H5530 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE August 1, 2012 

Disease Control has said that prescription drug abuse is now a national epidemic. 

In 2010, 254 million prescriptions for 

opioids were filled in this country. 

That’s enough painkillers to medicate 

every American adult around the clock 

for a month. 

Our military soldiers are coming 

back from Iraq and Afghanistan 

hooked on these pain pills. In the last 

2 years, over 150 of our soldiers have 

died from overdoses. 

In my home State, Kentucky’s losing 

roughly 82 people a month to prescription drug deaths, more than car crashes. Our medicine cabinets are more 

dangerous than our cars. 

But these statistics, of course, are 

just numbers. So many Americans, including members of our caucus who’ve 

taken to the House floor today, have 

been touched by this tragedy in some 

personal way. In some counties in my 

district, half of the children are living 

in a home without their parents in 

large part because of prescription drug 

abuse. 

I’ve met single moms struggling to 

get through drug court and employers 

who can’t string together a clean workforce. We’ve lost mothers. We’ve lost 

grandfathers, police officers, children, 

brothers and sisters, husbands and 

wives. 

This epidemic does not distinguish 

between socioeconomic lines or gender 

lines or geographic lines. It’s indiscriminate in its path of destruction, 

and it has to stop. 

FDA has to be part of saying ‘‘no’’ to 

the abuse of legal drugs. FDA is the 

primary entity for regulating prescription drugs with its hands on the spigot. 

For years, I’ve pleaded with the FDA 

to take a harder look at how these 

painkillers are allowed to be prescribed. 

Congressman FRANK WOLF of Virginia and I have implored FDA to make 

these painkillers available only for severe pain. Prescription painkillers such 

as OxyContin and Opana were originally intended to treat severe pain 

caused by cancer, but over the years, 

based in large part on marketing practices, many physicians, dentists, other 

health care providers began prescribing 

opioid painkillers for moderate-to-severe pain. A toothache or a stubbed toe 

has become an excuse for an Oxy prescription. 

Now, OxyContin’s a wonderful drug, 

intended for terminally ill cancer patients, people in severe pain that need 

a time-released capsule over 12 hours. 

It helped the patient and helped the 

caregiver. But it’s also a very addictive 

drug and very difficult to kick once addicted. So this is really a dangerous 

drug when not used in the prescribed 

way. 

This FDA-approved indication for 

moderate-to-severe pain can create the 

false assumption that opioids are a safe 

and effective treatment for chronic, 

noncancer pain. On the contrary, more 

than 30 leading clinicians, researchers, 

and health officials recently petitioned 

the FDA to strike the term ‘‘moderate’’ from the indication for noncancer pain, add a maximum daily dose 

and a maximum duration of 90 days for 

continuous daily use. 

When we’re losing 16,000 people a 

year to these drugs, the FDA must 

take this petition seriously. 

Second, the FDA shortly will make a vital 

determination about whether to approve generic versions of the original formulation of the 

drug OxyContin. 

In 2007, the manufacturer of this drug, Purdue Pharma, was found criminally liable for 

deliberately misbranding their product. 

After paying an unprecedented $630 million 

penalty, Purdue voluntarily removed the original formulation of OxyContin from the market—and reissued the drug with a formulation 

which is much more difficult to abuse. 

Since this new, more ‘‘gummy’’ drug has 

come on the market, abuse of OxyContin has 

steadily declined—while the abuse of other 

painkillers, like Opana, is on the rise. 

Purdue’s patent on the original OxyContin 

formulation expires in 2013, and at least three 

companies have filed applications with FDA to 

produce generic versions. 

If approved, this stands to be a disaster: 

1. As previously seen, original Oxy was incredibly misused and wrought havoc. We 

could see a new wave of deaths if this drug 

is available in a cheaper, generic form. 

2. This would also be a tremendous setback 

to companies developing abuse-resistant pain 

medications. If generic OxyContin is available 

on the market for a low price, there is no financial incentive for investment in the development of abuse-resistant drugs. 

FDA must realize the wide-reaching implications of this pending decision, and I encourage 

the Agency and Commissioner Hamburg not 

to put this potent drug back on the market 

when there are so many alternatives already 

available and under development. 

Mr. Speaker, this epidemic is touching people in every corner of our great nation—and 

for that reason, I invite all of my colleagues to 

join us in the fight by becoming a member of 

the Congressional Caucus on Prescription 

Drug Abuse and working with us in pressing 

FDA to make the right decisions. 

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VERIFYING OFFICIAL TOTALS FOR 

ELECTIONS ACT 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The 

Chair recognizes the gentleman from 

Georgia (Mr. JOHNSON) for 5 minutes. 

Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I will introduce today the Verifying 

Official Totals for Elections Act, also 

known as the VOTE Act. 

