Greg Walden

Mr. WALDEN

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chair, I claim time in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, I have no further speakers on this matter. Again, I thank my friend, the former chairman of the full committee, Mr. Barton, for his good leadership on this effort, along with other Members on both sides of the aisle. I encourage our colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chair, I certainly appreciate Dr. Dunn and the good work that he has done on many of these issues, and I also appreciate his willingness to withdraw his amendment. As a result of our committee process and various member conversations we have had, we have reached bipartisan compromise on the underlying bill on the issue of concern to Mr. Dunn. I understand that thoughtful Members can find themselves on different sides of an issue at different times, and I certainly respect the gentleman's position. That being said, we believe our underlying policy represents a fair middle ground, and it ensures rigorous analysis on the issue going forward. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the gentleman from Florida withdrawing the amendment. Mr. Chair, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko).

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, like a lot of our work here that has been bipartisan, we would hope, going forward, this, too, could become bipartisan, because we believe that getting prescription drug prices down is essential. The Trump administration believes that as well and is doing some things administratively. We are going to be working on this in the committee. We also agree that this unmet workforce need is important as well. Over the course of five hearings, a full markup in subcommittee, two full markups in the full committee, this issue was never fully brought and vetted. There is more work to be done here, and we are committed to doing work on both the CREATES Act and on the Opioid Workforce Act. As the gentleman from New York, my friend, knows, we have worked out our differences on many, many issues on this and other topics, and we intend to move forward. It is just that the agreement we have today, Mr. Speaker, is about all of us coming together with bills that were ready for prime time that would not somehow cause problems with the underlying document. This proposal, while well-intended and, frankly, on the big scope of things makes a lot of sense, it is just not ready and agreed to yet. The gentleman knows that. We know that. We appreciate his passion on this issue. We share it. But I have to reluctantly oppose the motion to recommit because we have agreement that only issues we all agree on are going into this bill--that is, Republicans and Democrats at the top of both committees. So I take the signal that he remains committed to this effort to fill the gap. We will work with him and others going forward because we have a lot more work to do, Mr. Speaker. This one is just not ready for prime time. Mr. Speaker, I urge opposition to the motion to recommit, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. WALDEN. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. WALDEN

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg), who has been very involved in this effort as well.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen).

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chair, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. We have had individual Members come to the floor today from both parties. Together, we have broken through what others might see as dysfunction in Washington to achieve a comprehensive legislative package that will provide treatment; save lives; stop illegal fentanyl from coming into this country; and, in no small measure, move America forward in a much better direction. I want to share with you, Mr. Chair, a letter to the Speaker and to Ms. Pelosi, urging us to support H.R. 6. It comes from not 1 or 2 but, literally, 161 different groups that are very involved in the recovery effort. I want to share a couple of comments, Mr. Chairman: ``Substance use disorder not only impacts the individual, but the family and community as well. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, approximately 9 million children across our Nation live in a home with at least one parent who uses an illicit drug. ``Tragically,'' they write, ``children in these homes are at an increased risk for depression, suicide, poverty, delinquency, anxiety, homelessness, and substance use disorder. In addition, while our Nation has made significant strides in both our understanding and response to the drug crisis, it is clear that too many communities across our Nation still have fragmented prevention, treatment, and recovery infrastructures.'' Introduced by myself, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Neal, and Mr. Brady, they write: ``The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act,'' this bill, ``would strengthen key Federal low-income assistance and senior health insurance programs to better respond to our Nation's drug crisis. In addition to serving as the vehicle that will advance many other significant proposals already considered in the House, this legislation will give critical Federal safety net programs more tools to prevent and help treat substance use disorder.'' They write: ``We applaud the champions of H.R. 6 for treating addiction like the disease that it is and for their bold leadership, in their respective committees and on the House floor, to advance so many innovative, bipartisan proposals that will have an immediate and positive impact to address addiction. We respectfully urge the full House to immediately consider and pass H.R. 6, which represents a significant step toward building the comprehensive response needed in our Nation so that fewer lives are lost to substance use disorder.'' Mr. Chair, this comes from the people who live this every day, who help our neighbors, our friends, our families, and our American citizens get the help they need to beat the disease of addiction and to reclaim their lives, their families, and their future. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support passage of H.R. 6, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Lance), who has been very, very involved in this effort.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, we were glad to work with Mr. Peters on his legislation to make it bipartisan and get it across the line. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis).

