of new ideas that will come up because there is no silver bullet, but we know this legislation will help. We know it is comprehensive. We know it is well-thought-out. We know it is based on best practices. Let's move forward with this now because it is urgent. One American every 12 minutes loses his or her life to overdoses. Since CARA passed, this means more than 11,000 Americans have died of overdoses. So since March 10, when this legislation passed on the Senate floor, 11,000 Americans lost their lives. Again, it doesn't include the hundreds of thousands more who are affected in some fundamental ways. People back home get this. When I was on a tele-townhall meeting recently, one of my constituents called in, and he started talking about the CARA legislation and the importance of more funding for evidence-based treatment that works. There was something about the way he was describing it, and I could tell this was personal. So I said: Sir, can you tell us why you know so much about this and why you are so interested? There was a pause. I knew what was coming because I heard it too many times before. He explained that he had lost his daughter. She had been in and out of treatment programs, and relapsed. She had been in prison and out. She had finally decided that she was ready, that she wanted to accept a treatment program to be able to turn her life around. She was in a position to do so. They took her to a treatment center to get treatment, and there was a waiting list. During the time she was on that waiting list--I believe it was 14 days--was when they found her. She had overdosed. His point was very simple. You can imagine the emotion on the call. His point was very simple. When someone is ready to seek treatment, we need to have treatment available for them. We are told that eight out of ten heroin addicts--nine out of ten overall--are not seeking treatment who need it. Some of that is because of the stigma associated with addiction. We need to wipe that stigma away to get people into treatment. Some of it is because there is not the availability of treatment in some parts of Ohio. In some parts of Ohio, in some of our rural areas, there literally is no effective treatment available. In other areas, in some of our urban areas, where there is good treatment available and some amazing places that are doing incredible work, they do have a waiting list at some of them. We also have a waiting list with regard to some of the longer term recovery centers and residential centers in Ohio. That again is helped by this legislation. We also have difficulty with some of our detox centers in some areas of Ohio. There is not enough room in the detox center so the police don't know where to take people to get them started in this process. We hear stories constantly back home in Ohio about this issue because, sadly, we are one of the States that is hardest hit. We are in the top five in the country in overdoses, and in fentanyl overdoses we may be No. 1. Fentanyl, by the way, is a synthetic form of heroin. People ask: Is it about prescription drugs or heroin? It is about the drugs. If it is not heroin, it may be fentanyl. If it is not fentanyl, next year it may be something else. It may go back to methamphetamines. It may be about cocaine. It is about the drugs, and we can't take our eye off of this issue because when we think we solve one problem another problem will crop up. Fentanyl is produced synthetically. It is usually in the mail, and it is mailed mostly from Ohio. From our experience, it is coming from China to the United States. It is made by chemists who don't care about our kids or our citizens, because they are making this deadly poison. Sometimes it is mixed with heroin. Sometimes it is put into a pill form to try to indicate that it might be a prescription drug pill that people might think is more safe, which it is obviously not. This fentanyl is causing more deaths in my hometown of Cincinnati and Cleveland, OH, than heroin these days. We hear stories such as the story of Nicholas Dicillo of Cleveland, OH. Nicholas was a bright young man, a gifted musician. He had a full scholarship to Northwestern University. His father died of a heroin overdose when he was a child. Two decades later, sadly, Nick became a heroin addict himself after experimenting with it with some friends. It was an experiment, and he got addicted. I hope people who are listening today understand this is something that cannot be played with. You are playing with fire. He soon realized that he had made a tragic mistake. He said: ``Heroin took me to the depths of hell.'' That was his quote. Then his mother Celeste died of a heroin overdose in January. Nicholas was the one who found her body. That heartbreaking experience motivated Nick to get clean. He made a promise to himself that he would not suffer that same fate, the fate of both of his parents. After his mother died, he was homeless. He tried quitting cold turkey. That didn't work. He wasn't able to do it. Most heroin prescription drug addicts are not. He sought help, he sought treatment, and he was clean for 2 months. I am just starting to like myself again. I have a whole lot more life to live. I have a whole lot more I want to do. I don't want to become another statistic. But then, sadly, he relapsed. He overdosed. He was found dead with a needle in his arm on May 4 in west Cleveland, OH. Memorial services are being held for him in Cleveland this week. That is what is happening in northeast Ohio. In southwest Ohio, a woman arrested by the Cincinnati Police pled guilty last week to repeatedly trafficking her own 11-year-old old daughter to her 42-year-old drug dealer in exchange for heroin. Sadly, she even gave this girl--her 11- year-old daughter--heroin. You get the picture. This is not in one ZIP Code. This is not in one community. It knows no ZIP Code. It is in our rural areas, in our suburban areas, and in our inner cities. It is affecting every person regardless of their station in life, regardless of their background. No one is immune from it, and no one is unaffected by it. Ohioans know this is happening and they are taking action. That is positive. Terri Thompson, of Bluffton, OH, has founded a group called Ohio Moms Against Heroin, and I commend her for it. She has seven kids, by the way, and five of them have been addicted to heroin at one point or another over the past 20 years. They are from a middle-class Ohio home. One son went to prison. Over the next year, 12 of his peers died of heroin overdoses. Terri's youngest daughter--a cheerleader, a soccer player, and a talented piano player--made the mistake of trying heroin with her boyfriend. She became addicted. One of her brothers who got treatment and is now leading a productive life, is a small business owner. He encouraged her to get treatment, too, as he had gotten. She did, and now she is living a sober, clean, and a productive life. Seven hundred Ohio moms have now joined Terri's group. We already know they have been saving people. They tell me a story about one woman who contacted the group when she needed treatment. Terri personally picked her up and drove her to detox and the woman has been clean for 3 months and is now back on track. On June 18, Terri and dozens of other moms will be rallying and marching in Findlay, OH, to educate people that addiction is a disease and it needs to be treated. Again, I commend her. I want to thank Terri and all those involved in this body. She is a brave woman who is channeling her grief toward something constructive, and that is helping others to avoid this disease. In my hometown of Cincinnati, the Center for Addiction Treatment, also known as the CAT House, has announced a $5.7 million capital campaign to construct a new 17,000-square foot building to address the opioid epidemic. This will triple their capacity to be able to treat more patients. They will be able to treat about 6,000 patients. They do great work, and they have had great success. Construction has already begun. It is expected to be completed within a year. I want to thank everyone who has made that possible, including the folks at the CAT House, but also the State of Ohio, the city of Cincinnati, the Deaconess Health Associations Foundation, and Bethesda, Inc. The University of Cincinnati former law school dean emeritus, Joe Tomain, who is a friend of mine, has been speaking out about this epidemic, writing in the Cincinnati Enquirer: ``There is no more urgent need in our community than to address this drug scourge.'' I think he is right. I want to thank him for doing his part in helping to lend his voice to those who don't have a voice. I know the scope of this epidemic can sometimes feel overwhelming. I know the way we talked about it today, it has to be frustrating to everybody hearing it. What are the solutions? How can we get at this? But we know there is hope. We know that prevention can work. It is the right kind of prevention, if it is focused and targeted. We know that treatment and recovery can work. I have given you examples of that. Again, it has to be evidence-based. It has to be stuff that we are funding here because it works, not because we want to throw more money at a problem. Reggie Gant, of Columbus, OH, was a married father of three who had a good job working at a paint company. He tore his rotator cuff. He was in pain. His doctor prescribed Percocet for his pain. He became addicted. When his doctor stopped filling the prescription, he started buying off of other people in the doctor's waiting room. When the pills weren't available or were too expensive, which is often the problem for these prescription drug addicts who turn to heroin, he switched to heroin. It was less expensive. It was more available. He was trapped in the funnel of addiction, and the drug became everything. He lost his relationship with his wife and his kids. He started stealing from his workplace. ``I did things I never thought I would do in a million years,'' he said. As I said earlier, the drugs are everything. But he got treatment, spending 40 days at an inpatient facility. He has been clean for 6 months. He is getting help from the Lima Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Outreach Program. He is beating this because he was able to step forward and get into treatment. It was there for him. People can beat this, and they do every day. Experts tell us 9 out of 10 of those who need treatment aren't getting it. As I said earlier, some of that is because of the stigma, and some of that is because of lack of access to facilities in their communities. This House effort that was undertaken with 18 separate bills combined with the Senate bill, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or CARA, will make a difference. It will provide more help to the type of treatment programs and recovery efforts that actually work. If we can get this comprehensive bill to the President, we can help more people who are struggling to get treatment. We can help give them more hope. It is time to act and act quickly to find common ground before we lose more of our fellow Americans. Let's get this comprehensive bill into law and begin to help those millions of our fellow citizens who are struggling with this epidemic. Thank you, Madam President. I yield back my time. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I concur in the comments of my colleague. This is the CARA legislation which passed here on a 94-to-1 vote. This is simply a motion saying we support what we have already passed. I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I thought those remarks beautifully described a great public servant, George Voinovich. I wish to add a little to it, and then at the end of my remarks, I am actually going to offer a resolution for the entire Senate to vote on as a tribute to the life of George Voinovich. We have put together a resolution which talks about a lot of his accomplishments. As my colleague has said very well, it gives us an inspiration for the future. From his life, hopefully, we can learn about how to better do our jobs on the floor of the Senate. He was an amazing public servant. As some know, he was not just mayor of Cleveland during a critical time but also Governor of Ohio and, of course, a Senator here for two terms. I believe he represented the very best of public service. By that I mean whether it was his efforts to tackle the debt, to give children more choice and parents more choice in their schools, or to modernize infrastructure, he never made it about him. It was always about others, and specifically, it was about his constituents. He was a very proud grandson of immigrants, Serbian and Slovenian. He was also the son of a great neighborhood in Cleveland called Collinwood, where I was over the weekend visiting with Janet Voinovich. He was raised with the values of that neighborhood--honesty, integrity, and hard work. He said that his father used to tell him that in America we have more of the world's bounty than any other country on Earth because of our freedom, because ``we get more out of our people through the free enterprise system and our education system.'' He never forgot those early lessons. Wherever he went, whatever title he had, he was always that same earnest, plainspoken kid from Collinwood. As a boy, he was diagnosed with a bone marrow disorder, which kept him from enjoying many of childhood's joys, such as sports. He didn't let it get him down. In fact, he brought all his energies into his studies--one reason he was such a good student, I think--and he got around Cleveland on his red bike, which he called Bessie, which was his pride. Later in life, by the way, I had the opportunity to be in parades with George Voinovich. I would be marching along, and there he was on his bicycle. I don't know if it was named Bessie, but I know Janet Voinovich was at his side, riding that bicycle in parades, and then as Governor Voinovich and then Senator Voinovich. He loved those bicycles and was always riding with a smile on his face. That difficult health care struggle he had early in his life shaped his character and gave him a heart for all those who were suffering or who were just different. As with so many of his decisions, he would go to the Lord for inspiration. He would start with a humble prayer, and he did this at Collinwood High School. He said he prayed for guidance, asking God what he should do with his life. And he got an answer. He felt he had a calling, and that was to get involved in student government, and so he ran. He was elected as class president as a senior. He went on to serve as student body president at Ohio University, when he was in undergraduate school, and he was president of his class and president of the Young Republicans club while in law school at Ohio State University. So if people wonder how he got into politics, it all started in high school and through college and law school. That was the track he chose for himself. For over half a century, he served his neighbors in so many different roles--local, State, and Federal. He was a county commissioner in Cuyahoga County. He was county auditor. He was mayor, as we have talked about. He was a State representative. He was an assistant attorney general. He was Lieutenant Governor. He was Governor for two terms, and he was a U.S. Senator for two terms. This is a guy who devoted his life to public service. In 1959, as a young man, he volunteered for the mayoral campaign of Tom Ireland. We don't remember much about Tom Ireland, because Tom Ireland lost. But in that election, George Voinovich met a young woman--a beautiful and intelligent fellow volunteer named Janet Allan. Janet and George were married for more than 50 years. Having just been with her over the weekend, I can tell you she is an extraordinary woman. Their relationship--their partnership--is a real model and example for all of us, and certainly it has been over the years for Jane and for me. George used to say about Janet that she was ``God's greatest blessing on me,'' and that was clear to anyone who knew them. Together they had four wonderful children: George, Betsy, Peter, and Molly. He was Lieutenant Governor in 1978 when his true calling came. I say ``true calling'' because this was a time of urgency in his hometown of Cleveland. It was in trouble. That same year, Cleveland had become the first American city since the Great Depression to default on its debt, which, by some measures, totaled more than $100 million. That was a lot of money back then. People were worried. Some people were leaving the city altogether. From his neighbors and from his conscience, George Voinovich heard the call to come back home. Shortly after he won that Republican nomination for mayor, tragedy struck the Voinovich family. George's youngest daughter, Molly, was hit by a car. She was walking home from school when she was 9 years old. It is a tragedy no parent should ever have to endure, but George and Janet endured it, and, turning to their faith, they persevered. They went on to win that election. George says that through that trial, his faith deepened even further and his compassion for others grew even stronger. Sherrod Brown just talked about the fact that he said that ``things come into focus when you lose a child.'' I think that is what my colleague said, and that is how George felt. It deepened his faith and brought things into focus. He did win that mayoral election, and he turned Cleveland into ``The Comeback City.'' It is not an exaggeration, I don't think, to say that he personally saved the city from default in the sense that he had incredible energy, infectious optimism that it could happen, sheer force of will, and a great work ethic, and he brought people together. Having talked to some of the city fathers at that time, some of whom are still with us, it was George Voinovich's bringing a team together that saved the city of Cleveland. He lifted people's hopes. A decade later it was the entire State of Ohio that needed to be turned around. After winning reelection in Cleveland as mayor with two landslide votes, he was elected Governor in another landslide. Ohio was facing a massive debt, just like Cleveland had been, and George came to the rescue again, saying he would get the State government ``working harder and smarter, doing more with less.'' Anybody who knew George Voinovich knew that was his favorite motto--doing more with less; working harder and smarter; and with God, all things are possible. He did do more with less. He cut taxes by $24 billion to get the economy moving, but he also trimmed government spending by $720 million in just 2 years. With his experience as mayor, he wasn't afraid to delve into the details of the budget. He rolled up his sleeves, and he got involved. The only thing he knew better than his budget, by the way, was his constituents. He helped hundreds of thousands of people who were stuck on welfare to find jobs, as unemployment in Ohio fell to 25-year lows. He also modernized our roads and bridges. He was a big infrastructure guy. After a landslide reelection, he left the Buckeye State with nearly $1 billion in a rainy-day fund. By the way, when he was mayor, he served as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and when he was Governor he served as president of the National Governors Association--the only person in America to have done that. That is pretty amazing. He rose to the top. He loved to fish. Wildlife fishing in Lake Erie was his favorite thing. He got me started on that, which I do now every year. He loved his lake. If you go to his home and stay, as I did over the weekend, you know it is a couple of houses from the lake. You can see how proud he was of that lake by the way in which he supported efforts to make it clean and make it safe. He was also a strong supporter of our coal miners in eastern Ohio. He became the first government executive in the world to recognize the independence of his ancestral homeland of Slovenia, something that meant a lot to George. His last speech was on Friday night of last week, and it was on the 25th anniversary of Slovenia's independence day. George was reelected as Governor in 1994 with 72 percent of the vote. At the time, it was the biggest landslide of any Governor in Ohio history. After he had reached his term limit as Governor, he was elected by another large margin to this Chamber, the Senate. He was reelected in 2004 with more votes than any Senate candidate had ever received in the State of Ohio. In the Senate, he focused on expanding NATO to include Slovenia. He authored a Federal law that helps to monitor and fight anti-Semitism all around the world. He passed bipartisan legislation to help protect American intellectual property. But if you want to see his biggest impact, go to Ohio. You will see it everywhere--whether it is the Innerbelt Bridge, named after him; whether it is the Voinovich Bicentennial Park in Cleveland; whether it is the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs at his beloved Ohio University in Athens, OH; whether it is the Voinovich Atrium at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which, by the way, some say would not be in Cleveland but for George Voinovich's leadership. I just talked last week to the director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, who happened to be here for a visit, and, coincidently, we talked about George Voinovich's role in being sure that the financing was put together to have that Rock and Roll Hall of Fame be in Cleveland, OH. These are all testaments to the love and respect the people of Ohio had and continue to have for him. Above all, talk to those who knew him. He made an impact on all of us. For me, he was a friend, and he was a great mentor over the years. He helped me in my career. He was someone who gave me a lot of inspiration to get into public service in the first place. In our conversations, by the way, for all of his political successes and accomplishments and all we had to talk about that had to do with policy or political issues, he mostly wanted to talk about family. That was where he always started. That was