Costello speaks on drug law that sank Trump’s drug czar pick
WEST CHESTER » President Donald Trump says the Pennsylvania congressman he had chosen to be the nation’s drug czar is withdrawing from consideration for the job.
Trump’s announcement Tuesday on Twitter follows reports that U.S. Rep. Tom Marino, R-10, of Lycoming County played a key role in passing a bill that weakened the federal government’s authority to stop companies from distributing opioids.
Trump says Marino “has informed me that he is withdrawing his name from consideration.” Trump added that “Tom is a fine man and a great congressman.”
The legislation that Marino pushed that ultimately led to his downfall in this administration was a bipartisan bill that was co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello, R-6, of West Goshen, and other lawmakers, both from Pennsylvania and other states.
On Tuesday, following Trump’s announcement of Marino’s withdrawal, Costello adressed the controversy surrounding the bill, known as the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016.
“The bipartisan legislation passed both the House and Senate unanimously, and was signed into law by the Obama administration without any stated objection from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),” he said in a statement released by his office.
“The legislation’s clear and stated intent was to have the DEA and distribution companies establish a clear understanding of enforce- ment standards, allowing for greater collaboration among stakeholders to address modern challenges to prescription drug abuse while still allowing patients with medical needs to have reasonable access. If the purpose of the lawis now not being realized, then we need to fix it.”
Since taking office in 2015, Costello has worked on the issue of the nation’s opioid epidemic, by ensuring first responders and others facing the epidemic on the front lines have adequate resources, listening to constituents about the local impact of the epidemic, making site visits in the community, and by supporting the 21st Century Cures Act, which provided $1 billion in funding for states to fight the opioid epidemic.
“I am in the process of investigating and evaluating (a fix to the legislation offered by Marino) as we speak,” he said. “I believe many others are as well, especially given it was unanimously supported by the entire Congress and signed into law by President Obama.” All 18 Pennsylvania congressmen and both of its senators approved of the bill.
Trump had raised the possibility Monday of withdrawing Marino’s nomination after reports by the Washington Post and CBS’ 60Minutes.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said confirming Marino as the nation’s drug czar was like “putting the wolf in charge of the henhouse,” adding: “The American people deserve someone totally committed to fighting the opioid crisis, not someone who has labored on behalf of the drug industry.”
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, whose home state of West Virginia has been among the hardest-hit by the opioid epidemic, said he was horrified at the accounts of the 2016 law and Marino’s role in it.
Manchin scolded the Obama administration for failing to “sound the alarm on how harmful that bill would be for our efforts to effectively fight the opioid epidemic” that kills an estimated 142 people a day nationwide.
In a letter to Trump, Manchin called the opioid crisis “the biggest public health crisis since HIV/AIDS,” and said, “we need someone leading the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy who believes we must protect our people, not the pharmaceutical industry.”
Published reports on Sunday showed that Marino and other members of Congress, alongwith the nation’s major drug distributors, prevailed upon the DEA and the Justice Department to agree to an industry-friendly law that undermined efforts to restrict the flow of pain pills that have led to tens of thousands of deaths. Obama signed the law in April 2016.
The industry worked behind the scenes with lobbyists and key members of Congress, including Marino, pouring more than a million dollars into their election campaigns, the newspaper reported.
Marino’s office declined to comment. But U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the bill’s lead Senate sponsor, defended the measure Monday, calling allegations that he or Marino “conspired” with drug companies “utterly ridiculous.” Hatch, a 40-year veteran of the Senate, said he was “no patsy” of the drug industry.
The language affecting DEA enforcement authority was suggested by DEA and the Justice Department, Hatch said, adding that the agencies could have tried to stop the bill at any time or recommended that Obama veto the measure.
“Let’s not pretend that DEA, both houses of Congress and the Obama White House all somehow wilted under Representative Marino’s nefarious influences,” Hatch said.
A White House commission convened by Trump and led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has called on Trump to declare a national emergency to help deal with the growing opioid crisis. An initial report from the commission in July noted that the approximately 142 deaths each day from drug overdoses mean the death toll is “equal to September 11th every three weeks.”
Trump has said he will officially declare the opioid crisis a “national emergency” but so far has not done so. He said Monday he will make the designation next week.
Meanwhile, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Monday she will introduce legislation to repeal the 2016 law.
The bill was touted as a way to improve enforcement efforts related to prescription drug abuse by altering DEA procedures for revoking or suspending registrations for opioid distributors, McCaskill said, but “the effect of the changes has been to significantly curtail the ability of DEA to bring enforcement actions against drug distributors.”
McCaskill, the senior Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has been investigating the role of pharmaceutical distributors in fueling the opioid crisis.