Pelosi Remarks at Press Conference Calling for Bold Federal Response to the Opioid Crisis

Contact: Ashley Etienne/Henry Connelly, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined Congressman Elijah Cummings, Senator Elizabeth Warren and health care advocates for a press conference calling for strong federal action to confront the opioid abuse epidemic. Below are the Leader's opening remarks:

Leader Pelosi. Good afternoon, everyone. So I had an invitation from Ady Barkan to come be here with you all today. He is so wonderful. If I had a wish for you all it would be that you could have heard him speak out in favor of the Affordable Care Act and against the dark cloud tax scam passed by Republicans and what it did to health care in our country. If I had a bigger wish though, it would be for Ady to find an intervention and he would be healthy again for his son, Carl.

He invited me on a call and some of you are on those regular calls. I thank the Center for Popular Democracy. With Jennifer, when she is on the phone I know at least she is not in jail.

[Laughter]

Anyway, here we are, with something that is a crisis in our country, a challenge of America. Listening to your remarks, I thank you for your ferocity that you bring to it all. I am reminded, yesterday, in our House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing on the cost of prescription drugs: ‘A Bitter Pill to Swallow'. At that meeting, we wanted it to be bipartisan but, of course, Republicans did not have that hearing.

Here were a couple of things I found interesting: did you know that the pharmaceutical industry spends more money on advertising than they do on research and development?

Do you know why they advertise? When the doctors go to prescribe they say, ‘I want to prescribe what I saw on TV last night.'

Do you also know that you go to the pharmacy and you have insurance and they say to you, ‘Your deductible is forty dollars.' There is a gag rule that prevents them from saying, ‘Without insurance, you can buy this for twenty dollars.' A gag rule that prevents you from hearing that a drug costs less than your deductible because of insurance companies – pharmaceuticals – the whole thing. Isn't that stunning? It is a gag rule so that is something that we have to change.

There are a lot of things we have to change. Representative Elijah Cummings and Senator Elizabeth Warren, with their leadership, they put forth an outstanding piece of legislation. The question is – can we get it to work? We need it to work with Medicaid, Medicare. We need it to work so it addresses the opioid epidemic. What it is, a public health catastrophe and a challenge to the conscience of our country.

Opioids, as you know, are afflicting a savage daily toll on Americans in every corner of the country. All of us meet with families all the time and learn. One example that taught me a lot about families was if your child or partner or whatever is taking an opioid for the relief of pain, pain goes away, they stop taking the opioid. A few months later, the pain returns, they take the opioid which the body has now lost its tolerance for – that dosage is lethal. It wasn't lethal before, but its lethal now.

So when they talk about OD and this or that, it's completely in many cases, it was not intentional, but a consequence of lack of information associated with some of it. And the over-prescribed, it is something that we all need your help to work on. We have the doctors coming in, the nurses coming in, other groups coming in to say what some of these solutions should be. Now we fought and we won in the negotiation and we negotiated for a higher opioid number in the Omnibus bill. We wanted a lot more money, but we got $3 billion each year for two years. A good start. Not a great start, but a good start.

But we need to spend the money well. It is not just about a number of pills. Doctors say, ‘Don't tell us how many pills we can prescribe.' Well maybe we should. Others say there are other ways to relieve stress and relieve pain and that you don't need opioids in the first place. We are too reliant to transition from them. Marijuana, yoga, all kinds of other things that are homeopathic but are not addictive in this dangerous way.

It is just 116 people a day on average who lose their lives to opioids. Imagine that. Just think, you have accidents and murders, this, that and the other thing and we make a big fuss. We should make an enormous fuss about this because this happens every day. It is driving down the life expectancy, cutting the workforce. The epidemic is growing more dire and more deadly every day. And I hate to say that but that is a fact.

And so what we need is public policy. This has to be big. It has to be urgent to get families the prevention, the treatment and the recovery sources they need. Congressman Cummings' and Senator Warren's CARE Act takes a strong step forward in this fight. But we must work to fill the big gaps in Medicare and Medicaid, across the health care system.

Last fall, [Congressman] Cummings was with us and some of the others were with us, when we fought this tax bill because the national debt that it creates then gives justification, well not real justification, but a rationalization to the Republicans who come in with the President's budget right on the heels of the President's tax bill. Saying that a trillion dollars on Medicaid, a half a trillion dollars on Medicare. Really? Pay for tax cuts for Corporate America, for them to ship jobs overseas. What is this about? It is not about a statement of our values. And we value human life. And we are here to prevent, to treat and to care very positively for families who find themselves in this dangerous deal.

So on behalf of my colleagues on the House side, hopefully soon to be the majority, not to talk politics. Thank you. I come here to say thank you to my colleagues, to Senator Schumer and to all of you for your activism. Your activism, your mobilization can make the difference in all of this. To any of us who care about a healthier America, to reducing opioid epidemic in a drastic way or deflating our debt, thank you so much.

[Crowd chants ‘Not One More']

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