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague from California for bringing this issue to our attention and helping us help these kids who need this assistance. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan), the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my colleague from California for working with us. We were happy to include his bill in this compilation of legislation. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), our resident pharmacist in the United States Congress and on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on H.R. 6.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. McKinley), who has been a fierce fighter to resolve this issue in his State and our country.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate all the work that has been done on this bill up to this point, the great bipartisan work, the biggest effort, I think, Congress has ever undertaken to address this terrible, terrible addiction problem of opioids and everything related to it. This amendment before us is a bipartisan manager's amendment. It is filed by chairmen and ranking members of the Committees on Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means. This amendment makes simple technical corrections and conforming changes to the underlying H.R. 6 bill that the leaders of our two committees introduced last week. As has been noted, the policies in H.R. 6 were moved through regular order in our two committees. I appreciate the bipartisan cooperation and teamwork of my colleagues and our terrific staffs who have joined me in introducing H.R. 6. Mr. Chair, I encourage support of the amendment, and I urge adoption of the amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 6. This is the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act, or the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. I was proud to introduce this bill with my bipartisan colleagues: Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member, my friend from New Jersey, Mr. Pallone; Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady; and Ways and Means Ranking Member Richard Neal. These past 2 weeks, this House, the people's House, has dedicated tremendous amounts of time and energy to send a simple message to millions of Americans impacted by the opioid crisis. And that message is: Help is on the way. Not only are we passing legislation, dozens and dozens of bills that will save lives, but also we want to leave no doubt in the minds of those suffering from addiction that the United States House of Representatives, Republicans and Democrats alike, stand with them together. For too long, embarrassment and stigma surrounded the disease of addiction. It is time for that to change. If you are struggling with addiction, if you are fighting that invisible battle, please know that it is okay to seek help. Opioid overdoses take the lives of more than 100 Americans each and every day. In fact, Mr. Chairman, a thousand people in our country will go to an emergency room in the next 24 hours, suffering an overdose from opioids. We don't want those people to become part of that deadly statistic. You matter. You are worthwhile. And I pray that the various legislation we vote on here today, and that we voted on throughout the last 2 weeks, can help you begin your journey of recovery. H.R. 6 includes several bills that went through regular order at the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees, but the bill we will vote on today also includes dozens of other pieces of legislation that have recently passed the House, most unanimously or with very strong bipartisan majorities. You see, at a time when it seems we couldn't be more divided, it is clear that striking back against addiction is something that transcends politics and brings us together as a community, as a country, and as a Congress. Remember, this legislation is not the first action that this Congress has taken to combat the opioid crisis, and I am sure it will not be the last. I guarantee you that. The Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act and the 21st Century Cures Act, both of which were signed into law nearly 2 years ago, and an additional $4 billion in resources for States and communities that was provided in the omnibus appropriations bill just a few months ago, indicate we have been at this for awhile, and we will be at this for a while longer. Taken together, this is one of the most significant congressional efforts against a drug crisis in our Nation's history. But we must continue to legislate, evaluate, conduct oversight, and work together to provide new solutions, so that we can rise to this ever-challenging situation. Today, we have an opportunity to continue our work to combat this crisis, an opportunity to save lives, and we cannot let it pass. The legislation before us will help advance treatment and recovery initiatives, improve prevention and educational efforts, protect our communities, and bolster our efforts to fight deadly synthetic drugs like fentanyl. We owe it to the families we have heard from. We owe it to our friends. Our communities need this and our country needs this to lift our people out of addiction and, together, win this fight. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 6, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WALDEN. It is now my great honor, Mr. Chairman, to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), who is the majority leader of the United States House of Representatives. He has been extraordinarily helpful in our efforts to move this entire bipartisan package forward to save lives and help people in addiction.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Ms. Clark and Mr. Mullin for bringing that issue to our attention. We were proud to work with them to get it in the bill. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Bucshon), who is one of our doctors on the committee.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie), the vice chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, a great leader on these issues and more.

