the honorable jacob liu and dr. ruth schwartz. mr. mark zuckerberg and miss priscilla chan. the honorable henry olson junior and mrs. wendy holsten.

senator maria cadwell and mr. griffin plays. the honorable john pet us a and mrs. married had us a -- the honorable debbie wasserman schultz. the honorable josh earnest and mrs. josh earnest.

mr. david mark rubinstein and mrs. alice rubinstein. mr. reed hastings. mr. jake tapper and mrs. jennifer tapper.

mr. james marin and mr. jack marin. mrs. amy cunningham and mr. s cunningham. mr. wade radel and -- mr. john penn.

the honorable dianne feinstein. >> i think the importance of tonight's dinner is to welcome the president of the largest country in the world. i am on the pacific rim and the

pacific rim is the largest center of trade and commerce in the world today and i think working at a good relationship with china is extraordinarily important. business? >> i don't call the senate business that i'm delighted to be here. thank you.

the honorable dr. henry kissinger and mrs. henry kissinger.

the honorable greg strok --

the honorable wendy sherborn and mr. bruce strokes. announcer: in his weekly address, the president discusses prescription drugs. marsha blackburn of tenancy gives a republican response on efforts to defund planned parenthood.

president obama: hi, everybody. today, september 26th, is "national prescription drug take-back day." it's a day where you can safely, conveniently, and responsibly dispose of expired and unwanted prescription drugs at collection sites in your community. here's why this matters. more americans now die every year from drug overdoses than they do in car crashes. and most of those deaths aren't due to drugs like cocaine or heroin but rather pscription drugs. in 2013 alone, overdoses from prescription pain medications killed more than 16,000 americans. and most young people who begin misusing prescription drugs don't buy them in some dark alley they get them from the medicine cabinet. if that's not a good enough reason to participate in

"national prescription drug take-back day," here's another. many prescription pain medications belong to the same class of drugs as heroin. in fact, four in five heroin users started out by misusing prescription drugs. and over the course of just one year, between 2013 and 2014, we saw a 33% increase in the number of heroin users. all of this takes a terrible toll on too many families, in too many communities, all across the country big and small, urban and rural. it strains law enforcement and treatment programs. it costs all of us in so many different ways. that's why, four years ago, my administration unveiled a prescription drug abuse prevention plan. we've been partnering with communities to combat overdoses, and we're seeing some promising results. that's why the budget i put forward this year would build on those efforts. it would make critical investments in things like drug monitoring programs, equipping more first responders to save more lives, and expanding

medication-assisted treatment programs including in our prisons. in fact, getting smarter about how we address substance use disorders is a vital part of reforming our criminal justice system. rather than keep spending billions of taxpayer dollars on needlessly long prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, we could save money and get better outcomes by getting treatment to those who need it. and we could use some of the savings to make sure the brave men and women of law enforcement have the resources they need to go after drug kingpins and violent gangs, disrupt the flow of drugs into our country, and address the real threats to our communities. with no other disease do we expect people to wait until they're a danger to themselves or others to self-diagnose and seek treatment. so we should approach abuse as an opportunity to intervene, not incarcerate. and we all have a role to play here. parents, we have to understand how important it is to talk to our kids, and to safely store medications in the house.

the medical community has to be engaged, too because better prescribing practices will make a difference. and as a country, we have to keep working to reduce drug use through evidence-based treatment, prevention, and recovery. because research shows it works. courageous americans show it works, every day. that's why the man i named to head the office of national drug control policy michael botticelli is a man in long-term recovery himself. he talks about it openly and honestly, precisely to strike down the shame and stigma that too often keep people from seeking care before it's too late. this is something i'll be talking about more in the weeks to come, in communities across the country. because it's a challenge we can solve if we work together. thanks, and have a great weekend. rep. blackburn: hello, i'm marsha blackburn. i'm speaking to you today as the representative of tennessee's 7th district. and i'm also speaking with you

as a mother and as a grandmother, as someone who, like you, considers our children our nearest and dearest treasure. we have all been so shocked and outraged by the videos portraying the grisly practices of planned parenthood. these videos show abortions being altered so as to maximize the harvesting and resale of organs and body parts. it really is sickening. today i want to outline for you what we're doing to hold this organization and other abortion providers accountable, and defend our unborn children and the values that we all hold dear. first, to get answers for the american people, we are significantly ramping up our oversight and investigative practices. we will move to establish a new

select subcommittee that will focus its full attention, resources, and subpoena power on getting to the bottom of these horrific practices. second, to protect unborn children, we will pass additional pro-life measures. already, the house has voted to ban abortions from the point at which babies begin to feel pain. we will continue to do more and put these bills on the president's desk. third, to protect all taxpayers, we will redouble our efforts to ensure that you are not forced to fund this organization. twice now twice senate democrats have blocked our efforts to restrict funding to planned parenthood. they defend the organization and its practices even though they freely admit they haven't watched the videos. that's wrong.

so we are activating the reconciliation process which will allow us to break senate democrats jam and get this bill to the president's desk. i know this is difficult to talk about and it really ought to be. on these videos they haggle over prices and casually sit through body parts. these are some of the most important and humane things imaginable and they do it all as if it is just routine. an expected part of doing business. ,lanned parenthood aborts more they abort more than 300,000 babies each and every year.