where he was in his heart. He would say: ``How is the family?'' That is how he would start the conversation. Janet was his soulmate, his partner in everything, and he loved those kids and grandkids so much. They were the anchor for everything--family and faith. That is one reason he was so successful, in my view. He had grit, he had that work ethic, and he certainly had natural talent, but he also had that foundation. That moral foundation of his family and his faith gave him the confidence and the ability to do so many other great things for so many other people. When he announced his retirement, he said: ``I have a philosophy: It's God, family, country, and community.'' Those are pretty good priorities. George put himself last. It was never about him. It was about others. He was the public servant. He put the servant part first. He had the heart of a servant because he was a humble man. As some know back home, he was proud of the fact that he drove a Taurus and shined his own shoes. He was a penny-pincher. He loved to buy his clothes on sale. He was a good fiscal conservative. He and Janet lived in the same house they bought in Cleveland in 1972. No matter where he was or what his title was, he was, in many respects, still that same kid from Collinwood--George from Collinwood. He was a man of deep faith. He was a devout Catholic, and as busy as he was, he went to mass several times a week. He also took comfort in praying the Rosary. The legendary quarterback Bernie Kosar tells the story that George Voinovich prayed the Rosary at Municipal Stadium with Bernie's mom during the Browns' 1986 double-overtime comeback playoff victory over the New York Jets. Everybody gives Bernie Kosar all the credit for that, but it really was George Voinovich and a Higher Power that intervened. After retirement, he did not slow down. As I said, just this past Friday he was at Cleveland City Hall for the 25th anniversary of Slovenia's independence. He was also at the Republican headquarters in downtown Cleveland last Thursday to open what we call the ``Voinovich Lobby'' of that new headquarters. He was also planning to serve as a delegate in next month's Republican National Convention. We were so looking forward to paying tribute to him in many ways at that convention. We still will, but, oh, I wish he were going to be there to be part of it. It has been a great honor to succeed him as U.S. Senator. When he decided to retire, he called me here to Washington. I will never forget the dinner we had together where he said: I am not telling anybody this yet, but I am planning to not run again for reelection. I had just helped him with an event in Ohio, and I was strongly supporting him for reelection. But he said he had had it; that it was time for him to go back home. He encouraged me to run. He endorsed me the day I got in. I don't believe I would be here but for the fact that he called me to Washington that day and encouraged me and told me that knowing public service was in my heart too, that this was the time to step forward and to help our country. I owe him for so much but most importantly for his model and for the example that he set. He was certainly an independent voice, including on this floor. Senators on both sides of the aisle will tell you he was an attentive and thoughtful listener. He treated people with respect and dignity. I have talked to some of the staff here this week about George Voinovich--some who have been here a while and remember him--and all have the same to say. They cherished his friendship. They felt like he cared about them. He had good friends--Senator Shaheen and Senator Cardin on the other side of the aisle. He had good friends on this side of the aisle. He used to refer to Danny Akaka as being ``like a brother to me.'' Senator Akaka was a Member from Hawaii on the other side of the aisle. His selfless example of public service, his ability to enact change on a bipartisan basis does provide a lesson for us right now, and really for all time. I think we can best honor him by carrying on that tradition, by figuring out how to solve problems, and that involves reaching across the aisle and getting things done. He was a man who believed we could make a difference here in this place. I see Majority Leader McConnell has now joined us on the floor, and he will tell you that George Voinovich always had the belief that things could be better. He was ultimately an optimist, and his ability to figure out how to get to a solution was something all of us can learn from. In Ohio, he was a public servant without equal. Tonight, I would like to offer a resolution honoring his memory. I urge all my colleagues to support it. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 493, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. PORTMAN. I thank the Chair.

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, after Memorial Day and a day after the 72nd anniversary of D-day and at a time when we live in a more and more dangerous world with threats from North Korea, China, Russia, and ISIS, it is appropriate that we are on the floor talking about our military, talking about helping our troops, and doing so by strengthening our military. Senator McCain, who is the chairman of the committee, just talked about the fact that there is a pay raise here. There is also an assurance to our military that we are not going to have the kind of end strength that puts us in more peril. I applaud him and I applaud Senator Reed for their work on this bill. I intend to support this bill, and I hope we continue to make progress this week on it. Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Bill Madam President, I am up today to talk about something different. It is another fight that we have, and that is with this terrible epidemic of heroin and prescription drugs. We now have a situation where 129 people on average are dying every single day. We have in my home State of Ohio and around the country epidemic levels not just of heroin and prescription drugs but now fentanyl, which is a synthetic form of heroin. It is affecting every community and every State. This is the eighth time I have come on the floor to talk about this issue since the Senate passed their legislation on March 10--every week we have been in session since then. Initially, I came to encourage the House to act and urge them to move on it. They did that a couple weeks ago. Now I am urging the House and the Senate to come together because we have some differences in our two approaches to this, but for the most part we have commonality. There is common ground on how to deal with this issue: more prevention and education, better treatment and recovery, helping our law enforcement to be able to deal with it. My message is very simple. We know what is in the House bill. We know what is in the Senate bill. We are starting to work together to find a way to come together. That is good. We need to do that as soon as possible. This isn't like other issues we address on the floor, with all due respect. This is an emergency back home. This is one we know the Federal Government can be a better partner with State and local governments and with nonprofits. The Presiding Officer has been very involved in this issue over time. When we go home, we hear about it. This affects every single State. That is why we had a 94-to-1 vote in this Chamber. That never happens around here. We were on the floor for 2\1/2\ weeks, and by the end of the debate practically every single Senator who voted said this is a key issue back home. I like this bill because it is comprehensive, it is common sense. We need to support it. There is a real crisis out there, and this is a genuinely comprehensive solution to the crisis. We have the common ground. We need to move forward and do so soon. In 88 days, since the Senate passed the legislation on March 10, more than 10,000 Americans--10,000 Americans--have died of drug overdoses from opioids. That doesn't include the hundreds of thousands of others who have not died from an overdose but are casualties. They have lost a job. They have broken their relationship with their family, with loved ones. They have been driven to pay for drugs by going to crime. They have lost hope. There are now an estimated 200,000 in Ohio who are suffering from addiction to heroin and prescription drugs. That is the size of the city of Akron, OH, a major city in my State. It is urgent. People understand it. There is a new poll showing that 3 in 10 Ohioans know someone struggling with an opioid addiction. They know people-- their family members, their friends, their coworkers, their fellow parishioners, their neighbors--who are experiencing the consequences we talked about a moment ago: a lost job, time in prison, broken relationships, communities being devastated. All they have to do is open the newspaper to be reminded of it. Every day the headlines tell the story of families torn apart because of addiction. Since my last speech on the floor about 2 weeks ago, there is more bad news from my State of Ohio. Two weeks ago, a 41-year-old man and his 19-year-old daughter, both from Ohio, were arrested together buying heroin. The same day, a 26-year-old man was found dead of an overdose near a creek in Lemon Township in Butler County. Last Thursday, in Steubenville, police seized 100 grams of heroin from one man. I told the story 2 weeks ago of Annabella, a 14-month-old from Columbus who died at a drug house after ingesting her mother's fentanyl-laced heroin. Last Thursday, a 29-year-old man in Columbus was sentenced to 9 years in prison after his 11-month-old son, Dominic, ingested his father's fentanyl and died. Ohioans know this is happening, and we are taking action back home. State troopers in Ohio will soon be carrying naloxone with them, which is a miracle drug that can actually reverse the effects of an overdose. Our legislation provides more training for naloxone, also called Narcan. It also provides more grant opportunities for law enforcement. It is one reason the Fraternal Order of Police has been very supportive of our legislation and provided us valuable input as we were crafting it. In Ohio, last year alone, first responders administered Narcan 16,000 times, saving thousands of lives. Our Governor, John Kasich, is conducting an awareness campaign in Ohio called ``Start Talking.'' The National Guard is helping out. They are conducting 113 events across Ohio, reaching more than 30,000 high school students to talk about drugs and opioid addiction. I am told 65 National Guard members have partnered with 28 law enforcement agencies on counterdrug efforts. They have helped confiscate more than $6 million in drugs already, including 235 pounds of heroin, 20 pounds of fentanyl, and 26 pounds of opiate pills. CARA would create a national awareness campaign--we think this is incredibly important--including making this connection between prescription drugs, narcotic pain pills, and heroin. Four out of five heroin addicts in Ohio started with prescription drugs. This is not included in the House-passed legislation, as one example of something we want to add, but I think it is critical we include it in the final bill we ultimately send to the President's desk and ultimately out to our community so this message can begin to resonate to let people know they should not be getting into this addiction--this funnel of addiction--that is so difficult. We are taking action in Ohio, but back in Ohio they want the Federal Government to be a better partner, and we can be through this legislation. In Cleveland, the Cuyahoga county executive, Armond Budish, and the County medical examiner, Dr. Thomas Gilson, last week asked the Federal Government to be a better partner with them. I agree with them. They support our legislation. So do 160 of the national groups--everybody who has worked with us over the years to come up with this nonpartisan approach. It is based on what works. It is based on actual evidence of the treatment that works, the recovery programs that work, the prevention that works. In Cleveland, OH, it is not hard to see why. One hundred forty people have died of fentanyl overdoses so far this year--record levels. Fentanyl is even more potent than heroin. Depending on the concentration, it can be 50 or more times more powerful than heroin. Forty-four people died of opioid overdoses in Cleveland in just the month of May--44 in 1 month, just 1 month, in one city. That includes one 6-day span when 13 people died of overdoses; 18 of those 44 lived in the city of Cleveland, 26 lived in the suburbs. This knows no ZIP Code. It is not isolated to one area. It is not isolated to rural or suburban or inner city. It is everywhere. No one is immune, and no one is unaffected by this epidemic. People across the country are talking about it more in the last couple weeks. One reason we are talking about it is because of the premature death of Prince, a world-renowned recording artist whose 58th birthday would have been celebrated yesterday. Based on the autopsy of Prince, we now know he died of a fentanyl overdose. Fentanyl is driving more of this epidemic every day. As I said, in 2013, there were 84 fentanyl overdose deaths in Ohio. The next year it was 503. Sadly, this year it is going to be more than that. The new information about the overdose that took Prince's life has surprised some. After all, Prince had it all: success, fame, talent, and fortune. He was an amazingly talented musician, but as Paul Wax, the executive director of the American College of Medical Toxicology, put it, ``This epidemic spares no one. It affects the wealthy, the poor, the prominent, and the not prominent.'' He is exactly right. This epidemic knows no limits. In a way, as this becomes known, it may help get rid of the stigma attached to addiction that is keeping so many people from coming forward and getting the treatment they need as people understand it is everywhere. It affects our neighbors and friends regardless of our station in life or where we live. It happens to grandmothers. It happens to teenagers who just had their wisdom teeth taken out. It happens to the homeless, and it happens to the rich and famous. Prince is hardly the first celebrity case of opioid addiction. Celebrities like Chevy Chase and Jamie Lee Curtis have been brave enough to open up and talk about their struggles, and I commend them for that. The former Cleveland Browns wide receiver, Josh Cribbs, recently told ESPN: I grew up in the football atmosphere, and to me it's just part of the game. Unfortunately, it's ingrained within the players to have to deal with this, and it's almost as if that's part of it. After the game, you are popping pills to get back to normal, to feel normal. The pills are second nature to us. They're given to us just to get through the day. . . . The pills are part of the game. I am hopeful that if any good can come out of tragedies like Prince's premature death, it can be that we raise awareness about this epidemic and prevent new addictions from starting. Prevention is ultimately going to be the best way to turn the tide. The House-passed legislation does not include CARA's expanded prevention grants, which address local drug crises and are focused on our young people, but I am hopeful again that ultimately that will be included in the bill we send to the President's desk and to our communities. I know the scope of this epidemic can feel overwhelming at times, but there is hope. Prevention can work, treatment can work, and it does work. Think about Jeff Knight from the suburbs of Cleveland. He was an entrepreneur. He started a small landscaping business when he was just 21 years old. The business grew and grew. He was successful. He had more than a dozen employees. Then, at age 27, he was prescribed Percocet. Percocet. He became addicted. His tolerance increased so he switched to OxyContin. When the pills were too expensive or he couldn't find enough pills, he switched to heroin because it was less expensive and more accessible. He started selling cocaine and Percocet to buy more heroin. The drugs became everything, which is what I hear from so many of our recovering addicts. The drugs became everything, pulling them away from their families, their job, and their God-given purpose in life. Within 3 years, Jeff Knight lost everything. He lost his business, he lost his relationship with his family, and he was arrested, but there he got treatment, and through a drug court program he got sober. He moved into a sober-living facility where there was supervision, accountability, and support from his peers. Again, as we are looking at these programs around the country and we are holding up those best practices, we want to fund those best practices that have that kind of support, not just the treatment but the strong recovery programs. Jeff has now been clean for 3 years. He still has that same entrepreneurial spirit, and he is using it now to help others. He actually has bought several houses in Cleveland, which he has now turned into sober housing for men who are addicted--all because he got treatment and he was in a good recovery program, which he is now permitting others to appreciate. Nine out of ten of those who need treatment aren't getting it right now, we are told. CARA--the Senate-passed bill--and the House bills both provide more help for the type of treatment programs and recovery that work. If we can get a comprehensive bill to the President, we can help more people who are struggling to get treatment, and we can give them more hope. It is time to act, and act quickly, to find common ground and get a comprehensive bill in place now so we can begin to help the millions who are struggling. Again, I appreciate the Presiding Officer's efforts in this regard. I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to continue to promote our leadership to move forward, get this conference resolved, get it to the President's desk, and begin to help our constituents back home, all of whom deserve our attention on this critical issue and this epidemic that is affecting every community. Madam President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize the 40th anniversary of the first playing of the Memorial Tournament, ``the Memorial'', at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, OH. Jack Nicklaus, a golf legend and Congressional Gold Medal recipient, founded the Memorial in 1976. Jack wanted to bring an annual PGA tour event to Central Ohio and named the tournament ``the Memorial'' to recognize a person or persons, living or deceased, who have contributed to the game of golf with honor. The Memorial has been a significant benefit to charitable organizations. For example, Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH, has received over $14 million from the Memorial. In honor of that support, the hospital renamed its neonatal intensive care unit, NICU, as the Memorial NICU in 2006. The Memorial has also helped other organizations, such as the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, the First Tee of Central Ohio, Shriners, and many more. The Memorial provides a significant economic development impact to the central Ohio region with an estimated $35 million annually toward the economy. I am honored to have attended the Memorial to see firsthand its impact in the community. I would like to congratulate all who were involved in making the first 40 years of the Memorial a success.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I didn't know my colleague from North Carolina was going to come to the floor to talk about D-day. That is what I am going to talk about too. I would like to follow on his comments, first, to congratulate him for a terrific job of explaining the importance of this day, not just to our country but to the world, the day America truly began the liberation of Europe, and also for his description of the North Carolina brave soldiers who lost their lives that day. It was 72 years ago this morning when the invasion began. It was a day in which there was a lot of concern and anxiety. People knew this was going to be a major conflict. Some 40 years later, Ronald Reagan spoke at Pointe du Hoc. He made the point that every church in America was filled that morning. By about 4 that morning, people were praying all over the country, knowing this was going to be a very difficult battle. It was the largest amphibious assault in the history of the world. There were 150,000 Allied troops involved, and as my friend from North Carolina indicated, we lost over 10,000 troops that day, most of whom were Americans. There were 10,000 aircraft involved as well and 6,000 ships. It was thought that day that Franklin Delano Roosevelt would give a speech, as he had done many times before, called a ``fireside chat,'' from the White House, talking about the invasion and helping the American people to understand the importance of that day, but he decided to do something else instead. He decided, instead of giving a speech, to recite a prayer. That prayer has become known as the ``D-day Prayer.'' It is a very powerful statement. About 2 years ago on this day, the 70th anniversary, we passed legislation in the Senate to actually ensure that prayer would be part of the World War II Memorial. We are now going through the process to have that included in the World War II Memorial so all Americans today, and the children and grandchildren of those World War II veterans and heroes, as they come to Washington, are able to see this prayer Franklin Delano Roosevelt said that day. I would like to read these words that were spoken 72 years ago by President Roosevelt, if I might. He said: My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far. And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer: Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true, give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness to their faith. They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph. They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest--until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war. For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home. Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom. And for us at home--fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas--whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them--help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice. Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts. Give us strength, too--strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces. And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be. And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose. With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace--a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen. This is the prayer that he spoke on D-day. What a powerful moment. On this day, 72 years later, we remember the bravery and the sacrifice of D-day. We remember the fact that this was the beginning of the liberation of Europe, and, indeed, as President Roosevelt predicted, we would ultimately prevail, despite great losses. Let us also today, as we are talking on the floor--this evening, tomorrow, and through the week--about our defense forces, remember the importance of this prayer, as it talks about the need for us to ensure we do have a strong military and that we support those in the military forces as we take up the Defense authorization legislation. Madam President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I hope we can send this comprehensive legislation to the Whitehouse as soon as possible, to give more people hope, to be able to reverse the tide of this addiction and allow those Americans to live out their God-given purpose. I yield back my time.

