“To hold hostage the CARA bill and shift the discussion to a genuine disagreement that we have with the minority on SCOTUS is literally costing lives. For those who sit here and want to hold up the CARA bill for the purposes of discussing the SCOTUS nomination, we don't even have a nominee yet… We need to recognize it's disgraceful to hold up the CARA bill over a genuine disagreement that we're going to have for months… Let's do our job. Let's do our job today by getting CARA passed.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) took to the Senate floor to respond to Senate Democratic leaders who are delaying the final passage of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), legislation that provides much-needed assistance to states, local communities, and first responders in their fight against the nation’s growing opioid addiction epidemic. Senator Tillis is a co-sponsor of the legislation.
Democratic leaders are delaying the passage of the anti-opioid addiction legislation due to their objection of the majority exercising their constitutional right to withhold consent of a President’s Supreme Court nominee, despite the fact President Obama hasn’t even named a nominee yet.
Watch the exchange between Senator Thom Tillis and Senator Chuck Schumer here:
“In North Carolina over the past 24 hours, some four people have died of a drug overdose. We had more deaths associated with drug overdoses than we had with car accidents last year…To hold hostage the CARA bill and shift the discussion to a genuine disagreement that we have with the minority on SCOTUS is literally costing lives.
“For those who sit here and want to hold up the CARA bill for the purposes of discussing the SCOTUS nomination, we don't even have a nominee yet. There is going to be plenty of time in committee, there is going to be plenty of time on the floor to debate this difference of opinion between the minority and the majority.
“But in the meantime, for people who would hold up passing the CARA bill over the SCOTUS nomination, what are you going to tell the two people, two friends of mine who over the last week after they heard my speech on the Senate floor come to me and say thank you for moving this bill.
“Two of my friends have told me thank you for helping us increase the visibility and get to a point to where we're saving these lives? What are you going to tell the first responder who, if they had naloxone, could potentially save the lives of somebody who is falling on the floor and dying?
“What are you going to tell them?
“What are you going to tell the law enforcement officers who are going to go and try to help people live who have succumbed to addiction and opioid abuse?
“What are you going to tell them by holding up this bill?
“What are you going to tell the parents who are struggling, who need help with education, who need help with incarcerated children who may have succumbed to addiction, did the wrong thing and are in prison and now need help, they need to be rehabilitated, they need to be saved?
“You know, at some point, we need to recognize that we do need to do things separately. We need to recognize it's disgraceful to hold up the CARA bill over a genuine disagreement that we're going to have for months. I'm one of the senators on the Judiciary Committee who signed the letter. I do not believe until we hear the vote of the people that we should hear a SCOTUS nomination, but I'm not here to talk about SCOTUS today.
“I'm here to talk about saving lives. I'm here to talk about addressing the addiction problem that is growing. I'm here to talk about the sad, heartbreaking stories of families across this nation who are starving for help.
“This bill helps. This bill appropriates over $100 million that can be spent between now and the end of September to save lives. If I come to the floor tomorrow, I'm going to be talking about four more lives that have been lost in North Carolina. Some that could have been saved if we would just do our job.
“There is a lot of discussion about doing our job, right?
“Well, let's do our job. Let's do our job today by getting CARA passed.”
###
