>> ahead of today's house session, house speaker paul ryan and members of leadership came to the radio tv gallery this morning to talk about the issue of opioid addiction. here are their remarks to reporters.

disease -- mrs. mcmorris rodgers: good morning, everyone. this is kristen from eastern washington and struggled with oipped addiction for the last eight years. she was a successful, highly competitive swimmer when she was injured, she was prescribed some oippeds that led to a heroin addiction which has led her having four stints, rehab, losing her kids, numerous job firings. sher addiction has torn her family apart and it's not solved. she's a family that's close to me as well as those in eastern washington as she's my district director's sister. they need help and they need hope. for families lie kristen, the

people's house is taking more comprehensive steps this week to address this growing oipped crisis all across america and we are focused on increasing our understanding as to how we prevent addiction, protect our communities, crack down on the foreign shipments of fentanyl from places like mexico and china. as this issue is hitting home to me in eastern washington, it's all across the country. every ide 116 people die day from oipped-related deaths. law enforcement and first responders have raised the alarm as to the access of fentanyl. just a few milligrams can be fatal. the amount of fentanyl that ear of found on the lincoln on a penny can be deadly. i invite you to go to oippedcrisis.gop.

there you can find the list of the legislation we are working on. these are stories from different people, different hometowns, different walks of life but they all have in common the tragedy that many families are enduring across this country. we are united in doing everything that we can to help these families. so now i'd like to turn it over to the chairman of the energy and commerce committee who has really led the effort on this, chairman greg walden from oregon. mr. walden: well, thank you, cathy, very much. we're here todays because as you heard, the -- we're here today because, as you heard, the oipped epidemic continues to destroy and ravage lives across america. in my state we lose more people to overdose from oippeds every opioids we do in -- every year than we do in traffic accidents.

at the energy and commerce committee, we've spent the last year and a half working on legislation and working on the investigations. you all are familiar with that of the the culmination of our work has been brought to the floor this week. the first of 57 pieces of legislation out of our committee alone. they are all which bipartisan or unanimous. ust this past january, amanda, whose picture i have here today, was seeking relief from pain surrounding her mental illness. tragically, she ended up dying from a fentanyl overdose. her father came before our committee and bravely shared his family's story. he hoped their loss would help spur congress to modernize federal laws. sadly, amanda's story, as you'll hear today, is not unique. all of us know someone direct loar or indirectly affected by this crisis. truly it is the crisis next

door. my colleagues here today each have similar stories from their districts. we will have them speak about those. it's for the people in these photos that we rallied around bipartisan legislation. it's for their families, for their friends, for the future of our country. the ones left behind in their heartbreak, they expect us to act and we are. we will not rest until we have won this fight against the opioid addiction. while this crisis looms large before us, i believe we as a congress, we as the american people are clearly up to this task. we passed the comprehensive addiction recovery act and the 21st century cures act last congress under fred upton's leadership. earlier this year we passed historic $4 billion investment to combat this crisis and this crisis alone. the biggest federal investment ever. now over the next two weeks we will advance numerous addictional measures to address this ever-evolving epidemic. in fact, house energy and commerce committee's reported 57 bills to the floor.

but let me be clear. while these bills are not our first effort in this fight, you have my word they will not be our last either. we know there will be more work to do even after these become law. we have an opportunity to save lives like amanda's in the future. and we have a responsibility to our families, our friends, and our communities and a nation to lift people out of addiction and to get america on a better path. -- i think, next, tim, do you want to go? >> i think this -- this is a picture of jessie grubb. jessie's law was passed yesterday on the floor of the house. mr. walberg: jessie was a recovering addict. she was coming to michigan, making it in both education and the work force and preparing for a marathon. had an injury. subsequently had a surgery.

that surgery dealt with an infection as well. a part was put in her body. she and her parents both informed the surgeons and the doctorial staff at the hospital she was a recovering addict and so opioids shouldn't be part of her therapy. sadly didn't make it to the discharging physician and he discharged her with 50 oxycodone pills. she went home the next night, overdosed and jessie grubb is no longer with us but her story goes on and it's a story that speaks to the reason why we're doing what we're doing, to make sure this doesn't happen again. and we have people that successfully beat the addiction, can go on and have stories that speak of a future. and so i'm thankful that this bill passed, worked closely with my good friend and colleague on the other side of the aisle, debbie dingell, and we hope jessie's law becomes a law of hope and safety and ecurity for other generations.