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I rise today to talk about an issue that affects all of us in this Chamber and all of the communities we represent. I also rise on behalf of the 200,000 Ohioans who are currently struggling with an addiction to prescription drugs or opiates. Heroin and prescription drug addiction has gripped our country. Unfortunately, we are facing an epidemic now, and I want to rise today to talk about how we can do a better job to address that. This is the seventh time I have come to the floor of the Senate to speak on this issue since the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act passed the Senate on March 10. That vote was 94 to 1, showing that Members from every single State are affected by this and want to address it. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, CARA, is a good start and will make a big difference because it is comprehensive and it addresses every aspect of the issue, from education and prevention through treatment and recovery, and helps our law enforcement folks and helps get these prescription drugs out of our communities. It is a good piece of legislation that I hope we will be able to get to the President's desk for his signature. For the first 5 weeks I came to the floor, I talked about the fact that I hoped the House would act. I urged the House to act quickly on this emergency that is affecting our communities. Last week I came to the floor to say thank you to the House because they did act. They voted on 18 separate bills. Combined, they were a response to this epidemic, and I think that was a very important step forward. I am encouraged that now the two Chambers, the House and Senate, are trying to figure out a way to come together with a conference to come up with one bill that can be sent to the President for his signature. I do believe the legislation we passed in the Senate is more comprehensive, and I hope the House will be willing to take some of our measures, particularly in the area of prevention, which was left out, because I think preventing this addiction in the first place and keeping people out of the funnel of addiction is incredibly important. It has been 77 days since the Senate passed CARA, and we lose about 120 Americans a day to drug overdoses or about 1 every 12 minutes. This means we have lost about 9,000 Americans to drug overdoses since the Senate passed this legislation back on March 10. About 300 Ohioans have lost their lives to heroin and prescription drug overdoses. We were told by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that in 2014 Ohio had the second most overdoses of any State in the Union and fifth highest, overall, overdose death rate. I have seen the consequences of this every time I go home. I will be home tomorrow and will have the opportunity to visit with some people who are trying to help on this issue, but everywhere I go I hear about it. Last night I had a tele-townhall meeting. We have about 25,000 Ohioans on the phone at any one time at these tele-townhall meetings. Somebody called in to talk about our legislation, CARA. His name was Joe. He is from Delta, OH, and he was very open about his situation. He said he had been a heroin addict for 15 years. He said he was 33 years old. He said he had a stroke when he was 25 that was related to his use of heroin. He said he had been in and out of treatment programs. He was clean now, but he was tired of going to funerals. He said he had been a pallbearer at about 20 funerals of friends of his who had died from overdoses. He said he was ready to straighten out his life and get back on track. He also talked about how tough that is; that the grip of this addiction is so strong, it is very difficult to go through a treatment program and into recovery and come out clean. He said he likes our legislation because he believes there should be more treatment out there. He said many people who want to go to treatment cannot get the treatment they need. We also talked about the stigma that is attached to addiction. That many people don't go forward to even tell their families, much less get into treatment, because of the stigma around this disease. Unfortunately, stories like Joe's are in the headlines every day. Just since I spoke on the floor last week, more headlines are coming out of Ohio. It is everywhere, by the way. It knows no ZIP Code. It is in the inner city, it is in your community wherever you live, it is in suburbs, and it is in our rural areas. In fact, the per capita use in rural areas may be higher than it is in the inner city. This week the Cleveland Plain Dealer began a series of stories on those whose lives have been cut short by this epidemic, and I applaud them for that. By raising awareness of this issue, I think that will help in terms of the prevention side of this, and I think it will also help people to be able to seek treatment. The stories the Cleveland Plain Dealer is featuring includes a fentanyl overdose death of an 18-year-old named Nicholas DiMarco, who was an honor student at North Olmsted High School. They include the story of Patrick O'Malley, a bright, young graduate of Ohio University. Patrick used prescription painkillers--drugs we all know the names of, like Vicodin and Percocet. He abused them and became addicted. Money started being missing from his mom's wallet. Laptops, televisions, and other items went missing from their home. He told his brother he didn't want to keep using. He wanted to stop. He said he had a disease, and it is a disease. He sought treatment and went into rehab at the Free Clinic in Cleveland, OH. I have been there and have seen the good work they do. Sadly, he relapsed, and just 2 weeks later his brother found him dead in his bedroom with a needle stuck in his arm. He was 25 years old. Unfortunately, these stories continue to be told because this is what is happening in our communities. Mary Jo Trocano was a grandmother who had chronic pain. She was prescribed painkillers to deal with her chronic pain, and like so many others, she became addicted to them. When she ran out, this grandmother switched to heroin. It is less expensive and more accessible. She fought this addiction for 10 years, but Mary Jo was found dead in the backyard of an abandoned house in the west side of Cleveland recently in her late fifties. These are just stories from one town, Cleveland, but they can happen in your hometown. Again, no ZIP Code in the country is safe from this strong grip of this particular addiction. Just last Friday, police in Niles, OH, seized $100,000 worth of heroin from one man. Three days later, a prison guard in Athens, OH, pled guilty to assisting the drug traffickers and getting drugs into the prison system. In Columbus, a mom pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter after her daughter, Annabella, who was just 14 months old, ingested fentanyl- laced heroin at a drug house. Annabella died of an overdose and her mom is now facing up to 11 years in prison. Fentanyl, by the way, is a synthetic form of heroin. It has similar qualities except it is much stronger--often as much as 50 times stronger than heroin. Unfortunately, many of the overdose deaths in Cleveland are due to the fentanyl that is often laced with the heroin. In fact, there have been more deaths in Cleveland, OH, in this first quarter than ever. In fact, we are looking at probably doubling the number of overdose deaths if we continue on this pace in Cleveland, OH, compared to last year. This is how serious it is in my State and your State, wherever you live. On May 9, Ohio State troopers seized $20,000 in heroin on Route 23 in Marion County, a rural area. Just 3 days later, three people died of drug overdoses in Marion County in a 24-hour period. Every one of these victims had family, friends, or classmates who are now suffering themselves. It shouldn't be this way, but unfortunately that is just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to the 9,000 Americans we have lost since this legislation passed the U.S. Senate--think about this--there are hundreds and thousands more who are wounded. They have lost their jobs, been driven to theft or fraud, gone to jail, broken relationships with loved ones because the drug is everything. This is what I hear and what I heard last night in the tele-townhall. What I hear from other recovering addicts is that the drug becomes everything. Therefore, the families are torn apart and therefore the job means nothing. They turn to theft when they had never before crossed that line of committing a crime. That is the status quo today. Getting a comprehensive bill to the President's desk for signature and getting it to our communities will help. It has to be comprehensive because we know it is not going to work if it just addresses one side of the issue or another. There has been a debate over funding for this legislation. Some have said more funding is the answer to all of our problems. Unfortunately, some have tried to politicize this a little bit, and I suggest what they are doing is not going to help because what we need to do is get a comprehensive bill out there that talks about providing funding--and I believe there should be more funding--that goes to the evidence-based programs we know work, and that is what this legislation does. It is based on 3 years of work. We brought experts in from all over the country. We had five conferences in Washington, DC. We had conferences about how to help our veterans, pregnant moms, addicted babies, and ensure that we have more people who are given the right kind of treatment--medication-assisted treatment--to be able to get back on track. Yes, I have supported more funding, and we should continue to try to get more funding to address this problem, but it is not just a matter of putting more money into it, it is also a matter of spending that money wisely. That is what this legislation does. Yes, there is more money. It has $80 to $100 million in additional funding, but it also has funding that will be used for what we know works. We need to be sure we do this soon because, again, this epidemic is growing. CARA, Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act, insists that we are targeting this funding toward evidence-based education, treatment, and recovery programs. There are 130 national anti-drug groups that support this legislation because of the fact that they were part of putting it together. They know what works out there and what doesn't work. This is a national effort. It is one that will save lives and will make a difference in so many other people's lives and will begin to actually turn the tide on this epidemic. Again, this legislation is one that 94 Senators supported. Only one Senator opposed it. Again, that shows how this has become an issue in every single State that has to be addressed because it is affecting everybody in every community. CARA has a number of things on prevention education that are incredibly important to keep people out of the funnel of addiction and help people make the right decisions, particularly for teens, parents, other caretakers, and aging other populations. It does more in terms of making people aware of this connection between prescription drugs and heroin. Probably four out of five heroin addicts in Ohio today started out with prescription drugs, and for people to know that, it helps them avoid being in the situation they are, like the grandmother in Cleveland I talked about who was exposed to more and more painkillers and became addicted to them. CARA also improves treatment by expanding the availability of naloxone. This is the miracle drug that can actually stop and reverse an overdose. Law enforcement agencies and first responders support our legislation because they appreciate the fact that there is more funding for naloxone, also called Narcan, and also because there is more training in our legislation so people have the training to be able to save lives and reverse these overdoses. It also expands treatment for prisoners who are suffering from addiction disorders. With evidence-based treatments, we can break this cycle of addiction and crime. Prosecutors have told me that in some counties in Ohio, more than 80 percent of the crime is now directly related to this opioid addiction. We are told that 95 percent of the people who are in jail or prison will be released someday and about half of them will end up back in jail within 2 or 3 years. Much of the recidivism, this revolving door in the prison system, has to do with this drug abuse issue. Families are torn apart when people go back and forth in the prison system. One of the reasons for the increase in crime, and why many crimes are committed, is to pay for an addiction. Breaking that cycle will help ex-offenders stay out of prison and help them to live out that God-given purpose. CARA also expands disposal sites for unwanted prescription medications to keep them out of the hands of our kids. It would strengthen prescription monitoring programs to allow the States to monitor what goes on in their own State and to also know what is happening in the State next to them. If somebody is monitored for overusing prescription drugs in one State but can simply cross the line into another State and get those drugs, that doesn't help solve the problem. This legislation provides the ability to have a drug monitoring program that is inoperable between the States. These are critical policy improvements, and they are part of a comprehensive approach to an epidemic that is devastating communities across the country. Yes, we need more funding, but we also need some of these changes in law to be able to spend the money more effectively. I know these statistics about drug abuse are heartbreaking and can be very discouraging, but there are also many stories of hope we should not forget, and those stories are inspiring. It is about those who are struggling and find a way to get their lives back together. Ashley Bryner of Newton Falls, OH, which is near Youngstown, started using drugs when she was 13 years old. By 16 she had gone to cocaine and by 18 she was addicted to painkillers. When she was 24, she switched to heroin when the painkillers became too expensive and too hard to get. Again, heroin is less expensive than prescription drugs today in my State of Ohio. She said: When I was in addiction, I was living in hell. It just takes over your mind. . . . Everything I did when I was using was all to feed my addiction. The drugs became everything. Then she decided to get help. She was ready. She didn't want to live like that anymore. She checked into Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Trumbull County. It took her 18 months to recover. She said: I had to re-learn to walk, talk, everything, without dope. It was like being born all over again. Four years later, she is clean and has full custody of her three sons. She is working for the Trumbull County Children's Services. She is helping others fighting addiction and excelling at her job. She is beating this.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to executive session for the consideration of the nominations previously ordered.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, today I wish to acknowledge the 22st annual Columbus Asian Festival as we celebrate the month of May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The first Asian Festival was held in 1995 with a mission to promote the importance of cultural diversity in building a vibrant, prosperous, and healthy community. Since then, the Asian Festival continues to fulfill its mission and attracts over 100,000 visitors annually to the central Ohio region. The Asian Festival offers a variety of activities for the community highlighting the culture of Asia and the Pacific Islands. The values of the Asian Festival include the following: showcasing cultural heritage, advocating the importance of lifelong learning and education, providing a fun and entertaining experience, nurturing community collaboration and strong relationships, fostering a healthy lifestyle and quality of life, and serving with integrity. Visitors to the Asian Festival will experience hands-on art demonstrations, interactive dance performances, Asian music, Tai chi, martial arts workshops, Asian games, Asian cuisine, and much more. I am honored to be participating this year in the Asian Festival during its opening ceremony to see firsthand how this important event celebrates the rich tradition of Asian Pacific heritage and promotes cultural diversity in Ohio. Congratulations to all who were involved in making it a success.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I come to the floor to talk about the heroin and prescription drug epidemic that is gripping my State and the country. I come to talk about the 200,000 people in Ohio who are addicted. I come to talk about the police officers during National Police Week who are doing their jobs to address this issue and why they need more help from us and how we should provide that to them. This is the sixth time I have come to the floor since the Senate passed on March 10 the legislation called the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. It was voted on by a 94-to-1 vote in this Chamber, which is highly unusual. That never happens around here. It happened because in every single State people are seeing this addiction epidemic, overdose issue. We need to address it. The House has been working on its own legislation. I have come here every single week we have been in session since we passed our legislation to urge the House to act. I come this week to thank the House for acting because on Friday of last week the House of Representatives passed legislation--again, a large bipartisan vote--18 different bills that were combined into one bill to deal with this opioid epidemic. In some respects, it is very similar to the legislation we passed in the Senate. In other respects, it has additional provisions that I think are very helpful. In other respects, it doesn't pick up everything that is in the Senate legislation. Our focus in the Senate would be to have a comprehensive approach, and I believe, by including some of the provisions in the House-passed version, we will come up with a more comprehensive approach, and that is what is needed. In fact, in the Senate we spent 3 months working with the House on companion legislation. We had a number of conferences here in Washington, DC--five different conferences to deal with this issue--and we came up with legislation that took best practices around the country and included them in the legislation to deal with a very real problem in our communities. It has to be comprehensive. Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak with the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Michael Botticelli, as well as Dr. Kana Enomoto, who is the Acting Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It was a hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. We were talking about how to come up with the right response to this issue in so many different respects. The bottom line is, both of them strongly agree it has to be a comprehensive approach if we are going to make a difference, if we are going to begin to turn the tide and begin to save lives and get people back on track to deal with this level of drug addiction and overdose that is happening in our communities. We have to provide the resources, but we also have to ensure that the resources are wisely spent. In other words, we have to be sure we are spending the money on things that are going to be effective. I was grateful that both Director Botticelli and Dr. Enomoto said they would work with us to try to get this conference between the House and Senate done as quickly as possible. The House and Senate bills coming together is important so we can get it to the President and, more importantly, so we can get it to the communities to begin to help. They offered to continue to work with us going forward, and I appreciate that, and we will need them. Everybody needs to pull together on this. It has been 67 days since the Senate acted. In those 67 days, if we assume that about 120 Americans are lost every day to drug overdoses, about 8,000 Americans have lost their lives through drug overdoses since the Senate passed this legislation on March 10. Think about that. That is what I call an epidemic. Unfortunately, my State of Ohio has been particularly hard hit. