Date: 2010-09-22
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I want to thank the manager of the bill. Chairman PALLONE. and thank the author and. if you will. visionary of the bill. Mr. STUPAK. and Mr. WHITFIELD for their leadership. I rise today because this is an interesting and important bit of legislation as relates to physicians under the Energy and Commerce and HHS. Its important because it helps to track or determine who might be an addict. and as well to engage the medical profession in helping to end or to stem the tide of prescription drug abuse. Interestingly enough. in this legislation there are privacy provisions. which I want to applaud and to say to all those who may be listening. this is a lifeline to stop the prescription drug abuse through legitimate medical resources and professionals. and as well for those who are legitimately ill. prescription drugs are prescribed and they find themselves addicted. When I left Texas in the last 24 hours. interestingly there was another effort going forward. Mr. PALLONE. that had to do with our Drug Enforcement Agency. where about 10 or so sites were being set up to encourage people to give back old or aged drugs in their drug cabinets. if you will. or in their prescription cabinets. or in their medical cabinets at home. And these sites were in schools and community buildings. As I read of this project. which obviously this was a proud effort. and I want to congratulate law enforcement. I had a concern. The concern was privacy. whether or not this was coordinated to ensure that if you gave a bottle of prescription drugs that still in fact was filled. whether or not there was a privacy procedure of either removing those labels. or maybe they expected you to remove those labels. and then also what would be the ultimate results. If they saw someone returning five bottles of such and such that happened to be an addictive drug and their names were on it. what kind of protection. or what kind of treatment. or what kind of referral would these individuals receive? I think thats an important point. That is why I rise today on this legislation. and I look forward to reviewing this legislation. even as it passes. to assess whether or not our friends in the legal end of it. the DEA in particular. and I would hope maybe that the representatives from the DEA would meet with me in my office about their approach to ensure that it has the requirements and the restraints that we see in this present legislation. I want to congratulate the authors of this legislation because of that very fact. I would just like to add one other point. if I could. as I close on my remarks. Having not been here for the legislation to deal with H.R. 5494. which is Ms. NORTONS legislation. which talks about the National Park Service and Secretary of the Interior transferring certain properties to the District of Columbia. it may not be equal. but I do want to make note that the GSA is holding property that the Texas Military History Museum has been paying rent on or paying taxes on because of their belief it belongs to them. and because the GSA had basically lost the property or had forgotten it existed. I look forward to them following at least the parameters of this legislation. where they can transfer those assets to a very important and distinctive group. the Texas Military Museum Association. that has now made this a military museum for Texans and for America. This was certainly appropriate to do so. Finally. I want to make sure that I add my support to legislation. if its coming to the floor. dealing with Rosas Law. that is a Senate bill. And I will add supporting statements to the record. But in conclusion. I think that this legislation. H.R. 5710. is a model for what can be an important life saver in America. and that is to get people to be weaned off of addictive drugs. but have a way of processing and determining where those drugs are. whether there is an addicted person. and how they can secure care. So I ask my colleagues to support H.R. 5710. and I look forward to the Drug Enforcement Agency working with my office on the kind of restraints that are hopefully helpful when they have these mass campaigns for people to drop off old prescriptions and to make sure that they follow suit and do the right thing for the people of this country.