the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: i understand we're not in a quorum call. the presiding officer: correct. mr. portman: today i come back to the floor of the senate to talk about the opioid crisis that gripped the country and my state of ohio. i want to focus on fent knell. it is -- fentanyl. it is causing the most overdoses at at time when we have an unprecedented number of

overdoses. fentanyl is coming through the mail, it's coming mostly from one country, china. it is the poison that has contributed more in the last few years to the rise in opioid use than anything else. over the past week we've made some significant process in pushing back against fentanyl and i want to are report on that. the u.s. house of representatives is going to take up legislation called the stop act that we have been working here in the senate on for a couple of years i'm very pleased about that. i suspect the vote today will be bipartisan. i suspect it will pass the house. i also want to report that here in the senate we've had a breakthrough in the last week. not only have we negotiated something with the house that is, in my view, an improvement from the legislation that had passed the house, ways, and means committee, but also in the senate finance committee this week, we had a markup and had a

commitment from the chairman and ranking member of that committee that the finance committee will mark up the identical legislation that will is likely to pass the house of representatives today. i want to thank orrin hatch and ranking member ron wyden for working with us to ensure that we could get this legislation marked up in committee and on to the floor of the united states senate as part of whatever we do in terms of the opioid crisis here in the coming days and weeks. i also want to of course, comment my house colleagues are to the vote today and the work they've done on this, particularly the ways -- ways and means committee chairman, bill rickert and bill pasinel. my hope is that the bill that passes the house today will be identical to the bill that we'll take up here on the floor of the united states senate so that we can ensure that we get this bill to the president for his signature as soon as possible.

this is an urt issue. this is not -- urgent issue. it is not just an important issue, it is urgent. we need to push back and push back hard. this drug fentanyl is so dangerous that a few flecks of it can kill you. again, it is something that is causing the most overdoses right now it's not just affecting those who are overdosing on it, it's affecting all of us, including our first responders and young children who come in contact with it. the stories are really heartbreaking of kids exposed to the fentanyl because somebody left it behind at a party or because their parents or other family members left it behind and these young children are overdosing and dying. it's happening in my state and around the country. first responders are being affected. i hear the stories at home, whether it's a firefighter or whether it's someone in the health care trior somebody who is in -- health care industry or somebody in law enforcement.

one police officer in liverpool, he pulls over suspects, sees white powder that they are trying to hide, wisely he puts on gloves and a mask and when he's back at the police station booking the individuals, not for the traffic violation so much as for the fentanyl. he looks at his shirt and notices a couple of flex of something white on his shirt, his fingers are exposed to the fentanyl. he falls to the ground and has to be revived by narcan, not once, not twice, but chris green who is a big guy, 204 pounds, four cans of narcan was necessary to save his live. what would have happened if he had gone home and had those flecks on his shoulder and hugged his kids. this is an incredibly dangerous

substance and we have to deal with it. last year law enforcement officials in massachusetts said they revived a man with two doses of narcan who said he had only been smoking marijuana. how can this be? because fentanyl was mixed in with the marijuana. i heard this last week in lorain, ohio. i was there for a peating -- meeting of a lot of folks involved with the law enforcement and treatment providers and law enforcement told us a story very much the same. a young man had to be revived by using narcan. he said, i was just smoking dope, it couldn't be. when they checked it, they found out that the marijuana was laced with fentanyl. it is going into crystal meth. crystal meth is now a bigger problem in my state of ohio and we know it is a bigger problem in part because it is being mixed with fentanyl.

the dayton area recently released its county overdose report. the dayton area experienced three times as many crystal meth overdose deaths in 2015. the county coroner from since cincinnati said she has seen fentanyl mixed with cocaine and marijuana. it is now the deadliest drug of the opioid epidemic. one of the takaways from my meetings around the state talking about how to push back on fentanyl is a growing consensus that we need to make much more progress from keeping the fentanyl coming into our communities in the first place. we know, again, that this is what is causing the big increase in overdose and deaths at a time when we're doing more to address the opioid crisis. without the fentanyl, i strongly believe we would make be making

progress. this body passed the kara legislation -- kara legislation and the 21st century cures act. i have been to a few different places in the state where they are using the funding well to do things like quick response when somebody is conscious -- who survived with narcan and making sure that you gets that person into treatment with social workers and others. they are using funding from the kara legislation and 80% of the people they are coming into contact with are going into treatment. that is a tremendous improvement from what has been happening which is that many people go from the narcan overdose, saving the person's life into treatment, we've got to deal with that gap. so we're making progress and yet the fentanyl is sort of overwhelming the system. it's time for us to figure out