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that Ohio had the second most overdoses of any State in the Union, and the fifth highest overdose death rate. On average, we are losing about five Ohioans every day to overdoses. We lost 330 since the Senate passed the CARA legislation on March 10. Unfortunately, since March 10 the headlines have continued to show that families are being torn apart, communities devastated. These headlines make it clear this is not slowing down. I talked to some experts on this in Ohio last week, and I asked: Tell me, are things getting better? Are we beginning to change the attitudes to turn the tide? The answer was, no, the hotline is lighting up more than ever, more people are coming for treatment, and there is more crime than ever related to this. Sadly, I do not believe, at least in my home State of Ohio, that we have begun to make the progress we have to make. It is happening everywhere--in the cities, suburbs, and rural areas. Addiction is affecting everybody of every age no matter where you are from, no matter what neighborhood you live in. It knows no ZIP Code. Just in the time since I spoke on the floor this last week, in the past week in Ohio, here are some things that have happened. In Northeast Ohio, in the city of Lorraine, police searched three different drug houses. This happened last Thursday. They arrested seven people possessing more than 120 grams of heroin. In Southwest Ohio, in a rural area in Brown County, a couple was arrested for possession of heroin. They have four children between the ages of 3 and 6. This happened last week. In the suburbs of Dayton, OH, this time in the suburbs, Harrison Township, police say a man was driving under the influence of heroin, veered into the wrong lane and struck a vehicle head-on, killing an innocent woman and injuring her husband. More and more traffic accidents are being linked to addiction. In Central Ohio, in the Columbus area, the city has now spent $144,000 last year alone on Narcan, which is a miracle drug that will be able to deal with overdoses and save people's lives. Paramedics in Columbus spent 10 percent of their entire budget just on Narcan last year, reversing over 100 overdoses. Paramedic Pete Bolen says that sometimes he takes up to four overdose calls per day. I have been to police stations and firehouses around Ohio, and they tell me they are responding to more overdoses than they are fires. Dr. Eric Adkins of Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center says that their emergency room sees two to four overdose patients every day. Last year, Wexner spent $1.2 million treating overdose patients. That is one medical center in one city. In Chillicothe, Assistant Fire Chief Jeffrey Creed says that overdose calls are on pace to double this year compared to last year. Again, they will tell you there are more overdoses than fires. Rita Gunning of Grove City, OH, lost her daughter Sara, who was just 30 years old, to a heroin overdose. Last year, Sara was trying to fight an opioid addiction and managed to stay clean for 50 days, but she relapsed, and 3 days later she died of an overdose. Rita is now raising Sara's three children and trying to increase the availability of naloxone across Ohio. She is on a mission because she believes this miracle drug naloxone could have saved her daughter. She said: ``Maybe if they had it that night, they could have saved Sara's life.'' She shouldn't have to say that. By the way, making naloxone more available is one thing the legislation does that was passed in the Senate. We have to be sure the House and Senate legislation does that and also provides the training that goes along with it. Our legislation also says that when they provide naloxone, or Narcan, they provide not only training with it but also information about where to get treatment because it is not enough to apply Narcan, we need to get these people into treatment so we don't have to apply Narcan again and again and again. Karen Young of Columbus lost her daughter Kayla when she was just 22. She had surgery when she was 20, and she was prescribed pain pills, as many of us have after surgery. She became addicted to those pain pills, and like so many others, when the pills ran out, she switched to a less expensive and more accessible alternative--heroin. She went to rehab for about 7 weeks, but she relapsed, overdosed, and died--just like that. In the span of 2 years, she developed an addiction because she went in for surgery and she died from it. As Karen put it, ``her Dad will never get to walk down the aisle with Kayla.'' Unfortunately, that is true with so many thousands of people whose lives are cut short across Ohio and across the country. The stories are heart-wrenching. You hear about kids who go in to have their wisdom teeth pulled. They are given prescription pain pills. They get addicted to the pain pills. They then turn to heroin--or maybe not. Maybe they even die of an overdose from the pain pills themselves, which has happened. This should not be happening. Overprescribing of pain medication is obviously one of the huge issues. Four out of five of the heroin addicts in Ohio started with prescription drugs. People need to know that. By the way, our legislation would allow people to know that through an awareness campaign about that very issue. Unfortunately, these overdoses are just the tip of the iceberg in the sense that in addition to the 8,000 we have lost since March 10 in this country, there are hundreds of thousands more who are among the wounded. What do I mean by that? They have lost their jobs. They have been driven to theft or fraud to pay for their habit. They have gone to jail. They have broken relationships with loved ones because of an addiction. I hear this time and again from recovering addicts saying: When I had this addiction, the drug was everything. It was everything. That is how my family broke up. That is how I lost my job. That is how I lost my self-respect. I have seen the consequences firsthand. In Ohio on Monday, I visited a treatment center that was for women only. It is an extraordinary place, the only place in my hometown of Cincinnati where women can take their kids and get treatment, which has been very effective. I got the chance to meet with a number of women who are in recovery. Each had a heart-wrenching story to tell about how they got there. Each was absolutely committed to dealing with their addiction not only for their sakes but also for their baby's sake because these women were pregnant. In the last 12 years in Ohio, there has been a 750-percent increase of babies born with addiction. This syndrome, babies born with addiction, requires babies to be taken through the same kind of rehab that adults are taken through, of course at different levels of treatment. It is a very sad situation. Many doctors and nurses, who are incredibly compassionate, tell me they don't know what the long-term consequences are. At this treatment center called First Step Home, which is in my home town, they are doing impressive work. They are teaching women how to be better moms in addition to providing the treatment they need. They don't just get medication, they get a sense of home and security. Talking to these women and listening to their stories inspires me to make the Federal Government a better partner with First Step and other nonprofits around the country to ensure that we are, indeed, beginning to turn this tide. Today and tomorrow, the Addiction Policy Forum, which is a coalition of advocacy groups, is leading a CARA Family Day on Capitol Hill here in Washington, DC. I will be joining them in that effort. I thank them for calling attention to this pressing issue and for their strong support of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, CARA. With this being National Police Week, I would also like to thank our police officers who are confronting this epidemic on the frontlines every single day. Police, other first responders, and medical personnel confront this epidemic more than anyone else. I have been told by prosecutors back home that in some counties in Ohio, more than 80 percent of the crime is directly related to this issue of heroin and prescription drug addiction. I am told that in some areas, nearly all of the thefts that are committed are done by those struggling with addiction to pay for their habit. The Fraternal Order of Police has been incredibly helpful to us in this legislation. They contributed valuable advice and feedback during the 3 years we were crafting CARA. I am grateful for their help and for their endorsement of CARA, which was very important to getting such a strong vote on the floor of the House and Senate. Police officers across Ohio have told me about the extent of the epidemic. They have told me about the need for the Federal Government to take action that is comprehensive. Major Jay McDonald, who is the president of Ohio's Fraternal Order of Police has told me that ``heroin mixed with fentanyl is the most deadly drug cocktail I've witnessed in my entire career.'' I visited a place called Jody's House with him. It is a residential house for women in recovery in Marion, OH. Major McDonald told me that our response should include enforcement, prevention, and treatment. In other words, it has to be comprehensive. He is absolutely right. Our police want CARA for a lot of reasons. For example, CARA would authorize new law enforcement task forces around the country to investigate trafficking in heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamines, and prescription drugs. Police know that these extra resources will help them to do their job. By the way, these task forces are not included in the House-passed legislation. We have to get that in conference to ensure that we are helping our police officers who are out there on the frontlines. Another reason I think the law enforcement community wants CARA passed is that they are using naloxone more and more every day. First responders used it 16,000 times in Ohio last year--16,000 times. CARA would increase access to naloxone. It would improve the training so that they could be more effective in administering this miracle drug in time to save a life. It would also insist, again, as it is being administered, that the drug treatment programs in the community locally are made available-- information available to people--so that we are not just seeing this revolving door. If we give our police the tools they need, they will be able to save even more lives and get more people into treatment. Our police are also helping to take drugs off the street. Since 2014, DEA agents in Ohio, working with local police departments, have seized more than 171 kilograms of heroin. Federal agents have now arrested more than 70 drug traffickers or drug dealers in Ohio in the last year alone. Sometimes the intervention of a police officer is exactly what it takes to get somebody into treatment. I have found that again and again. Two weeks ago, there was a heartbreaking story of a woman in the Miami Valley area--Dayton area--named Cheri, who said she was glad her son was in jail because ``I would rather have him sitting behind bars in jail than have to carry him out in a body bag.'' Two weeks ago in Wellington, OH, there was a town meeting held about the crisis. Nicole Walmsley told the story of how, after postpartum surgery at age 19, she was prescribed a prescription pain killer. She became addicted. She ended up being arrested 18 times and convicted of two felonies. ``I sold my morals; I sold my soul. Drugs became everything.'' After an overdose in Youngstown, she begged her probation officer to send her to jail. That is how bad it is. That is how difficult it is sometimes to find treatment. She asked the police officer and the judge to send her to prison because that is the best way to get good treatment, to be convicted of a felony. Even then, sometimes the best treatment is not available. That is the status quo today. Unless and until we get a more comprehensive bill to the President and signed into law, this continues. Too many are going without treatment. Too many are afraid to come forward. Too many are treating this not as a disease that needs to be treated, which it is, but instead are concerned about the stigma. We need to get people to come forward and come into treatment. But thanks to help from police, in the case of Nicole, as I mentioned, she did get treatment. For 3 years now, she has been living a clean and productive life and helping others do so too. Police across Ohio have been offering treatment to those struggling with addiction. I am impressed with what is going on in Lucas County, Ohio, which is in the Toledo area. Sheriff Tharp has started a drug abuse response team that offers addiction counseling, free rides to treatment for those who need it, and followup visits for those who have overdosed. In talking to Sheriff Tharp and some of his deputies about this, they have made an incredible difference in people's lives. In Lodi, OH, anyone can simply turn themselves in to the police, and they will get treatment with no questions asked. This is done using private donations entirely. This year they have already placed in rehabilitation 28 people who had no insurance and no income. The police there report that since they started the program, overdoses and property crimes have decreased considerably. In Wellington and in Auglaize County, police make the same offer: Turn yourself in and get treatment. We will not ask any questions. We will get you the help you need. I am told this is also the case in Creston, OH, and Newark, OH. So locally, police departments are taking up this issue and dealing with it effectively. I salute them for that. I also salute them for putting their lives on the line every day for all of us and for their compassionate care of those they run across who need this treatment. I know the statistics about drug abuse are heartbreaking. They can certainly be discouraging, including the relapse rates. But thanks in part to our police officers and good treatment providers around the country, such as those I visited on Monday, there are a lot of stories of hope, too, that encourage and inspire us. Many of those who are struggling have inspirational stories too. In Colerain Township, near my hometown, police have started what is called a quick response team of police, paramedics, and addiction counselors. When they arrest someone or save them from an overdose, they get them into treatment--again, not just applying Narcan but getting them into treatment. Last summer, they found Damon Carroll, who was just 22 years old, on his bedroom floor after an overdose. They got him counseling and treatment. Damon is now living a clean and productive life working at a restaurant. You know who stops by his house and stops by the restaurant and makes sure he is okay? The police officers who found him. Thanks to our police, he is beating this. There is hope. They saved a life. They are helping this young man to live out his God-given potential. I hope we can send comprehensive legislation to the White House as soon as possible because it is needed. It is urgent. It is an emergency. We have lost nearly 8,000 Americans since the Senate passed this Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act. That is the status quo today. Again, that does not begin to tell the story of those who have not died because of an overdose but struggle with addiction every day. Our police officers and those nonprofits I talked about, those treatment centers, those who are struggling with addiction--all of them deserve better. They deserve us to act. Again, we are not going to solve the problem here in Washington, DC, but we can be better partners with State and local governments, with these nonprofits, with these law enforcement officials around the country who are dealing with this issue every day. They deserve a better partner. I yield the floor.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I rise today to talk about the Zika virus. We will have a vote on this tomorrow. Tonight I wish to speak about the need for us to move forward with emergency funding with regard to this virus. We need to combat it. It is spreading. It poses a threat to the safety of women, children, and the elderly. It is particularly important that we keep it from spreading because there is no known Zika vaccine or treatment. A lot of my constituents have asked me about this back home. This is a virus that has spread from Africa, to Asia, to Latin America, and now it is coming into our own country. It is spreading so quickly because it is insidious. It is difficult to test for it because it is usually confused with other viruses, like dengue. It can only be detected in a few days after you get it in the blood. Many of its symptoms in older adults are similar to other viruses, such as influenza, so it is tough to know whether you have it. It is typically contracted simply by being bitten by a mosquito, and two kinds of mosquitoes--both of which are in the United States--are the problem. We now know that it can also be transmitted by sexual activity. We are told that men may be able to sexually transmit the virus for months after the initial infection based on some experiences. So, again, this is a difficult issue. Some people may not even know they have it; yet they might be spreading it. The spread of the virus is accelerating. It took 60 years for Zika to make it out of Africa to the Pacific. Just 8 years after that, it reached the Western Hemisphere in Latin America. Today it has infected people in 62 countries, including the United States and 34 other countries in the Americas, so pretty much every country in the Americas is now infected with it. Hundreds of Americans have been infected. We know of nearly 500, including 48 pregnant women and 12 people in my home State of Ohio, in fact. Thus far, it looks as though all of the Americans who have become infected did so by traveling overseas, being infected by the mosquito or by sexual contact with someone who had Zika. The World Health Organization calls it ``a threat of alarming proportions'' because it is spreading so quickly and because it has serious consequences for the most vulnerable in our society, particularly the elderly--an older gentleman in Puerto Rico recently died of Zika--children, babies in the womb, which we will talk about in a second, and pregnant women. As Zika has spread, health officials have reported an increased incidence of babies born with a horrible birth defect where a baby's head and brain are abnormally small. The consequences of this birth defect are absolutely tragic. These kids have seizures, slow development, intellectual disabilities, and often loss of hearing and vision. The consequences last a lifetime. There is no known cure for this disease. We don't want any child to have to suffer through that. It is in all of our interests to protect more babies from this syndrome. In Brazil, there have been more than 900 confirmed cases since Zika arrived, with another 4,000 suspected cases. These are conservative estimates, and they are rising. That is up from around an average of 150 each year--a 600-percent increase from year to year. Officials also tell us that Zika can cause what is called Guillain- Barre syndrome, which causes the body's immune system to attack its own nerves. It is a cruel syndrome, and in bad cases it can cause total paralysis and loss of sensation. This can happen to anyone, not just newborns but adults as well. These are just two of the neurological side effects that can result, and, like Zika, they are thought to be incurable. For most adults, Zika is not fatal, but to the most vulnerable, like the elderly and the unborn, it could be a lifetime of suffering, disability, or even death. I mentioned the man in Puerto Rico who died last week after being infected by Zika, a fellow American. His immune system began to attack the platelets in his blood, so they couldn't clot, and that was the effect for him. As Zika spreads, it becomes clearer than ever that our response has to be very aggressive, both domestically and internationally. It has to be aggressive, and therefore it has to be funded. That is why I think it is important that we deal with emergency funding before it is truly an emergency. I thank my colleagues for the steps they have already taken to improve our response. In March, this body passed and President Obama signed into law bipartisan legislation which I cosponsored with my friend Senator Franken that will give accelerated priority review at the Food and Drug Administration for new drugs and vaccines to treat Zika. This is very important, and I applaud the Senate for moving quickly and the administration for moving on that. It is a critical step. Right now, there is no cure and no treatment. President Obama has signed it into law. I am also grateful to the administration for redirecting more than $500 million of residual Ebola funds that were originally appropriated by Congress to deal with Ebola and were not necessary. They stopped using those funds for Ebola and shipped those funds over to Zika to stop it from spreading. I applaud them for that as well. Again, we have more work to do, and it is my view that we ought to move forward with emergency funding. There was a proposal--I believe it was finalized just last week, Thursday or Friday--from Senator Blunt and Senator Murray that goes a long way toward dealing with this issue. The majority of the funding is right here in the United States, while the rest will go to international immigration purposes so we can keep Zika from crossing our borders again. A lot of this funding goes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention--the majority of it--to enhance mosquito control programs, improve infrastructure for testing for Zika, and expand the pregnancy risk assessment monitoring system, all of which are important. This is emergency funding, and I think it is necessary. Some funding also helps provide health services for pregnant women in Puerto Rico and invests in scientific research for a treatment or a vaccine. This is perhaps the most important thing we can do. These are critical priorities. I would also note that I am pleased that we have maintained the Hyde protections in this proposal, and I believe this is consistent with the goal of protecting innocent life, protecting these innocent babies from birth defects. We want this funding to be used to help preserve life and to help the vulnerable. We need to ensure adequate funding. We have to recognize the tools already at our disposal and use them. I have remained in contact with the Secretary of the Air Force as this virus has spread to make clear that in Ohio we have reservists at Youngstown Air Reserve Station who are ready to help. This Air Reserve Station in Youngstown, OH, is the home of the 910th Airlift Wing, which is the only fixed-wing aerial spray unit in the United States. It has been used by the military all over the United States. They have played key roles in other public health emergencies, including spraying millions of acres in Louisiana and Texas for mosquito abatement after Hurricane Katrina. I believe they could play that same role now. They are ready to do it, but frankly they need an upgrade in their equipment to be able to do it. As RADM Stephen Redd of the CDC told me in the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, ``there could be a role for that airwing in locations that do not have [finely honed mosquito control enterprises].'' He said that a lot of counties in this country do not have that. He said: ``One of the things that we think is really important that the Zika virus outbreak is pointing out is the need to really revitalize those mosquito control efforts.'' I couldn't agree with him more. We need to revitalize these efforts to be sure we have them and use the tools that are at our disposal right now. If Zika were to spread around the country, it is incredibly important that we have this control effort. I hope we move forward on this in the next couple of days, send this legislation to the President for his signature, and get moving on dealing with the Zika emergency we have before us. People all over Ohio ask me about it because they are worried. We need to keep our constituents safe, and we need to give them peace of mind. Adopting the amendment I think we are going to have before us in the next couple of days is the best action we can take right now to achieve these goals, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to strongly support emergency funding for this purpose. Thank you. I yield back my time. THE PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coats). The Senator from Vermont.