Portman didn’t know bill blocked DEA
CONGRESS
WASHINGTON — Sen. Rob Portman said Wednesday that he was unaware of the details of a 2016 bill that effectively quashed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s ability to stop distributors from sending prescription drugs to doctors’ offices and pharmacies that fed the opioid epidemic.
Congress passed the bill by unanimous consent, on a voice vote, with no members of the House or Senate opposing it. Although representatives of the DEA and Justice Department told The Washington Post and “60 Minutes” reporters recently that they had opposed the legislation, neither agency raised objections publicly at the time.
No one in Portman’s office was aware of the agencies’ concerns, Portman told a Post panel convened Wednesday to discuss the epidemic.
“I frankly asked my office, ‘Did we hear from anybody?’ and the answer was no,” the Ohio Republican said.
Portman said the bill went through Congress at the same time that his drug-treatment bill — the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act — was advancing to passage, and much of the focus was on that bill. The more controversial bill, he said, “sort of slipped through.”
Portman, speaking with Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said that he and other senators plan to review the law, which made it far tougher for the DEA to crack down on those pouring pain pills into communities. Portman has focused heavily on drug-addiction issues since his time in the U.S. House of Representatives more than a decade ago, and he highlighted that work during his 2016 reelection campaign.
The Post story is largely credited with the decision this week by Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., to withdraw his name from nomination to be the nation’s next drug czar. Marino was a leading co-sponsor of the 2016 bill.
Another leading co-sponsor was Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican who is running for governor in her home state, Tennessee. Blackburn is scheduled to come to Dayton on Nov. 3 for an appearance with Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, and Portman benefiting the Ohio Republican Party. The event was scheduled before The Post story was published.
On Wednesday, Portman wasn’t the only one who said that he was unaware of the implications of the drug bill. Manchin said his staff was “not intricately involved” and was told that the bill was aimed at ensuring that cancer patients and the terminally ill had access to pain relief — not that it could make it harder for the DEA to crack down on those purposefully dealing pills.
“We never intended it to be a wholesale market to open up the floodgates,” Manchin said. “Because in West Virginia, the floodgates were already open.”
Manchin has co-sponsored a bill aimed at repealing the 2016 law.
Portman repeatedly pushed during the panel discussion for a nonaddictive alternative to the opioids that he said sparked an estimated four out of every five opioid addictions in Ohio.
He said that although he is heartened that the Senate Judiciary Committee plans to open an investigation of the issue, he’s uncertain whether the Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee’s subcommittee he chairs, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, will weigh in.
“Let’s see what the Judiciary Committee does,” he said. “I think this will move pretty quickly.”
Although Manchin and Hassan said they are eager to hear the details of President Trump’s decision to move forward next week on declaring the opioid epidemic a national emergency, Portman said that what Congress does is more important.
“The administration can’t appropriate the money,” Portman said. “What they can do — and this is positive, and I’ve met with the president personally on this very issue — is they can declare an emergency that requires all the agencies to work together.”