how to push back and push back harder. since 2015, we have experienced a 1,000 increase of fentanyl deaths. more than 90% of the drugs ceased by the law enforcement contained fentanyl. most of the drugs that we talked about pushing back against, think of cocaine, think of heroin, even crystal meth come in overland, mostly across the southern border from mexico. what law enforcement and the intelligence community tells us is that fentanyl comes in primarily by the u.s. mail system. instead coming overland and the need to cover our southern border is clear, partly because of that, we have a situation where this drug is coming in through the united states mail service many they tell us it comes primary marely from one -- primarily one country, china. it is made in a lab in china and

shipped here. we went undercover and contacted a lot of different websites and they all told us the same thing, which is if you're going to buy from us, ship it by u.s. mail, if it comes by u.s. mail, we can find another delivery. if it is not through u.s., we're not sure we can guarantee it. why is that? because this body after the 9/11 tragic incidences decided to tighten up packages coming into our country. so we required the private carriers, think of u.p.s. and others to provide law enforcement about data about the packages where it was from, what was in it and where it's going. they had to provide that data electronically and in response to use analytics to determine what packages were suspect to be able to pull them off the line. i've been to those facilities where this happens.

it's very impressive. it's also very dangerous. these pack jiangs -- packages, one identified, have to be taken into a room where there are precautions taken, but the united states post office was not required 16 years ago to provide that information. instead, the legislation said that the post office needed to study the issue, leaving it clear in the legislative history that congress considered it a problem but wanted to give the post office time to look into it. specifically they asked the postmaster general and homeland security to come up with a report. it never happened. so here we are 16 years later, the post office doesn't have that requirement and these other ways that you could mail into the united states do have that requirement. guess where the packages go. the post office has begun to step up their efforts. i believe they did it because of our hearings and pressure here from congress and the legislation called the stop act.

they now say that they are screening about 36% of their packages. again, that's a big improvement. however, there are about 900 million packages a year, that means 315 million packages that are being looked at is -- is a big improvement, but we still have so many hundreds of millions of packages that are not receiving that kind of screening. in addition, we learned through our hearings and through our investigation that 20% of the time when law enforcement had identified a postal service package that was suspect, it was not presented to law enforcement. in other words, it went into the community anyway. so clearly we've got a big problem. we're not screening adequately. we're not providing the information for enough pack jiangs, and we're -- packages and we're not giving law enforcement the tools they need to do their job. with regard to the private carriers, it's 100%. it's required. the legislation we're proposing is to tell the post office, yes,

this poison has to be stopped in every way we possibly can. this is a crisis. it is something that we want you to address. so it says that by 2020 we have to have 100% of packages screened and we have to give law enforcement the tools that they need. law enforcement is, of course, desperate to get this information. if they have the information, they can help. they can help to keep these packages out of our country. they can also help to raise the price. some packages that are stopped, of course, would have otherwise gone to a p.o. box or someone's home or abandoned warehouse and been distributed. packages in my state of ohio that have been seized that could kill hundreds of thousands of people. thereof a package in nebraska that could have killed millions of people. so in a relatively small you can'ty this is incredit -- quantity, this is incredibly powerful. now we will able to get them off

line. one of the reasons that fentanyl has taken over and pushed out some of these other drugs, and by the way, it's 50 times more powerful than heroin, one reason is because it's relatively inexpensive. this will raise the price and reduce the volume and help to be able to save lives. we have over one-third of the united states senate as cosponsors of this legislation, including senator hatch and senator wyden. again, i appreciate their work and support on this. we have about half the house of representatives that have supported the stop act on the other side of the chamber. it's time for us to actually take the next step, pass this legislation, get it in place and immediately tell countries like china if you want to send packages to us, you've got to provide this information. we have done everything we can in other ways to encourage china to crack down on these labs, these evil scientists that are making this product and will continue to do that. we're taking other steps, of

course, to deal with this issue in terms of increased prevention and education efforts. that's in the cara legislation. there's $10 million right now available for the administration to come up with a national media campaign that i would strongly support. they already started a smaller media campaign with the private sector. i support that as well. we need to push back every way we can letting people know the dangers, including the fact that any street drug you take now potentially can have deadly consequences, including this fendle. -- fentanyl. we need to do more in terms of getting people into treatment. this is a disease and needs to be treated as such. we're not going to be able to make progress unless we take people who are already addicted, get them into the treatment and longer-term recovery they need. longer-term recovery is funded by cara and cures. this is the first time congress has done this. if you get people into a longer-term recovery program, sober housing and group discussion, helping to support them, you have a much higher likelihood of somebody getting clean, being successful, being able to get on track, getting