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, on March 10, this body, the U.S. Senate, passed legislation to address what is a growing problem in all of our communities, and that is the heroin and prescription drug epidemic. On March 10, this body voted for a comprehensive bill called CARA, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. It deals with prevention, treatment, and recovery, helping our law enforcement, getting prescription drugs off the shelves of our bathrooms so they are not being used to get people into this addiction, and helping to stop the overprescribing with a drug monitoring program. This was a comprehensive approach intended to help our communities deal with this growing problem. The No. 1 cause of death now in my home State of Ohio is not car accidents anymore, it is overdoses. It is overdoses from prescription drugs and heroin. Since March 10, I have come to the floor four times--this is now the fifth time--every week we have been in session since then, to urge the House to act quickly on CARA, because with a 94-to-1 vote, with that kind of consensus built around this place, which is highly unusual, it shows that this is a problem in all of our communities and all of our States. We spent 3 years putting together the legislation. We worked with experts from all around the country. We sought out best practices. This is not just a matter of throwing more money at a problem, this is a matter of taking the resources in Washington, spending them more wisely and targeting them toward what we know works--toward evidence- based programs, prevention, treatment, and recovery that has actually shown promise to be able to begin to turn the tide on this horrible epidemic. The House has begun to act, and I am encouraged by that. Obviously, I wish they had taken up CARA right away and sent it to the President. I think it would have been already helping in our communities in significant ways. During the time between when the Senate acted, March 10 to now, we have lost 7,400 Americans to drug overdoses. We lose a fellow citizen every 12 minutes on average, but the House is moving, and yesterday the House passed, legislation in the form of over a dozen different bills, smaller bills that will help with regard to this problem that I think are steps in the right direction. Today they are planning to take up a more comprehensive bill, the CARA legislation, that has also been reported out of the Judiciary Committee--as it was in this body--and perhaps a couple other bills as well. I am told that vote is likely to occur today, and that is great. I am concerned the legislation that passed in the House still leaves some gaps, and those gaps are in some significant areas. I am hopeful some amendments will be adopted today to help fill some of those gaps so we can indeed have a comprehensive approach to this issue. Sadly, this issue is not getting better; it is getting worse. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration just last week conducted their National Drug Prescription Take-Back Day, where you take drugs off the shelf and put them into a disposal unit to get rid of them so that your kid or grandkid or somebody visiting your home doesn't get these prescription drugs and misuse them. They had a record number of drugs turned in, 893,000 pounds of unwanted medicine; that is, 447 tons of prescription drugs that were not needed. I am grateful for those who participated in the take-back program. This is good news, to get these drugs off the shelves and be sure they are not being misused, but unfortunately that is just the tip of the iceberg, and it shows the severity of this problem. We have continued to see communities throughout my State and throughout the country being torn apart by this issue and families who are being devastated. Last week, a man pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter in Columbus, OH, because his infant son had ingested fentanyl-laced heroin and died. Last week, we also saw the arrest of three people who drove to Steubenville, OH, to buy heroin, and then while driving they used it in the car with a 4-year-old with them. This all happened in the last week. Last week, a 23-year-old pregnant woman and her unborn child were found dead of an apparent overdose in New Carlisle, OH. Yesterday, an Akron man pled guilty to selling heroin to his uncle who subsequently died of an overdose. In Cleveland, we have lost 148 people to drug overdoses in just the first quarter of this year. That is double--double--last year's rate in Cleveland, OH--one town in one State. By the way, the plurality of these deaths is that a majority were from fentanyl--fentanyl often laced with heroin. Fentanyl is a synthetic heroin that is about 50 times more dangerous. It is a growing problem in my State of Ohio. Unfortunately, these headlines are just the tip of the iceberg. We see this death toll rising, and it is tragic, but we also need to focus on the wounded, not just those who overdose but those who, because they have this addiction, have lost their job, cannot get their lives back together, are separated from their families. As one recovering addict told me: The drug was everything. I abandoned my kids, my wife. These are also people who are ending up in our jail system. Prosecutors back home tell me the majority of the crime--one county prosecutor told me a couple of weeks ago, 80 percent is being committed because of this issue--so theft, stealing in order to pay for a habit, and ending up in the prison system. All of us are paying for that of course. Everywhere I go in Ohio, people tell me about how this epidemic is affecting them. I had a townhall meeting the week before last, a tele- townhall with 25,000 people on a phone call. We do these once a month. A gentleman called in and he wanted to talk about the CARA legislation. He seemed to know a lot about it. He focused on the treatment part of it. His voice had a quiver. So I asked him: Would you mind sharing? You are on the line with a lot of people, but would you mind sharing why you are so interested in this issue? Again, he was focused a lot on the treatment side, and there was silence on the line. I knew what he was going to say. When he came to the point where he could speak, he said: I lost my daughter. Then he proceeded to tell the story. It was of a child who had started with prescription drugs, ended up with heroin, had committed some crimes--probably theft--ended up in and out of prison. She had finally come to the point where she was willing to face up to her addiction. She was ready to go into treatment to start long-term recovery. She had committed this to her parents. He said they took her to the treatment center. There was a 14-day wait. They pleaded: Can she get in someplace else? No; no room at the inn and a 14-day wait. During those 14 days is of course when she overdosed on heroin. His point was very simple: You guys need to do more to help provide access to treatment and the right kind of treatment. That is what this legislation does. Last Tuesday, I spoke at an opiate conference, the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authority's annual meeting, with record attendance this year of over 1,000 people. I heard from doctors, nurses, counselors, social workers, attorneys, law enforcement, all saying the same thing to me, which is: Rob, this problem is not getting better. It is getting worse. Washington does have a role to play, to be a better partner with State and local government and with the nonprofits that are in the trenches dealing with this issue every day. The Kaiser Family Foundation last week released a survey that showed that 44 percent of the public knew someone who struggled with addiction to opioids. Of those 44 percent, one in five said it was a family member; one in five said it was a close friend; one in five said it was an acquaintance; two-thirds overall said they want the State government and the Federal Government to do more about this addiction epidemic. Of course they do. People are desperate to figure out how to get at this issue. Again, our approach is evidence-based. It is based on the testimony of the experts around the country. It is based on best practices, what is working what is not working. Is Washington going to solve this problem? No, but we are part of the solution. It is going to be solved in our communities and in our families. We can turn this tide. We have in the past. We can do it again. The question is whether we are serious about it and whether we can move this legislation through the House, through the Senate, get it to the President, and get it working in our communities. In countless parts of Ohio, at the State and local level, people are taking action. I am encouraged by that and I applaud them for it. In my hometown of Cincinnati, the police force at the University of Cincinnati is now carrying Narcan and getting training to know how to use it. By the way, that is in this legislation to provide training to ensure people aren't just getting the naloxone, that they know how to use it. This is a miracle drug called Narcan--naloxone--so that when someone has overdosed, they will be able to bring them back. I have been in drug treatment centers all over my State, and I have heard the testimony, including a man who told me: I died. I faced my own death. I saw my father in Heaven. I was gone. Narcan brought me back to life. That is why I am in this treatment center, because that is how I hit rock bottom. So it is important, but the training needs to include, as you are giving people Narcan to use for their loved ones, giving it to the police officer to use when they are responding or a firefighter--I would tell you that if you go to most of our firehouses around the country, you will find there are more runs for heroin and prescription drug overdoses than there are for fires. That is true in my State, and it is probably true in yours. But if you are providing Narcan to somebody, you need to give them the ability to tell these people: Here is the treatment center. It is not enough just to save a life from a tragic occurrence like an overdose; we also have to figure out how not to be--as some firefighters and police officers told me--saving that life again and again but instead getting these people into the right treatment and recovery programs so they cannot just have their lives saved but begin to lead full and productive lives. I am very encouraged by something that happened yesterday. Stephen Stack, the president of the American Medical Association, issued a public letter to physicians. I think this is a major step forward. I don't know Stephen Stack, but I read his letter very carefully because I think he is putting his finger on something that the medical profession has been slow to realize. His letter said this: [F]ar too often, [opiate addiction] has started from a prescription pad. . . . I call on all physicians to . . . avoid initiating opioids for new patients with chronic non- cancer pain . . . limit the amount of opioids prescribed for post-operative care . . . register and use your state prescription drug monitoring program . . . [and] reduce stigma to enable effective and compassionate care. That is a step in the right direction. I hope every physician in the country gets a copy of this letter. We have incredibly compassionate, caring physicians out there, but we need to face the facts. There has been overprescribing, and that is part of the issue. Four of the five people in my State of Ohio who will die from heroin overdoses over this next month will have started with prescription drugs. There is a link here. We need to face it, and the medical profession needs to face it. In the Senate, we have taken action. A 94-to-1 vote is not the typical way things happen around here, as you know. That is highly unusual. That shows the seriousness of this issue. One of the things I am concerned about in the alternative to CARA that is being voted on in the House today is that it omits some of the key pillars, including a drug take-back program, which I think is important, and prescription drug monitoring programs. What we have in our legislation is very simple. It gives incentive grants to States to set up prescription drug monitoring programs. Most States have them already, but to have them so they work with other States, we need interoperability between the States. My own State of Ohio borders many other States, and what they tell me is this: We can have this prescription drug monitoring program for Ohio, but if someone goes to Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, or Indiana, we don't know. And if this is in our legislation, that would help. We hope that is added to the House bill. Prevention, recovery support services--I hope those are being adopted in the House as amendments. If they are not, we are going to work hard to get those included in conference. We are not going to send a bill to the President that is not comprehensive. With regard to prevention, there are some provisions that were omitted from the House alternative, including a national awareness program to let people know what is going on with prescription drugs. That connection we talked about a moment ago is incredibly important. It will save lives. It will bring people's lives back on track. It will avoid the situation where somebody goes to get his or her wisdom teeth pulled, they are given narcotic pain pills, they end up getting addicted and then move to heroin as a cheaper alternative, and sadly, in some cases--including a father who testified before a congressional committee in Ohio a week ago Friday--die of an overdose. That is what is happening. Prevention is important. The prevention grants we have are important. They are the most effective way to fight back against this epidemic, in many respects. If we can keep people from getting into the funnel of addiction in the first place, think of the lives that can be saved, the families that can be kept together rather than torn apart, the communities that will not be devastated by this spike in crime. Think of the impact on our economy and people not going to work. They say there is a $700 billion economic impact based on addiction. It is the faces of addiction we care about the most. Think about Marin Riggs from Pickerington, OH. She was a high school student. She was about to graduate. She was very smart. She had good grades. She was a star athlete. She was popular, full of life. It seemed like she had it all. She made a mistake; she tried heroin with her boyfriend. She became addicted. Something changed physiologically in her brain to give her this disease. It is a disease. Her parents started missing money from their wallets. Charges started showing up on her dad's credit card. She tried to quit. She went into rehab. She wrote in her journal that she was heroin's ``worst enemy.'' She was going to beat this thing. But she relapsed. The grip of this addiction is horrible. Her brother found her dead of a heroin overdose 2 weeks after her 20th birthday. This can happen to any family anywhere. It knows no ZIP Code. It is not an inner-city problem. It is not a suburban problem. It is not a rural problem. It is everywhere. Addiction doesn't ask what your political party is, either. That is why we kept this nonpartisan. It is not just bipartisan. That is why I hope we can move this legislation quickly to the President and get him to sign it into law, because it is needed right now, and prevention needs to be part of it. Marin's mom, whose name is Heidi, is letting her voice be heard throughout Ohio. She is educating kids and parents about the dangers of experimenting with drugs. I commend her for that. I am so grateful for her and the other moms and dads around Ohio who are doing that. They are amazing. Tonda DaRe came to testify before the Judiciary Committee. Her daughter's name was Holly. Holly died when she was in her early twenties. She started Holly's Song. She is talking to people, working with people, families, letting them know what the dangers are but also, if they have a son or child who is addicted, letting them know how to get them into treatment and recovery so that other lives will not be lost. I have heard stories of these teenagers whose wisdom teeth are being taken out and they end up getting addicted to Percocet and Vicodin. Angie Trend of Lake County is one of them. She told me her son was 16 when he had his wisdom teeth taken out. He is one of the lucky ones; he is now in recovery. He is 25 years old. But the pain and agony that family went through when he was age 16 to 25 could have been avoided. When I think of these stories, I cannot leave out prevention. It has to be part of it. I started my own anti-drug coalition in my home State, in my home city, about 20 years ago. It continues to be effective today. It is all about prevention, getting the entire community engaged and involved. That is what needs to happen on a national basis, and it needs to happen now in order for us to save lives. The approach we took in writing this legislation, the Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act, was unusual around here. We spent 3 years pulling together experts and getting best practices but also accepting ideas from anywhere where there was a good idea. We didn't care whose idea it was; all we cared about was whether it worked. I know that these statistics about heroin addiction and overdoses are heartbreaking. They can be pretty discouraging. But I also know there is hope. I have run into people from our State who have struggled with addiction and who have found their way to treatment and effective recovery--usually it is long-term recovery--with support from family and friends and others who have been through addiction. Now they are back on their feet, and they are not just productive, working members of our communities, but they are helping others. I heard the story of Courtney Golden. She was addicted to oxycodone. She received treatment and has been clean for 7 years. She is now the director of an outpatient counseling center. I heard the story of Terri Skaggs of the Sojourner House in Portsmouth, OH. She was addicted for 17 years, but after 17 years, she didn't give up. She has now been clean for 2 years. They beat this, and they are helping other people. I see this at every treatment center I go to. There is hope. We can turn the tide, but it does require this institution to pull its act together and get a good bill out of conference that is comprehensive, that is evidence-based, that is going to make a real difference throughout our communities, and get that bill to the President for his signature. We have lost more than 7,400 Americans since the Senate passed this legislation on March 10. Every 12 minutes, we lose another American, another one of our fellow citizens. Partial solutions will not suffice. We need a comprehensive approach. I will insist on it, as will others. I thank the Presiding Officer for the time today. I am encouraged by what the House is doing on the floor. I hope the next time I come to the floor, I will not be talking about how the House must act but, rather, congratulating the House for acting and congratulating the President for signing a legislative initiative that will make a difference in my home State and in our communities all around this country. I yield back my time.