Electronic voting machines are vulnerable to poor design and tampering, 

and there is currently no way to verify 

the accuracy of an electronic vote 

count. The VOTE Act will ensure the 

integrity of our voting machines system by requiring any software used in 

an electronic voting system for any 

Federal election to be deposited in the 

National Software Reference Library. 

Depositing the software in the National Software Reference Library will 

allow the software to be available for 

review in the event of an election contest or recount. 

The VOTE Act is definitely needed. 

We are 97 days away from a crucial 

election and, according to a recent report, half the States have inadequate 

post-audit election procedures for electronic voting machines. It also found 

that a quarter of States have postaudit election procedures that need improvement. Further, the report found 

that in every national election in the 

past decade, computerized voting systems have failed, machines did not 

start or failed in the middle of voting, 

memory cards could not read, and 

votes were mistallied. 

I’m sure that you all who are computer literate out there have had a 

computer and you were working on it 

and suddenly it froze up. 

b 1030 

In order to unfreeze it, you had to 

reboot it, and in the process, you lost 

all of your data that you were working 

on; or some of you may have had the 

misfortune of a computer hard drive 

just freezing up on you and just crashing, and you had to take it somewhere 

and try to retrieve your data off of 

that hard drive, and it cost a whole lot 

of money. You may have even manipulated your child’s computer to prevent 

access to a dangerous Web site; or 

somebody may have installed, unbeknownst to you, some software on your 

laptop computer that you carry around 

so that one can keep track of your 

whereabouts. 

These are the kinds of things that we 

must be concerned about as far as our 

electronic voting machines—their accuracy and the fact that they can be 

manipulated. 

There have been several e-voting inaccuracies since 2006, including prominent controversies in South Carolina, 

Florida, and Pennsylvania. The VOTE 

Act provides peace of mind. It does so 

by requiring that the source code, or 

the blueprint, of the e-voting system be 

stored in the National Software Reference Library, which will allow auditors to compare that code with the actual machine to determine if there has 

been any improper activity. 

This is an urgent problem, and the 

VOTE Act is the solution. The right to 

vote is fundamental to our democratic 

process, and it is protected by the Constitution of the United States. The 

right to vote is protected by more constitutional amendments—the First, 

14th, 15th, 19th, 24th, and 26th—than is 

any other right we enjoy as Americans. 

Thus, it is vital to ensure the integrity 

of that vote. We must do everything in 

our power to ensure that every American who casts a vote in the upcoming 

election is counted. 

I thank Common Cause, Florida Voting, VerifiedVoting.org, and the North 

Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting 

for endorsing this bill. 

I urge all of my colleagues to support 

the VOTE Act, and I invite Members 

from both sides of the aisle, Democrats 

and Republicans, to cosponsor this bill. 

Protecting the vote and the integrity 


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August 1, 2012 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H5531 

of the voting process is not a partisan 

issue, but an issue that is important to 

all citizens and vital to the strength of 

America. 

f 

JOE HARTLE 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The 

Chair recognizes the gentleman from 

Pennsylvania (Mr. THOMPSON) for 5 

minutes. 

Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to recognize 

and remember Joe Hartle—a friend and 

a lifelong farmer of Centre County, 

Pennsylvania, which is located in the 

Commonwealth’s Fifth Congressional 

District. 

Joe Hartle was a distinguished leader 

in both the agricultural and fair industries, and was a staple in the Centre 

County community. Sadly, he passed 

away in March of 2012. 

First elected at the age of 17, Joe 

served on the Centre County Grange 

Fair committee for more than 60 years. 

For the past 25 years, Joe Hartle faithfully served as president of the Grange 

Encampment and Fair. Joe was instrumental in making the Centre County 

Grange Fair a showcase for agriculture 

with events to satisfy all ages. 

Through his leadership and hard work, 

the grange fair has become one of the 

leading fairs in the State. Held annually the week before Labor Day, the 

Centre County Grange Fair has become 

the largest encampment east of the 

Mississippi, and it highlights Pennsylvania’s number one industry—agriculture. 

In addition to his work, family was 

always a very important part of Joe 

Hartle’s life. He was married to his 

wife, Gladys, for 56 years. They had 

five children—Linda, Jan, Tom, Deb, 

and Betsy—and 11 grandchildren. I 

want to thank Joe for a life spent serving others and a legacy for Centre 

County that will live on for generations. 

Rest with the Lord, my friend. 

f 

KNOW BEFORE YOU OWE ACT 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The 

Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 

Pennsylvania (Ms. SCHWARTZ) for 5 

minutes. 

Ms. SCHWARTZ. As August begins, 

millions of young people across the 

country are preparing to head off to 

college. Fall brings not only a return 

to course selection and roommates and 

football games but also to high college 

tuition bills. In my home State of 

Pennsylvania, the average cost of tuition and fees tops $12,000 for a public 4- 

year school and $32,000 a year for a private university. These high costs force 

70 percent of Pennsylvania college students to take out student loans. 