back with their family and their job. finally, we've got to do more in terms of helping law enforcement and again, that's partly what we're doing here, giving them the tools to be able to stop some of this poison from coming in in the first place. so i am encouraged with the progress we've made just in the last week. we now have a house bill that's being voted on as i speak. we now have a senate bill that has been agreed to be rocialted out of committee -- reported out of committee coming on to the floor. they're identical. they both do the job. they both tell the post office we've got to change behavior. by the way, in terms of the post office, someone told me today that the postal union was concerned about this legislation. i would encourage you to talk to rank and file mail carriers, postal carriers and ask them what they think. they don't want to be carrying this poison into our communities. they don't want to be potentially exposed to this poison should a package leak because of the danger of it. they agree, the people i talked to, that we absolutely have to crack down on this. we're not asking the post office

to do it alone. we're providing funding to customs and border protection to be there with them. the postal inspectors, the folks who are actually -- local law enforcement are desperate tone sure we can do this because they're tired of it. they're tired of seeing this stuff just come in like an avalanche coming into our country and creating all these problems across the board in our communities, every sector of our community being affected. people are desperate for solutions because they acknowledge the problem. i had a tele-town hall meeting last week here in washington where i call in and speak to thousands of ohioans at once. we do this on a monthly basis. we have for the last few years been asking among our survey questions one about opioids. it's a very simple question. it says, have you been directly affected, has anybody you know been directly affected by this opioid crisis? unbelievably, we have gotten typically about 50% of the people on the call, again these

are thousands of people randomly selected, saying yes, my family or someone i know has been directly affected by opioids. at the call last week, two-thirds, two-thirds of the people on the call said they had been directly affected or someone they know has been directly affected. that's why people are desperate for a solution because it's affecting them. it's affecting their lives. it's affecting their families. it's affecting our communities. it's affecting every single as peght of the our -- aspect of our community, the foster care system, the prison system. it's time for us to step up and do more. yes, prevention, treatment, longer-term recovery but also helping law enforcement to be able to push back, to stop some of this poison from coming into our communities in the first place. let's pass the stop act to give law enforcement the tools they need against this new scourge, this epidemic, and by doing so we will save lives. thank you, mr. president. i yield back.

port mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: and the clerk shall call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without

objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration and the senate now proceed to s. res. 503. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 503, commemorating the tricentennial of the city of san antonio, texas. the presiding officer: there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate shall consider it. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the cornyn amendment to the preamble be considered and agreed to, the preamble as amended be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. chant i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 547, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 547, designating june 19, 2018, as juneteenth independence day and so forth.

the presiding officer: there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: now, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 3:00 p.m. monday, june 18. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. i further ask that following leader remarks, the senate resume consideration of h.r. 5515. i further ask it be in order for senator sanders or his designee to raise a single congressional budget act point of order, that lay against amendment number 2282 on the bill, as amended, and that a motion to waive then

be considered to have been made and the senate vote on the motion wonts intervening action or debate. final i will notwithstanding the provisions of rule 22, all postcloture time on h.r. 5515, add amended, expire at 5:30 p.m. monday and the cloture motion filed today ripen following disposition of h.r. 5515. the presiding officer: is there objection in? without objection. mr. mcconnell: if there is no further business to come before the senate i ask that is it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 3:30 p.m. -- 3:00 p.m. on 3:30 p.m. -- 3:00 p.m. on

>> new orleans the celebrant it's try centennial this year in 2018. we are 300 300 years old. the historic new orleans collection for a try centennial exhibition, we want to look back at the earliest years and what it was like when the city first

developed. >> a visit to one of the cities oldest restaurants. >> the food here takes a much larger piece band does anywhere else. we live to eat in new orleans. >> watch saturday at noon eastern on c-span2's booktv and sunday at two p.m. on american history tv on c-span3. working with our cable affiliates as we explore america. >> sunday night on "after words," television and radio host bill press talks about his book from the left. is interviewed by syndicated columnist. >> who is one of the most persuasive gas you can -- >> john mccain. >> on what the subject. >> just about anything. he was such a maverick which i'd like come consider myself

somewhat of a maverick. he was also brutally honest, willing to take on his own party. i i wrote a book critical about barack obama called buyer's remorse which i got a lot of crap for from my fellow democrats but i thought there some things i believe barack obama led the progressive side down. so john mccain felt his party was not living up to what he believed the republican party should be he was willing to say so. >> watch "after words" sunday night at nine eastern on c-span2's booktv. >> today democratic and republican members of congress ace off in the 57th annual congressional baseball game for charity. live coverage begins at 7 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> french ambassador to u.s. spoke this week about u.s.