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I rise today to talk about an issue that affects not only retirees in Ohio, but retirees all around the country. Let me start by saying that if hundreds of thousands of retirees were getting the Social Security benefits they had worked for cut by as much as 70 percent, there would be a national uproar. People would consider it totally unacceptable. It would be the top news story every night. People would say: These retirees played by the rules; they did everything right. Yet they are seeing these big cuts. How could this happen? Yet that is exactly what is happening to about 400,000 members of the Central States Pension Fund who are facing cuts of up to 70 percent as soon as July 1 of this year. Again, these are people who worked hard all their lives, put money into the pension system assuming it would be there, made their financial plans based on that, and now they are suddenly finding massive cuts--some 20 percent, some 40 percent, some as high as 70 percent. It is time for the Senate to address this potential crisis and to come up with a fair solution. The Central States Pension Fund consists mostly of union truck drivers. They have seen its pension fund severely decline. That is why we are in this situation. The pension suffered big investment declines during the great recession, as did other pension funds. One difference is that they missed the market rebound because they had a large population of new retirees, and they had to withdraw large sums from their pension for those payouts. One of the largest pension funds in America is in trouble. It is projected to go bankrupt in about a decade. That bankruptcy could be so large that it would have a very negative impact on the larger Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation that insures the fund. We don't want that to happen because that could, of course, leave hundreds of thousands of retirees with severely reduced or no pensions. Something has to be done. Math is math. I understand that and, by the way, Central States retirees understand that. They know there is a problem. But the way Congress and the President have dealt with this is totally unacceptable. The House of Representatives worked on a proposal. It was crafted in the House, not in the Senate. It allowed the pension to possibly avert bankruptcy--and I say ``possibly'' because, as I will talk about later, even this proposal doesn't mean they are going to avert bankruptcy. But they did so by cutting the benefits of current retirees substantially, severely in some cases, again by as much as 70 percent. They then took this proposal called the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act, or MPRA, and buried it inside a $1 trillion spending bill, which, frankly, nobody read. It was one of those last-minute bills, an end-of- the-year omnibus spending package, as they call it, and they sent it to the U.S. Senate. Members of the Senate were told: This is an up-or-down vote. There were no hearings in the Senate. There was no transparent process. I remember when this happened about a year and a half ago, we were told that if the Senate didn't quickly pass these unprecedented reforms, with no hearings and no opportunities for amendments on the floor of the Senate, the spending bill would fail. This is Washington at its worst: Bury something in a spending bill that has nothing to do with a spending bill--in this case, a pension cut--and then basically try to blackmail lawmakers to vote for it, saying: If you don't vote for this, the whole bill goes down. I voted against it, as did other Members here in the Senate, but it passed. Of course, President Obama quickly signed it into law. Suddenly, these retirees were sent notices saying they have this big cut in their pension. I agree that the status quo is not acceptable. I think over time it would lead to pension bankruptcy, and something has to be done. Difficult decisions are necessary. But the MPRA was an unfair remedy because it did not go through a fair and open and transparent process. Also, it didn't give the workers or retirees a sufficient voice in their own futures. They did not have a voice in crafting the reforms because of the way it was structured. We probably have 47,000, 48,000 Ohioans affected by this. After months of meetings with Ohio workers, retirees, and stakeholders, including the administration, I introduced what is called the Pension Accountability Act. Basically, it gives workers and retirees a voice in this process. Right now, MPRA does allow there to be a vote by workers and retirees, but for these large plans, the vote is nonbinding. So there is a vote, but it doesn't count. Even if the participants vote 100 percent against the reforms, it wouldn't stop the cuts from going forward. That is crazy. That is certainly not democratic. Additionally, the vote is designed unfairly. Here is how it works: If a retiree or a worker chooses not to take out a ballot and vote, it is automatically counted as a ``yes'' vote for the plan. Imagine how that would work in U.S. Presidential elections or other democratic processes. But that is not how this works. If you submit a ballot, it should be counted. If you don't submit a ballot, it shouldn't be counted. So the Pension Accountability Act fixes these two problems: First, it makes the retiree and the worker vote binding. This will give workers and retirees a seat at the table, and a majority vote would be required for any pension cuts to go forward. Second, it makes the vote fair by counting the ballots as they should be counted, not returning the ballots as an automatic ``yes'' vote. These commonsense reforms give the workers and the retirees more leverage. It gives them a fair say in the process because their vote is going to be heeded to implement changes. They are going to have a seat at the table to find the right balance. Again, we know these pensions are in trouble, and some changes are necessary to prevent bankruptcy, which could leave some families with nothing. So let the process play out. If the businesses, unions, workers, and retirees can craft a solution to win a majority vote, more power to them. But let's give everyone a seat at the table, and let these retirees have a vote. The goal should not be to stop all pension reforms. If Central States continues on its road to bankruptcy, then, everybody loses. But the goal should be to give those affected a say in how these reforms are designed. It brings accountability. It opens the lines of communication on both sides of the bargaining table to come up with a fair solution. There are some other proposals. I think the Pension Accountability Act has a much more realistic chance of enactment because I do not believe a massive tax increase is viable. It is the only reform proposal with bipartisan support. In fact, between my bill and the House companion legislation, we have nine Democrats and nine Republicans. In the meantime, for the reasons I have discussed, the Department of the Treasury should not accept Central States' application. They should reject this proposal to cut benefits up to 70 percent for some of the retirees, as we have talked about. By the way, even if all the application's positive market assumptions play out, there is still a 50-percent chance the pension goes bankrupt anyway. This doesn't exactly inspire confidence in this plan. I think they should go back to the drawing board. By the way, I am openminded to other solutions that would provide funding from inside the multiemployer pension system. There are different ideas out there, and we should talk about them. Let me finish with a story about a guy I got to know through this process. His name was Butch Lewis, from Westchester, OH. Butch was a star baseball player in high school. He was drafted out of high school by the Pittsburgh Pirates. But instead of going on to a career in baseball, he heard the call of duty and he volunteered to join the U.S. Army and to serve in Vietnam. He became an Army Ranger. He was seriously injured while rescuing fellow soldiers. He was sent home with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. When he came home, Butch reunited with his high school sweetheart Rita. He started a family, and he started working, despite his injuries. He spent 40 years as a truckdriver. The lack of shock absorbers in those old trucks hurt his knees a lot. His knees had been injured in Vietnam in battle. Ultimately, it required 37 surgeries. But he kept working and never complained. He sacrificed for his family and for their pension--to the point of foregoing pay raises, vacations, and other benefits in order to guarantee that he had a sufficient pension for retirement. They planned on it, like you would or anybody would. Finally retired, a year ago Butch was surprised when he received a letter in the mail saying his pension would be cut by 40 percent--the pension that he was depending on. So after all those years of work and sacrifice, his pension would be deeply slashed. Butch felt betrayed, and I think that is understandable. He organized with his fellow retirees an effort to try to defend those pensions, and that is how I came to know him. He came to Washington, DC, to meet with me here. I also met with him in Ohio. I listened to his story. I listened to his wife Rita, who is very articulate, and we addressed different ways to try to save his pension. He is one of the reasons we came up with this legislation. This past New Year's Eve, feeling the stress, Butch became ill, and he died of a massive heart take. He was 64 years old. His wife Rita is left to pick up the pieces. She has now lost her husband. Her own dad is battling Stage IV cancer. She is looking at a 40-percent cut to her survivor's benefit. She is preparing to sell the house that she and her husband Butch saved a lifetime for. She is wondering what her future is going to be. She is a very strong woman. She worked tirelessly to save for these pensions. Now she is fighting to make sure all the hard work her husband put in was not in vain. This is who we are fighting for. Think about Butch Lewis when we think about what we should do. Think about Rita and 400,000 other members of the Central States Pension Fund. These are people who played by the rules. They worked hard, and yet, in their retirement years, they face possible financial ruin through no fault of their own. This is why we need to pass the Pension Accountability Act. We have attempted to offer it as amendments in previous legislation here over the last couple of months. We are going to continue to do that. We are not going to give up. I would hope the Senate and the House would see that by giving people a voice, it gives them leverage, and we can come up with a better and a more fair solution for everybody. I yield back my time. I yield to the Senator from North Carolina.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I rise today to speak on behalf of the one in three Ohioans who knows somebody who is struggling with addiction to heroin or prescription drugs. I rise today on behalf of the over 5,000 Americans who have lost their lives to a prescription drug overdose since the Senate passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act back on March 10. I rise today to talk about an epidemic which is affecting my home State of Ohio, which is affecting all our States, whichever it is, and which is affecting our country and must be dealt with. This is the fourth time I have come to the floor of the Senate since we passed CARA, which is the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, and I come to floor to talk about our legislation and to ask the House of Representatives to please pass that legislation, which would then go to the President for his signature and could begin to help in communities all across the country. The legislation I am talking about is legislation that the Senator from New Hampshire, now who is the Chair right now, the Presiding Officer, has been involved with in a very deep way in her own State of New Hampshire and also here on the Senate floor. I appreciate all the hard work she has put into this, and I know she agrees with me that it is time for the House to act. We passed it on March 10. That means it has been 47 days since the Senate acted. About 120 Americans die every day of a drug overdose. It has been 47 days. That means we have lost 5,600 Americans to drug overdoses since the Senate passed this bill. By the way, it is not just about that tragic loss of life, it is about so many people who may not have overdosed but have this addiction and are not taking care of their families, are not able to work and be a productive citizen, are not achieving their God-given potential. It is about those who have overdosed but have been saved by this miracle drug that police and firefighters and other first responders and sometimes family members now are administering called Narcan or naloxone. It means that since the Senate passed this bill, this epidemic is getting worse, not better. That is based on all of the information I get back home. Last week in Lebanon, OH--it is a small town north of Cincinnati, OH, where my family has roots going back to the 1920s--in Lebanon, OH, a 34-year-old woman, who was engaged to be married, overdosed and died in front of her children, one aged 10 and one baby girl who was still learning to walk. By the way, that little girl's father has now been arrested. Within days of her mother's addiction--she has now lost both her mom and her father. Last week, from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning--Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning--six people died of overdoses in one small town called Elyria, OH. It is not a big city; there are about 53,000 people in Elyria. We lost six people in 24 hours. That does not include the 14 people who were saved by this miracle drug I talked about, Naloxone, that reverses the effects of an overdose. That is what has been happening. That is happening on our streets, and in the case of my home town of Cincinnati, it is happening in our parking lots. At noontime on Sunday, in my hometown, a man overdosed in the parking lot of the Museum Center in Cincinnati, OH. First responders moved quickly and were able to save his life. But it is happening in broad daylight, unfortunately, more and more frequently. Since 2007 drug overdoses have killed more people in Ohio than car accidents, making it the No. 1 cause of accidental death. I am told that nationally, now, it is the leading cause of accidental death in the country. It is not car accidents, which we would might have assumed, it is overdoses. They have more than tripled in Ohio from 1999 to 2010. We are told that 200,000 Ohioans are addicted to opioids--200,000 people. That is the size of a major city like Akron, OH. That is something which should concern us all. Last week there was a poll that showed that 3 in 10 Ohioans know someone who has abused prescription drugs, and 1 in 8 knows someone who has overdosed. We are talking about more than 1.3 million Ohioans. According to NIDA--the National Institute on Drug Abuse--the United States, even though we make up about 5 percent of the world's population, consumes 75 percent of the prescriptions drugs, including the vast majority of the world's prescription painkillers, the narcotic painkillers. They say four to five of the people who are heroin addicts started on prescription drugs. We have heard more about this this week in the news, about the fact that so many people get addicted to the opioid, which is the prescription drug. Sometimes it is actually prescribed to them; sometimes they obtain it illegally. They turn to heroin as a less expensive alternative and then end up overdosing. The results are tragic. If this is not an epidemic, I don't know what is. It is affecting every area. It knows no ZIP Code. So when you think about drugs and drug abuse and the effects of it, you might think inner city. That is not so. It is everywhere--in the suburbs, in the rural areas. It knows no ZIP Code. I mentioned that this legislation we worked on here for a few years passed the Senate. It was bicameral legislation, meaning it was the House and Senate working together for 3 years. We had five conferences here in Washington. We brought in experts on the issues of prevention and education and treatment and recovery and how to deal with our veterans who are coming back, who have a high rate of addiction, how to deal with women and their babies. In my home State of Ohio, we have had a huge increase in the rate of babies being born addicted, and what do you do about that? We put together this legislation in a comprehensive manner to handle not just one part or one sector but to be something that would deal with the holistic approach so that we could actually get at this issue. In the House, by the way, the identical legislation was introduced, and they now have over 120 cosponsors of that legislation in the House. Yet they have not been able to move on that legislation. Instead, they are moving on other legislation to deal with the issue. That is good. I am sure there are a lot of other things that can and should be done. Some of what they are doing is consistent with CARA. But we know CARA works. We know that if we can pass it, the President would sign it. We know it would help immediately in our communities. So I again call on the House to move quickly. Last week a subcommittee in the House chaired by Joe Pitts marked up one dozen bills that have to do with how we fight this epidemic. Joe Pitts is a man who cares a lot about this issue. He has a passion for it. This week my friend and full committee chairman Fred Upton is going to mark up those 12 bills. The House has a lot of good ideas. That is fine. That is good. I joined Congressman Bill Johnson of Marietta, OH, who has been a passionate advocate on this issue, to introduce something called the Preventing Abuse of Cough Medicine Act, which would restrict the sale of certain cough medicines that are frequently abused. That is good. It is a commonsense Ohio idea. I thank my friend and colleague for doing his part to help our constituents. That should be passed in addition to CARA, along with other legislation. I certainly respect my colleagues over there very much, as I said, but let's just give CARA a vote, and then let's move on this other legislation as well. It takes a while, as all of us are painfully aware, to get something through the process around here. This one went through with a 94-to-1 vote. It is comprehensive. It was introduced in both the House and the Senate. They have over 120 cosponsors. Let's just move that. Then, if there are other things to be dealt with, like the one I talked about, we can work on those as well and find ways to work together to find common ground. I will support that. I cannot speak for all of my colleagues, but I can speak for all of them--with the exception of one who voted the other way--to say that we will help get CARA to the President. In fact, it doesn't need to come back to the Senate if they pass the CARA legislation. More and more Members in the House are focused on this issue. That is good. Tomorrow, the House Judiciary Committee is also marking up legislation in this area. So this is a separate committee--the Energy and Commerce Committee--and now the Judiciary Committee. They are going to mark up five related bills, including what they consider the alternative to CARA. It has some of the CARA provisions but not all of them. Let me tell you what the experts out there are saying. There are over 120 groups who have endorsed our legislation, helped us to get our legislation through. Yesterday, the policy director of the Harm Reduction Coalition sent a letter to the Judiciary Committee saying that its alternative ``omits vital provisions in CARA addressing recovery, collateral consequences, prevention, and education. These omitted provisions represent critical community priorities, which truly relate to the comprehensiveness of CARA's approach. CARA was developed through a thorough process of extensive consultation with dozens of stakeholders . . . and has secured the broad support of national, state, and local addiction and recovery, public health, and criminal justice organizations. . . . The version of CARA passed by the Senate represents substantial consensus among both community stakeholders and bipartisan lawmakers.'' The House Judiciary's alternative to CARA does contain some of CARA's best proposals. I appreciate that. But unfortunately it dropped out a number of really important ones as well. Some of the most important ideas that are missing include provisions expanding drug takeback programs. Again, we talked about this earlier. These prescription drugs are at the heart of this problem. These takeback programs get these prescription drugs off the bathroom shelf, allow us to pull these drugs away from our communities so that people are not using these drugs to get into more drugs, to get into heroin. That is not in there. There is also a heroin law enforcement task force that was dropped out and a drug court for veterans called the veterans court. That is a very important issue for all of us. The veterans' testimony we got made it clear to us that these courts are working. I have toured some of these courts. I have had a chance to sit down at a roundtable discussion in Ohio with one of our great veterans courts to talk to veterans whose lives have been entirely turned around by these veterans courts. After years and years of bouncing around in the prison system or at the VA, finally they get into these drugs courts for veterans, where they are surrounded by other veterans and they are able to pull their lives together, to get their families back together, and in one case go back to school. There is one guy who is about to graduate from Ohio State University after years and years of not being able to find a way to move forward. Here is another one. Patty McCarthy Metcalf of Faces and Voices of Recovery wrote in a letter today that taking out the CARA recovery provisions ``will prolong the crisis of addiction by not providing the critical support in communities across our nation where it is most needed. Recovery services provided by recovery