>> good morning. mr. barr: andy barr from kentucky. my home state of kentucky suffers from the third highest opioid mortality rate in the country. so many of these stories are stories of tragedy. this is a story of hope and this is roger with his two kids. roger arrived at shepherd's house recovery program in lexington, kentucky, on may 1, 2015, after making parole. when roger arrived he was helpless. awful his belongings fit into a single garbage bag. he was unemployed, unemployable. he had not seen his kids in 2 1/2 years and his family gave up on him. roger told the people at shepherd's how how to be responsible, show up on time, stay out of jail. he had no idea how to stay sober. but shepherd's house changed his perspective. through a housing program, a long-term transitional housing program, he learned how to build a support network that would teach him how to be a father and soon he was back

visiting with his children on the weekends. eventually shepherd's house allowed roger to find freedom that he was never able to obtain before. he was able to get his own apartment for the first time, had bills in his own name and most importantly, roger stayed sober. and he's now the program director of an intensive outpatient program for shepherd's house helping the very type of people that roger once was. so we are very happy that this week the house of representatives will be voting on our bill, the thrive act, transitional housing for recovery and viable environment's act it will provide housing vouchers to places like shepherd's house and provide hope for long-term addiction recovery. mr. barletta: lou barletta, pennsylvania. this is a picture of brayden and his mother. brayden was born addicted. released from the hospital back

to his mother who was still an addict. protective services were not notified. at 6 weeks old, brayden was in bed with his mother who was high on three different opioids . and brayden's mother had rolled over on top of him and suffocated him to death. this case led to a national investigation as to the federal dollars that are going to the states to make sure that hospitals and doctors are reporting to federal agencies, to agencies, protective services, before a baby is released. we found only nine states are actually using that money, as they should, which led to a bill that i had passed holding the federal government accountable to hold the states accountable to hold hospitals accountable so other children like brayden do not lose their

lives. mr. paulsen: erik paulsen from minnesota's third district. i am showing a picture of keegan. he was addict and died of an overdose. he was a successful masters student who became a professional computer engineer and like many minnesota families succumbed to addiction. it's a tragedy that can be avoided. after he had chronic back pain, his doctor prescribed him 120 pills for back pain that led to his addiction. through our actions and bipartisan work we will pass solutiones that will help many families like keegan's, unfortunately, avoid this tragedy in the future. mrs. brooks: hello. susan brooks from indiana 5. i am holding a picture of erin, a young athlete who also had an injury, who got addicted to opioids and died of an overdose. what's amazing about him, his mother, justin philips, started an organization called lifeline

-- overdose lifeline and it raises funds to try to ensure that first responders and others, including family members, have nar can, that naloxone to stop the overdose. and in indiana, we passed what was called air aaron's law, named on behalf of aaron symms, because we need to make sure that we provide that narcan and all of that hope for those families and those addicted to prevent that overdose. mr. carter: hello. buddy carter from georgia. currently the only pharmacist in congress. i have a unique perspective on this particular situation, having practiced pharmacy for over 30 years. i saw this epidemic evolve. i saw it evolve over years. i've seen the impact it has had. i've seen lives ruined. i've seen careers ruined, families ruined. i know the impact that this can have. i want to applaud chairman walden and the committee for the work that they've done on