One of the biggest decisions facing 

students and college graduates is not 

just the amounts they borrow but who 

their lenders will be and whether they 

will be private lenders or Federal 

loans. Federal loans are simply a better deal. They offer lower, fixed interest rates, consumer protections and 

manageable repayment options. Private student loans, on the other hand, 

typically have uncapped, variable 

rates, hefty fees and few consumer protections. From 2001 to 2008, the private 

student loan market exploded, increasing from $5 billion to $20 billion. Lenders loosened underwriting standards 

and often cut school financial aid offices out of the process. 

While students may need private 

loans, they should know the differences 

between private lenders and Federal 

loans and be fully informed of the differences in cost and obligation. Unfortunately, right now, a majority of student loan borrowers who are turning to 

more expensive student loan programs 

of private options do so without fully 

exhausting all of the Federal student 

loan options available to them. This 

means that student borrowers unnecessarily take on increased costs. 

That’s why I’ve joined with my colleagues, Representatives JARED POLIS

and TIM BISHOP, to introduce the Know 

Before You Owe Act in order to make 

sure that students and their families 

have access to vital information regarding their student loan programs. 

The legislation requires schools to 

counsel students on the financial aid 

options available to them, and it requires private lenders to adopt commonsense steps to protect student borrowers. The Know Before You Owe Act 

will empower students and their families to make informed decisions about 

financing their educations. 

Access to higher education is a top 

priority for middle class families. They 

know that higher education is one of 

the keys to being able to succeed in a 

competitive 21st-century marketplace. 

They are willing to invest in their futures by taking out student loans in 

order to afford college. We need to ensure that students have full and complete information about the most affordable student loan options available 

to them in order to fight back against 

those who might take unscrupulous advantage of families facing tough financial decisions. 

I urge my colleagues to join with me 

in supporting this important legislation and to better ensure that millions 

of Americans can afford college without taking unnecessary long-term financial hardship and risk. 

f 

PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The 

Chair recognizes the gentleman from 

Massachusetts (Mr. KEATING) for 5 minutes. 

Mr. KEATING. I would like to thank 

Congressman RAHALL for organizing 

this morning-hour on prescription drug 

abuse. I would also like to thank Chairman ROGERS for his work as well as 

Congresswoman MARY BONO MACK, 

Congressman STEVE LYNCH, and all 

Members with the Prescription Drug 

Abuse Caucus. 

Prescription drug abuse is defined 

now as an epidemic in this country, 

and the cost of this epidemic is more 

than $70 billion a year. This is by no 

means just a criminal issue, and that’s 

where the stigma sometimes makes 

this issue more difficult. It is, indeed, a 

public health issue, and for this reason 

Congress needs to step in. 

Painkillers account for the country’s 

fastest growing area of drug abuse, 

which is ahead of cocaine, heroin, and 

methamphetamine. Throughout my 12- 

year career as a Norfolk County district attorney in Massachusetts, the 

susceptibility of new users, particularly of teenagers, to these drugs has 

been a recurring theme. As district attorney, I have seen in concrete terms 

that this scourge goes across every social and economic boundary that exists. 

I have seen law enforcement officials, 

while on duty and who were involved in 

automobile accidents, take these painkillers, become addicted and actually 

go out with their guns and rob—armed 

robbery—banks and other institutions 

in order to just try and feed their habits. I’ve seen real estate professionals 

get involved and go to open houses just 

to search medicine cabinets in order to 

fulfill their habits. I have also seen 

young people begin addictions and 

abuses of prescription drugs from their 

families’ medicine cabinets, finding 

that later on they cannot afford their 

habits, and move to a cheaper, purer 

form of heroin. 

b 1040 

I’ve seen the public health effects of 

this as well. I’ve seen the HIV disease 

spread to people. I’ve seen 14-year-old 

girls with hepatitis C as a result of trying to deal with this scourge that is an 

epidemic around our country. 

In Massachusetts alone, 1.7 people 

every day die of an opiate-derivative 

overdose. In 2010, the National Institute of Drug Abuse showed that 2.7 percent of eighth-graders, 7.7 percent of 

10th-graders, and 8 percent of 12thgraders abused Vicodin. Over 2 percent 

of eighth-graders, almost 5 percent of 

10th-graders, and over 5 percent of 

12th-graders abused OxyContin for nonmedical purposes at least once in the 

year prior to that survey. This is why 

I’ve introduced the Stop Tampering of 

Prescription Pills Act, the STOPP Act 

of 2012, with Chairman ROGERS, Congresswoman BONO MACK, and my other 

colleagues. 

Currently, tamper-resistant mechanisms are in use for some drugs, but 

this bill is the first of its kind Federal 

legislation to put a clear pathway for 

others to come to market. The process 

outlined in the bill applies both to 

brand name and generic drugs, both to 

time-release and to immediate-release 

pills. Initially, we will incentivize the 

use of these tamper-resistant processes. Then, in time, they’ll be required. This bill is not a silver bullet 

by any stretch of the imagination, but 


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