community organizations, including recovery coaching and emergency rooms and drug courts and recovery education and awareness, are desperately needed and highly effective in getting people with addiction on a long-term path to recovery.'' What does she mean by all that? She means that these recovery coaches and the services that are supported by the CARA bill help people who might go, as she said, to an emergency room because they have an overdose to be confronted by somebody who says: Look, we can help you get better. You don't have to do this again. You don't have to overdose again. You don't have to go through this near-death experience. We can get you into a program where you can get treatment and recovery. Someone has to provide the resources for those coaches. We want those coaches. All of us as citizens should want them. We don't want people to keep overdosing again and again. We want to break that cycle. That is what our legislation would do. Patty makes the critical point that our response has to be comprehensive. I think she is right. She says: Prevention, treatment and enforcement cannot solve the opiate problem without recovery supports. National experts on addiction, and millions of people in recovery, will agree that a comprehensive approach is critical. That is what we do. CARA is comprehensive. There are 71 recovery groups, including the Ohio State University Collegiate Recovery Community, which sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee and the Education and Workforce Committee today expressing concern that two sections of CARA which expand recovery supports for students in high school and in college were dropped out. These are amazing programs. I am so impressed with these brave young men and women who stand up and say: I have a problem. I have an addition. For other students at this high school or at this college, who, like me, have this addiction, have this disease, I want to help you. We should work together and come together in support groups. There did not use to be any of these hardly, as far as I know. Now there are a number of them. Ohio State University is one of the places that took the lead in this. I am so proud of those students who stood up and said: Despite the stigma around this, I am going to stand up and say that I have this problem, and I know many of you do too. If you do, come, and we can work together to work through this problem. Again, what they say is, ``We support a comprehensive approach to addressing this epidemic, which must include providing recovery supports that enable individuals to enter and sustain their recovery.'' Again, CARA is comprehensive. No other bill comes close. As this process moves forward, I hope we will insist that any final agreement represents a comprehensive approach because this epidemic has to be combated from all angles. The approach we took to writing CARA was to say we are going to take the best ideas regardless of where they come from. We don't care who brings them. We just care what the idea means to help address this problem. We had ideas from Democrats. We had ideas from Republicans. We had ideas from House Members, from Senators, from experts in law enforcement, and from patients in recovery. We didn't ask who had the idea, we asked if it was a good idea. That is how you cobble together good legislation that makes a difference in our communities. On Friday I was in Ohio chairing a hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. It was at University Hospitals of Cleveland, OH. We heard from law enforcement experts such as the attorney general, Mike DeWine, and the acting U.S. attorney, Carole Rendon. She was great, as was Senator DeWine. Law enforcement, including the Fraternal Order of Police, has been strongly supportive of CARA because they believe this comprehensive approach works. We also provide training for the administering of this naloxone we talked about, the Narcan, and being sure that law enforcement has what they need to be able to help combat this issue. We also create these law enforcement task forces to combat heroin and methamphetamines. They want better tools, law enforcement does, so they can save lives. We owe them that. In Ohio I am that our first responders have used naloxone more than 16,000 times in the last year alone. Thank God for those first responders because they have saved thousands and thousands of lives. On Friday we also heard from Tracy Plouck from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. We heard from Dr. Nancy Young of Children and Family Futures and Dr. Margaret Kotz, who is the director of Addiction Recovery Services at University Hospitals in Cleveland, one of the experts we have relied on. They talked about the recovery process. Their point was that probably 9 out of 10 people who need treatment are not getting it. That is a clear sign the status quo is not working. Some of it is the stigma we talked about earlier, people are not coming forward. Some of it is not having treatment programs that are accessible. We heard about waiting lists, sometimes 3 or 4 days, sometimes 14 days, sometimes a couple of months--and people being at that point in their lives where they are willing to come forward and say: I need to solve this problem. Yet there is a waiting list. Last night I had a tele-townhall meeting. We had 25,000 Ohioans on at any one time. It was a big group. People were talking about all kinds of issues, from the terrorist threat we face to energy and environment issues, to the jobs issue. One guy called in and he asked: What are you doing about treatment for people who have drug problems? So I told him about the CARA legislation and he seemed to have a quiver in his voice. I asked him: You seem to have a lot of interest in this and some information about it. Can you tell us your background? I thought perhaps he was a doctor or a treatment specialist. Unfortunately, he said what you hear more and more from parents, which is: I lost my child to addiction. She had an overdose. She died. And the reason I am so focused on treatment, Senator Portman, is because we got her to the place in her life where she was willing to go, finally, to a treatment center and get the treatment and recovery services she needed to deal with this disease that had gripped her--and there was no room at the inn. There was a waiting list. We couldn't get her in, and it was during that period that we couldn't get her into the treatment center that would have helped her that she overdosed. This is a caller from last night who--on a call--was willing to say this in front of 25,000 people. I told him I appreciated the fact that he had the courage to call in and the courage to talk about it. Of course, I expressed my sympathy to him and his family but asked him to continue talking about it, to channel that grief into something positive. Until we get more people into treatment, this is going to continue to be a huge problem in every one of our communities. Until we change the law, until we get legislation passed in Washington so we can be better partners, we are not going to be doing our part. Will Washington solve this problem? No. This problem is going to be solved in our communities, it is going to be solved in our families, and it is going to be solved in our hearts. We have to get people to pull away from this, to understand the dangers, better prevention and education. In our legislation, we have a prevention program to build awareness about the connection with prescription drugs and heroin. I bet most people listening right now didn't know about that connection, a lot of people don't. Why would you, if you hadn't faced this issue? That awareness alone is going to make people make better decisions for themselves, for their children. Friday in Cleveland we had a man testify whose son died of an overdose. Do you know why? Because he had his molars--his wisdom teeth--taken out. When he had his wisdom teeth taken out, what happened? You know where I am going. They gave his son, a kid, Percocet--a narcotic, a painkiller. The rest of the story you know, which is he started taking more of those and more of those. Then he took some from the bathroom shelf of one of his relatives. He developed this addiction and eventually turned to heroin and overdosed. Now his father, God bless him, is out there talking to high schoolers, talking to middle schoolers, talking to young people about the dangers. We can address this issue. We know we can. There has been success with other awareness programs. Think of smoking and teen smoking. We have made great progress there. We have to make progress on this one. This is about life and death. We heard testimony on Friday from Dr. Michele Walsh, the director of neonatology at University Hospitals. She talked about how she is increasingly seeing babies who are born with what is called neonatal abstinence syndrome. That is a fancy way of saying these poor babies are born with an addiction. She said the symptoms are the same you would see with an adult. It is the fidgeting. It is the sweats. These are little babies. I have gone to these neonatal units, and I know some of my colleagues have. You see these babies. They are so small they can fit in the palm of your hand, and they are addicted. You have these doctors and nurses with incredible passion, such as Dr. Michele Walsh, who are taking care of them. In my home State of Ohio we have had a 750-percent increase in the last 12 years with babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome--a 750-percent increase. Every single neonatal unit in Ohio is facing this. I have been to Rainbow Babies & Children's in Cleveland, which is at this hospital. I have seen what they do. I have been to St. Rita's special care nursery in Lima, OH. I have been to Children's Hospital in my own hometown. They are doing great work, but wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to deal with this issue because we had better prevention and education to let mothers know what the danger is when they are pregnant and they could have better treatment and recovery to get those women out of this grip of addiction so their babies can be born without these issues. Frankly, the long-term effects we talked about at our hearing, talking to experts and doctors, I don't think people know what the long-term effects are--and of course that is scary. They basically take these babies through withdrawal. We have to provide babies with the medication at a lower level--but that you would provide an adult--to take them through the withdrawal process. CARA, the legislation we are talking about, would help these women. It would help these babies by expanding treatment for expectant and postpartum women as well as awarding grants to evidence-based treatment services and residential treatment programs for pregnant women who are struggling with addiction. It would create a pilot program to provide family-based services to women who are addicted to opiates in a nonresidential outpatient setting. It is what we learn from experts-- how to help address this problem--that is in this legislation. I know there are other ideas out there, and that is great, but stripping out some of CARA's core provisions just didn't make any sense to me. Let's keep it comprehensive. Let's be sure and get this legislation done and then work on additional legislation. The House could simply put CARA on the suspension calendar and have a vote on it. That is the calendar where you have to have a two-thirds vote, but something like this with all the cosponsors and all the interest in this issues now, I think it would pass. That means we are one vote away of getting this help to our communities. That is how close we are to a historic achievement to help begin to turn the tide, to make the Federal Government a better partner with our States, our local communities. Our great nonprofits are out there in the trenches doing the work and our families. There is no reason it couldn't happen today, tomorrow, or the next day before we go into another congressional recess. After 3 years of work, it doesn't make sense to start from scratch and try to rewrite this. Let's work together to come up with additional ideas that are course appropriate. Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas around here. Believe me, I know some of these House Members. They have the right intentions. They are trying to help. I appreciate that, but I also think we all need to appreciate the fact that this is a crisis. We are losing more and more Americans, 5,600 since CARA was passed in the Senate. Roughly every 12 minutes we lose someone else. People's lives are on the line. Communities are being impacted. Families are being torn apart. It is time for us to act and act quickly. I appreciate the time today. I urge the House to move quickly on this legislation so we can begin to help our communities in need. I yield back the remainder of my time. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, first, to the majority whip, I thank him for his comments on the Zika virus. He is absolutely right to raise awareness of that issue. It is a great concern. In Ohio we happen to have some military assets that have been used in the past for aerial spraying, and I know they are interested in being even more involved in some of the eradication of some of these mosquitoes in the southern part of the country that may end up causing some of this infection. It is a very serious matter, and I am glad to know the Appropriations Committee is working on it as well as our authorizing committees. I know the Senator from Texas has a personal interest in this. I rise to speak about the underlying legislation--the Energy and Water appropriations bill. I thank the chairman of that committee, Senator Alexander, for working with me to include a couple of important provisions for the State of Ohio. One is the cleanup of what is known as the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant. This is a site that for half a century enriched uranium. This uranium was used by our Navy, for our military, and for other purposes, including our nuclear arsenals, but it also has been used for our powerplants. So for decades the people in Piketon, OH, have been helping keep Americans safe and also helping thousands of Ohioans to keep the lights on and to stay warm at a reasonable cost. Now we have to clean up this facility. We moved on to other technology. It is an efficient technology, but it is a heck of a cleanup removing all this gaseous diffusion material and properly disposing of it. This cleanup effort employs about 2,000 Ohioans. They are doing their job and doing it very well. We have to support them. Unfortunately, over the years they have not gotten the support they deserve. In a 2008 campaign trip to Ohio, the President gave a commitment that he would accelerate that cleanup. Frankly, that just hasn't happened under the President's budget, so every year we have to fight for more funding to be sure that we can continue the cleanup, which is so important, but also to ensure that we aren't losing jobs in Pike County. We just had this tragic occurrence where we had four different homes where family members were present during the horrible shooting out there in Pike County. This is one of the counties in Ohio that have relatively high unemployment. It is a county that has a lot of economic issues. These 2,000 jobs are good-paying jobs with good benefits, so it is very important that we keep the jobs there. Just as importantly, it is the right thing to do for the taxpayers because as the Obama administration has pulled back funding for this cleanup, it ends up costing the taxpayers more because delaying this cleanup ends up adding huge additional costs as funding is cut back and there is less cleanup going on. Our analysis shows that an accelerated cleanup could save the taxpayers $4 billion, getting this done and moving the site on to commercial use. Having adequate funding will save the taxpayers money. Second, cleaning up the radioactive waste and other hazardous waste there is incredibly important for the community. It makes that site cleaner, of course, and is better for the environment. It is important for the community and these people who have for many years been providing us with the enriched uranium for our military and for our powerplants to know they are not going to be left with this environmental problem. Third, these are good-paying jobs in a county that really needs them. Finally, we owe it to the community to clean up the site so they can redevelop it. They want to reindustrialize this site, and it is a great location to do maybe an energy project or maybe a nuclear powerplant at some point and other exciting opportunities, but they have to clean up what is there in order for the site to be used for that. The people of Piketon have helped shore up our economy and our national defense. We owe it to them to clean up this site. I am pleased that in this legislation we are considering an increase of $20 million over this year's level of cleanup work and an additional $20 million over this year's level for constructing a needed onsite disposal cell. We are at the point where we need to dispose of this material, and we need more money for that disposal cell. I am hoping that the House will increase the funding for the disposal cell even more, and if so, we will work in conference to get that number up further because that makes a lot of sense in order to actually move forward on this cleanup for all the reasons I have stated. Again, I thank the chairman, Senator Alexander, for his help on this. One thing the chairman knows well is that part of the funding for the cleanup work comes from the Department of Energy's barter of uranium. I ask that as we move forward with the completion of this legislation over the next few months, if the price of uranium should change--should drop--that the chairman continue to work with us to ensure that there are no job losses and to ensure that the cleanup work is not delayed as it has been in the past. Second, I thank the chairman for including another provision that is incredibly important to Ohio and to Lake Erie. For many years the Army Corps of Engineers has been dredging the Cuyahoga River. It is necessary to do that for commercial purposes. They have a big steel plant there, which anybody who comes to the Republican Convention will see. It is very important, for that plant and other commercial purposes, to keep this waterway open for boat traffic, including bringing iron ore in for the steel mills. Unfortunately, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to take the dredge from the river and dump it into Lake Erie. Time and time again, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and others have said this is not good for the environment. Specifically, the dredge has PCB material. The PCB pollutants get into the fish, and the Ohio EPA has told them that if they keep dumping it into the lake, at some point they will have to issue a warning that the walleye in Lake Erie, which is our great game fish, is not to be eaten more than a certain number of times per month. This would kill the fishing industry. It is also the wrong thing to do with all the algal bloom problems we have in the lake because that is driven by nitrogen and phosphorous mostly, and those nutrients would get into the lake through this dumping. So we are saying: Let's use an onsite disposal facility. We have one on land that they can use. They are refusing to do that. The Army Corps of Engineers has gone so far as to, in the last appropriations bill, actually cut their own funding--which is something I have never seen before--to not be able to meet the requirement we put into law, saying that they have to provide for the disposal of this product not into the lake but onto a land facility. We have now worked with Chairman Alexander to include language in this legislation before us. Senator Sherrod Brown and I were successful in getting that in last year. Once again we are working with the chairman to get that language in this year. I thank Senator Alexander for including it. It maintains the requirement that ensures that the Corps uphold its funding obligations to dispose of this dredge material upland and not in the lake. Again, it concerns me that the Corps seems to want to try to get around this. In fact, instead of putting money into the operations and maintenance account, as they are required to do to comply with not just what Congress says but, frankly, what the court has ordered them to do--because the court has consistently said they have to dredge and then dump on land, they have actually put that into a risky position by saying they don't need the funding. They have gone so far as to indicate that maybe other dredging projects on Lake Erie or other Lake Erie funding could be in jeopardy of not receiving the full amount of money they need if there is a need to dispose of this on land. There is a better way. The Corps should request use of unallocated funds provided by Congress in order to dispose of the dredge material at Cleveland Harbor safely without putting other projects at risk. They can do that. Our Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which I chair, is currently investigating whether the Corps intentionally requested a decrease in funding in last year's spending bill so that they would have no choice but to dump this dredge material into the harbor. I hope that is not true. I hope we find out that is not what happened, but there are indications of that. Again, doing so would threaten the health of the area, the city of Cleveland, Lake Erie's ecosystem, and specifically our fishing industry in Lake Erie, which is so critical to economic growth in that area. Lake Erie is the most productive of all of our Great Lakes in terms of fishing. It has a $6 billion fishing industry and is the No. 1 tourist attraction in Ohio. I urge the Corps to revise its work plan for this year to request the additional funds necessary to safely dispose of the dredge sediment at the Cleveland Harbor during the 2016 dredging season if, as I suspect, the Federal judge again rules that the Corps cannot place it in Lake Erie. I urge them to work with us to come up with a solution so we can have this dredge material disposed of on land and actually recycle that material so that it has value. A couple of weeks ago when I was at the site, I saw how some of the material is being mixed with other fill and being used not just for landfill but also for gardens and for farming and agriculture purposes. This is a way to take the dredge and to actually have it have value and be able to recycle it. Mr. President, I thank the Presiding Officer for allowing me to give this statement today and for his patience. I also thank Chairman Alexander and others who have worked with us on this so that we can indeed be sure that we clean up this site and that we are able to get this dredge material coming out of the Cuyahoga River onto a site on land to avoid the environmental damage that would otherwise occur. I yield back my time.