Mr. WALDEN

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Texas, the vice chairman of the Energy Subcommittee, who has just been a real leader on energy issues across the country and around the globe. Mr. Speaker, I just want to talk about the shale revolution and what it has really meant not only for jobs and growth in America, but energy worldwide. The shale revolution and the dramatic increase in domestic oil and natural production has really been remarkable. American innovation did this. Technological advancements did this. It transformed the United States from an importer of natural gas to a major exporter. The positive effects, the enormous effects are being felt around the globe. OPEC and the established gas suppliers like Russia, they all bet against the United States. And guess what. They have lost. Now, as American energy exports reach world markets, they are losing their stranglehold on supply and prices. U.S. LNG exports are going to markets across Asia, North America, Europe, and, yes, to even some of our allies in the Middle East. The rise of the U.S. as a global energy superpower means that energy markets are more open. They are more transparent and competitive than ever before. And we are creating great American jobs here. We really are. If you look at these regions where these finds have been discovered and now are being developed, people are getting good wages, good jobs. They are building out, and it makes us stronger. President Trump didn't want to say, ``We want to be energy independent''; he wanted to say, ``America is going to be energy dominant.'' And that is what we are becoming. That is a good thing. By the way, as we find this new natural gas and we build out more generating facilities, we are also reducing our carbon emissions. We are below the 1995 levels. I don't think there is a country on the planet that has reduced emissions more than the United States during this period, so we are making progress there, too. The increase in LNG exports around the globe over the past 2 years will help us and is the result of continuing expansion in the U.S. LNG export capacity. Two LNG projects, Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Cove Point in Maryland, have been online since 2016. That has increased the U.S. LNG export to 3.6 billion--that is with a B--cubic feet per day. There are four more projects scheduled to come online in the next couple of years: Elba Island LNG in Georgia and Cameron LNG in Louisiana in 2018, and Freeport LNG and Corpus Christi LNG in Texas in 2019. Once completed, U.S. LNG export capacity is expected to reach 9.6 billion cubic feet per day by the end of 2019. That is the end of next year. Meanwhile, in my home State of Oregon, work continues on the Jordan Cove LNG export facility in Coos Bay. As export capacity continues to increase, the United States is projected to become the third largest LNG exporter in the world by 2020, following closely behind Australia and Qatar. As chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, I have prioritized a progrowth, proconsumer, all-of-the-above, and, frankly, all-of-the- below approach to energy that includes a focus on natural gas. We have held a number of hearings. We have looked into the overall impacts of natural gas development, the enormous number of new jobs, good family wages, middle class jobs and economic growth, the increased use of natural gas for power generation, the reduction in carbon emissions, the need for new infrastructure, and the advantages for domestic manufacturing and global competitiveness. We have looked at all of that in the Energy and Commerce Committee, and my colleagues, many of whom you will hear from tonight, Mr. Speaker, have really led on this. My colleague from Texas (Mr. Olson) has really been a fine leader on the Energy Subcommittee. I encouraged our Members to work across the aisle. Growing American energy and great-paying jobs should be a bipartisan effort. We need to improve the regulatory process so we can solve some of the challenges that may prevent us from reaching our full American potential. This is our century. This is the American century, and we are seeing great progress. We cut taxes. We are growing a million jobs and have the lowest unemployment rate in decades. We have more job openings than people to fill them, and a lot of that has to do with energy. For example, members of the Energy and Commerce Committee have introduced and the House has passed legislation that would modernize the permitting processes for interstate and cross-border natural gas pipelines and LNG export facilities. These bills all passed the House on a bipartisan basis, Republicans and Democrats getting together, getting things done. I am encouraged by the support they are receiving in the Senate, too. While these bills have not yet been signed into law, the Trump administration is very receptive to our approach to improve coordination and permit reviews and dedicate a single Federal lead agency. Part of the swamp back here is there are so many people, so many agencies, and so many duplicative processes that have been accumulating for decades. And if you are the innovator who wants to do something new, if you want to grow jobs in your community, your State, your region, you have got to navigate this morass of red tape and regulation and permitting. About the time you think you have got it done, some other agency shows up, and then somebody else and then somebody else, and your enormous investment languishes out there for years and years and years. We can do better than that. You can maintain all of the important environmental law, but if we have a lead agency, we can find some efficiency. I think the vice chairman would agree that we might be able to find efficiency in the Federal Government. I think it is possible. And I think with the lead agency, we can. This one-agency, one-decision process is now being rolled out because of the Trump administration, with a goal to cut down permitting time to 2 years or less. I think you can probably do it faster than that, but, hey, we will take 2 years or less. That is a big win. Our energy security is stronger today than at any point in America's history, due in large part to natural gas. Natural gas has contributed to jobs and economic development both here in America, here at home, and it is improving the efficiency of our power generation fleet. It is increasing the competitiveness of our manufacturers who use it as both a fuel and a feedstock. It is strengthening our hand diplomatically, and it is creating jobs, jobs, jobs, good-paying jobs. It is a win-win across the board. And so I appreciate the vice chairman's leadership on this special time for us to come to the House floor and share the great progress of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the country, the bipartisan work we are doing, and the great innovative future that lies before us.

Mr. WALDEN

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chairman, I conclude my comments by expressing my disappointment that I have yet to persuade my friend from New Jersey to support the underlying bill, although I appreciate his support of the Rush amendment. We know that our Governors, we know that our State Medicaid directors, and we know those most involved in helping those with addiction have pled with us to change this antiquated law so that people of all colors, of all backgrounds, from anywhere in this country, especially the low-income, can get access to meaningful, modern, and helpful assistance to overcome their addiction. That is what this bill does. Mr. Chairman, I encourage my colleagues to support the amendment, and I encourage them to support the underlying bill. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Chair, I thank Mr. Fitzpatrick and his team for agreeing to work with us on this issue. Unfortunately, this well- thought-out amendment would significantly alter the quality standards we have built into the base bill, and such a change would require more substantial vetting with key stakeholders than we have time for at this point. Because of that, we are not in position of being able to accept the amendment at this time. However, we do feel that Mr. Fitzpatrick has made a good start, so I will have our team do a comprehensive vetting of the language and work with stakeholders to see if this is something we could add as we move into conference with the Senate. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for his work and I look forward to continuing to work with him on this and other issues and with the Senate as we continue work on this legislation.