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, today I wish to honor 461 high school seniors in eight northeast Ohio counties for their commendable decision to enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces. Of these 461 seniors from 127 high schools in 94 towns and cities, 141 will enter the Army, 126 will enter the Marine Corps, 61 will enter the Navy, 25 will enter the Air Force, 1 will enter the Coast Guard, 103 will enter our Ohio Army National Guard, and 4 will enter the Ohio Air National Guard. In the presence of their parents/guardians, high school counselors, military leaders, and city and business leaders, all 461 will be recognized on May 4, 2016, by Our Community Salutes of northeast Ohio. In a few short weeks, these young men and women will join with many of their classmates in celebration of their high school graduation. At a time when many of their peers are looking forward to pursuing vocational training or college degrees or are uncertain about their future, these young men and women instead have chosen to dedicate themselves to military service in defense of our rights, our freedoms, and our country. They should know that they have full support of this Senate Chamber and the American people, who are with them in whatever challenges may lie ahead. These 461 young men and women are the cornerstone of our liberties. It is thanks to their dedication and the dedication of an untold number of patriots just like them that we are able to meet here today in the U.S. Senate and openly debate the best solutions to the many diverse problems that confront our country. It is thanks to their sacrifices that the United States of America remains a beacon of hope and freedom in a dangerous world. We are grateful to them, and we are grateful to their parents and their communities for instilling in them not only the mental and physical abilities our Armed Forces require but, more importantly, the character, the values, and the discipline that leads someone to put service to our Nation over self. I would like to personally thank these 461 graduating seniors for their selflessness and the courage that they have shown by volunteering to risk their lives in defense of our Nation. We owe them, along with all those who serve our country, a deep debt of gratitude. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the names of the 461 high school seniors.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, today I wish to honor the 100th anniversary of the Hayes Presidential Library & Museums in Fremont, OH. On May 30, 1916, COL Webb Hayes, son of President Rutherford B. Hayes, made his father's papers and artifacts available to the public for research with the opening of a library and museum on his parents' estate, Spiegel Grove. It was the first in what is now a Federal presidential library system. Spiegel Grove is unique in that the former President's home, tomb, museum, and library are all on the same site, which sits on 25 acres surrounded by six sets of gates originally located at the White House. The site has continued to grow and change since its opening. In 2012, a $1.5 million restoration of the Hayes Home was completed. Major additions to the museum in 1922 and 1968 brought the building to its present configuration comprising of 52,640 square feet. In January 2016, the museum temporarily closed to the public to undergo a $1.6 million renovation, which will premiere Memorial Day weekend 2016. It is the mission of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums ``to enrich lives through the historical preservation of Spiegel Grove and to provide a greater understanding of President Hayes and his contributions to the State of Ohio, the country, and his fellow Americans.'' In keeping with that mission, the organization uses its resources, including 21,000 artifacts, 80,000 books, and 6,000 linear feet of manuscript collections, to illustrate the life and times of Rutherford B. Hayes, his family, and his Presidency. We are honored to have this American treasure located in the State of Ohio.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. First, Madam President, I want to thank my colleague from Rhode Island who just spoke. We did work together for the past few years in putting together this legislation, and we did it, by the way, with the House of Representatives. So Senator Whitehouse and I took good ideas wherever we could find them, in whatever part of the country it came from, including ideas from the House of Representatives. We didn't ask who had the idea; we asked whether it was a good idea. We kept this entirely nonpartisan, not just bipartisan. Therefore, we built something that makes sense for our communities back home to deal with this epidemic of prescription drug and heroin addiction and overdoses. I appreciate his partnership in this, and I appreciate the fact that he came to the floor today to talk about the importance of moving ahead with this legislation. After all, it is very rare around here to get a 94-to-1 vote on anything, and we did it on this bill. After 2\1/2\ weeks on the floor of the Senate talking about this heroin and prescription drug epidemic, every single Senator here realized this was a problem in their States, and 94 Senators stood up and agreed this legislation will help address it. By the way, since we passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or CARA, as it is called, on March 10 in the Senate, 42 days have passed. That is more than a month. Every day, we lose about 120 Americans--120 Americans--to drug overdoses. That means in these 42 days we have lost over 5,000 fellow American citizens to drug overdoses. Think about that. I do urge the House to act and act quickly. These numbers keep getting higher and higher. This is not getting better. Back in Ohio, this is getting worse, and I assume the same is true in your State, if you are a Senator or if you are a Member of the House of Representatives in your district. Since 2007, we have looked at these numbers, and drug overdoses have killed more Ohioans than car accidents. It is now the No. 1 cause of accidental death in Ohio. It has tripled from 1999 to 2010. We are now told, by the way, that 200,000 Ohioans are addicted to opioids--opioids are prescription drugs--and heroin-- 200,000 Ohioans. That is the size of a significant city in any State represented here in this body or any district on the other side. In fact, it is the same size as the city of Akron, OH, where I was on Monday of this week, meeting with their opioid task force. They are alarmed at what is happening, and they want to be sure we are making every possible effort we can on the prevention side, the education side, to get more people into treatment, to get them into longer term recovery, to provide police officers and other first responders with Narcan, the miracle drug they need to stop overdoses from turning into a death. They want our help. They support the CARA legislation. They need it, and they need it now. The Cincinnati Enquirer had some really troubling news last week. They wrote a story about a new poll that is out. It is a group called Interact for Health. They do an annual Ohio health issues poll. They found in the poll in 2014 that 2 of every 10 Ohioans knew someone who was abusing prescription drugs. A year later, it is 3 in 10, so this is not getting better. This is getting worse. By the way, this is just prescription drugs. And by the way, of the 3 in 10 who knew somebody who is abusing prescription drugs, 4 in 10--4 in 10--knew somebody who had overdosed on those prescription drugs. So these percentages are increasing across the board--every age group, every education level, every income level. There is no demographic, no ZIP Code, no State, no city, and no county that is safe from this epidemic. It is spreading, and it is spreading everywhere. This poll is another indication that we have a lot of work to do. This should be a motivation for us. This should get us to pass this legislation. And, yes, can we work on additional legislation? Of course, we can and should. I am encouraged that the House is taking up new bills and looking at this in different ways. That is good. But we know here in the Senate and over in the House that this CARA legislation will help and will help now. By the way, there are over 120 cosponsors of the CARA legislation in the House. Not only did we work with them and introduce identical legislation in the House and the Senate, anticipating this day when we could pass it in one House, but we wanted to pass it quickly in the other House and get it to the President for his signature. There are over 120 cosponsors over there. It is bipartisan. Think of the impact we could have on the community if we could get this passed. If we could turn around just one life, it matters, and we know this can save many lives and make many people begin to look at this issue differently--that this is a disease. Addiction is a disease and needs to be treated as such. Removing some of that stigma alone will bring a lot more people into treatment, and that is part of what is important about this legislation. There is another issue that is not prescription drugs, and it is not heroin, but it is another issue related to it, and that is fentanyl. Fentanyl is being laced with heroin throughout the country. In Cleveland, OH, a couple of weeks ago, we lost 12 people--12 people--in 6 days to overdoses. That is one city. This was heroin, but it was laced with this even more dangerous toxic substance called fentanyl. By the way, it comes in the mail. The drug dealers are shipping it in the mail. Fentanyl is so toxic--10 to 30 to 40 times more toxic than heroin-- that it is dangerous even to open up the mail if you are an inspector, we are told. We had a hearing on this just this week. We talked to the Customs and Border Patrol people: Our question was, Why can't we stop this stuff from coming in? This, unfortunately, is something that is also increasing. Ohio, they say, is one of the top States in the country in terms of fentanyl overdoses. But I will tell those who have not dealt with this fentanyl issue yet that it creates even more issues because it is so deadly. After 3 years of work on this CARA legislation, Senator Whitehouse and I and others, including Senators on both sides of the aisle--we did hold five forums, as he said, on various aspects of this debate. We consulted with the experts on treatment and recovery, the experts who are focused on how to keep kids and other people from making these bad decisions in the prevention and the education community. We met with the drug experts from the administration, such as the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. We brought in people from all over the country, including from my home State of Ohio. This is the third time I have come to the floor. I have come once every week that we have been in session since we passed it to say to the House: Let's move on CARA. Let's get it done. It will help immediately. The majority leader in the House has said he wants the House to take on the drug epidemic and pass legislation soon. I believe him. He is a good man. I appreciate that. But I would ask him again to please work on the other legislation. It is fine to take them through hearings and markups, but we cannot delay. We know CARA will work, and it will work now. It is sitting over there and ready for action. It can be taken to the floor immediately under suspension and can be passed. We are one vote away from having this go to the President and having it go to help in our communities. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Fred Upton, who is a good friend and a man with a big heart and cares about this issue, has said he would like the House to move quickly with, as he said, an ``all hands on deck effort.'' Good for him. One of his subcommittees, the Health Subcommittee, recently marked up a dozen bills. This happened yesterday; they marked up 12 bills. Look at those bills. A number of them are actually a part of CARA already. They are in CARA. They are smaller bills. None of them is comprehensive, like CARA. One reason we have to get CARA passed is this is a problem that has to be addressed from all angles, from all sectors, and that is why it has to be comprehensive. But of those 12 bills that were marked up yesterday, many of them are identical, and others are very similar to the CARA legislation. So this shouldn't slow us down. In fact, it is even more an indication that if these are the kinds of bills the House thinks are the right way to go, let's get CARA passed and then we can work on the other legislative ideas Members may have. I respect my colleagues--Chairman Upton, the majority leader over there, and Chairman Pence, the chairman of the subcommittee and also a guy who cares a lot about this issue--but let's give CARA a vote. There are 125 cosponsors. That is the latest number I have as of this morning, and the number keeps growing. It is bipartisan, it is bicameral, and it is the right thing to do. Again, I know there are other ideas out there, and that is fine. We need to take those up as well. But let's go ahead and get this passed. Put it under suspension, and take it to the floor. It will pass. We are one vote away from having this help our communities. CARA is not just comprehensive; it does the right thing in terms of focusing on what is evidence based. In other words, we didn't just say ``Let's throw more money at this problem,'' we said ``Let's actually find out what is working and what is not working.'' I was in Dayton, OH, with a group called Project C.U.R.E. on Friday. I had the chance to visit with some of the administrators there, some of the recovery coaches, as they call themselves, many of whom, by the way, are recovering themselves. They are doing an amazing job. I talked to many of the patients who were there. They are people who are recovering addicts. Some have been clean for 2 weeks, some clean for 2 years. But I asked them the same question I ask all over our State: What works? What doesn't work? How did this happen? Most of them, by the way, told me the same story you hear time and again: It started with prescription drugs. In fact, one story was from a man by the name of Anthony. He dropped out of high school at age 14, got into drugs, and made some mistakes in his life, which he readily acknowledges. He ended up in prison. He said he had eight convictions and was in and out of prison, in and out of the drug world. He decided to go straight. He made a decision. For him, a lot of it was faith based and a lot was being sure he was going to be able to take care of his family and be a contributing member of his community, so he gave back. Anthony had a good job, had gotten married, and was on the right track. He was on his way to work one day, and he was in a car accident. For those experts who are listening to this today, you probably know happened. I don't even have to tell you. When he got in the car accident, he was injured. They sent him to the hospital. What did they give him at the hospital? Narcotic pain pills, Percocet, prescription drugs. Immediately--immediately--Anthony became addicted again. He is now struggling, but he is back at the treatment center. He is getting his life back together again. But in the meantime he has lost his family because the drugs became everything. He lost his job because the drugs became everything. We talk a lot about the overdoses, and they are horrible--120 Americans a day. We don't talk enough about those who aren't overdosing but who have lost their ability to achieve their own God-given purpose in life because the drugs are everything. So they have lost their families--torn apart. They have lost their jobs. They have lost their ability to be contributing members of our society. And those people who get into treatment and longer term recovery, as Anthony is doing, can turn their lives around. There is hope. It can work. Anthony is back for a second chance. Having talked to him, I believe he is not just on the right track but he will work through this. This legislation is needed to help him. When I do meet with recovering addicts, I ask them to look at the legislation, look at the summaries, and tell me what they think. What they tell me is they like it because they are convinced it would help others to have the access to treatment they have. Probably only 1 out of 10 of those people who are addicted are getting treatment. That is the best number I have. Maybe it is a little higher than that in your State or congressional district, but this is an issue where, if we provide more resources for treatment and begin to remove that stigma around treatment and get more people into a system where they can begin to get their lives back together with treatment, we know that works. Our legislation supports veterans task forces and veterans courts because we know this will help with our veterans who are coming back with PTSD, 20 percent of whom have this addiction. People say it is self-medicating. They have self-medicated to the point that they are now addicts. We need to put them not into a prison cell but into a treatment program. That is what these veterans courts do, and they surround these veterans with other veterans. They do an awesome job. I have been to them in Ohio. You have them probably in your State. If you don't, this legislation will help because it creates more veterans courts. We have talked on the floor before about the fact that there has been a huge increase--a 750 percent increase in the State of Ohio--in babies born with addiction. That is just in the last 12 years in Ohio. Go to any neonatal unit in your State or congressional district, and you will see these babies. They are being lovingly cared for by doctors and nurses. They are taking these addicted babies you could hold in the palm of your hand, and they are literally taking them through withdrawal. They have to because these babies are addicted and showing the symptoms you might see in an adult of addiction. We don't know what the long-term consequences are. We are having a hearing on this tomorrow in Cleveland, OH, at one of our great hospitals--University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital. It is one of the best children's hospitals in the country. Their neonatal unit is doing awesome work. I have been there and seen it. We are going to talk to the experts about this and how we can do even better to help these babies. But wouldn't it be great if we didn't have so many babies born with addiction because mothers, knowing the consequences, dealt with their addiction problem to avoid it through prevention and education efforts? Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have this 750-percent increase in children whose futures are uncertain because of being born with this addiction? Again, there is hope. I have been to a women's recovery center in Cleveland and Columbus and also in Eastern Ohio and Athens, OH, where I have met with women in long-term recovery with drug addiction. They are there with their kids. There is hope. With this legislation, we do have the ability to give people more hope. Getting rid of that stigma, not judging people, is part of beating this epidemic, and CARA will do that by treating addiction like a disease. There is an opportunity for us to move, and move quickly, to address this growing crisis we have in our States and our communities; that is, to pass this CARA legislation. Is it all we should do? No. Of course we should do more. I know the House of Representatives will have some great ideas. I know there are some great ideas in this body. The HELP Committee is working on additional ideas on how to get more medicine into this area of addiction, science, and treatment. They are working on ways to ensure that we can provide more help to people. That is great, and we should continue to work on that. Meanwhile, we know this legislation will help. We know that if it is sitting on the desk in the House of Representatives, having passed the Senate by a 94-to-1 vote, it is not going to help. But we know if it can get off the desk and onto the floor for a vote, we are one vote away from getting it to our communities to begin to help, to keep people from making the wrong decision--but then if they get into a drug addiction, it can help them to be able to turn their lives around and to achieve their potential in life, their God-given potential. That is what this argument is about. It is not about the fact that the Senate has all the answers. By the way, we wrote this legislation with the House. They were engaged from the start. We introduced identical bills and they had 125 cosponsors. All we are saying is, let's let this one piece of legislation go, let's allow it to begin to help right away, and then let's continue to work on other ideas. Again, we have lost nearly 5,000 Americans to drug overdoses since the Senate passed CARA with a 94-to-1 vote. To begin to reverse this tide--this trend of addiction, of overdoses--we can and should act now. It is urgent. There is a crisis. There is no time to waste. Madam President, I yield the floor.