this particular subject because it is important. i've always described it as being two different components. one is, how do we control the drugs? how do we control the number of pills, prescriptions? secondly and perhaps more importantly, what do we do to help those 2 1/2 million people out there who are addicted? i'm here to tell you today, if you hearing the sound of my voice and you have app addiction problem, reach out to your physician. reach out to your pharmacist, your friends, your family member and tell them, i want to get better. i need help. we need you and we want you to get better. this legislation, parts of this legislation are going to do just that. they're there to help you. help you get over that addiction and that's what we want to do. again, thank you and thank you, r. chairman. mrs. hartzler: hello. vicky hartzler, missouri's fourth district. samantha huntley was a beautiful girl, straight a

student, cheerleader. she was in a car accident when she was 16 years old. broke her back in three places. as a result she was put on prescription painkillers and sadly after that a friend introduced her to heroin to continue to try to address the pain. she overdosed and now her mother is alone and doesn't have anyone to celebrate mother's day with. nd i applaud her mother, julie, for participating in over seven high school assemblies i held this spring, challenging young people to choose to be drug-free and warning them of the problems. i truly believe this week is an historic week in our nation's history where we as members of congress, both sides of the aisle, are coming together saying no more. it's a tragedy in 2016 when we lose more americans to addiction overdose than died during the entire vietnam war. this is an opportunity, a

turning point in our nation where we are rallying together, we are passing over 60 bills that will address all aspects of this problem. and i feel confident that as we continue to work together in the future we will look back to this week and we'll say we made a difference. things have changed. lives are being saved because f what we're doing here. >> good morning. my colleagues are sharing both stories and others are too often occurring in our country. mr. scalise: i want to talk a little bit about kemper from slidell, louisiana. her mother was addicted to opioids. got in a car accident, started getting prescribed drugs and became an addict. when he was born he was born addicted to drugs. it's a syndrome.

unfortunately according to the centers for disease control, about once every 25 minutes a baby is born addicted to opioids. n.a.s. that's how serious this epidemic is. fortunately he was able to beat the odds and now 3 years old and very healthy. there are too many stories like this happening across our country and that's why it's so important that this package of bills to address this opioid crisis all across our country is so important to saving lives and will be effective once it's carried out. obviously there's a few other things going on this week. speaker, i'm sure, will get into a lot more detail. we have been having very productive meetings on solving the immigration problem in this country. we have been -- working very closely with the trump administration and clearly our objectives are to get a bill that first secures the border. to fund the wall that president trump campaigned so actively on. and built such a core around. then also to address so many of the other problems.

the interior border security problems, closing loopholes, addressing chain migration and the visa lottery. when you talk to homeland security nielsen, someone that comes to this country illegally and then commits a felony, after they served their time after committing a felony, send the person back to the country they came from, she has to call that country for permission to take them back. you may find out in many cases those countries say no thank you, we don't want the felon back in our country. and so because of current law and rulings by the courts, she has to let those people go. we need to close those loopholes. we also solve the daca problem. i'm really glad our colleagues have come together to work in a way that addresses this problem. finally, i want to commend president trump for his leadership on the world stage. the historic meeting that we

saw between the president and north korea's leader, kim jong un, is so incredibly meaningful to finally get us to a place where we can actually see a de-nuclearized north korea. just think about that. imagine how important that would be not only for our allies in south korea, japan, others throughout the peninsula, but what that would then mean to isolating iran and what we can do to finally denuclearize some of these dangerous countries. so obviously there are a lot more details to work out but the fact that you saw the north korean leader agree to denuclearize in a verifiable way is an incredible achievement. i commend president trump. our former colleague on house energy and commerce committee, ike pompeo, who is doing great job. mr. mccarthy: as you can see by all the members and pictures, there's not one place in america that this does not touch. more than 100 people will die

today. tomorrow the say. our friends, our family, some of the brightest stars that we've had unbeknownst to them became addicted simply because they got injured. this is not the first time we have dealt with this subject. as you can tell it's personal to so many members in congress. in the last congress we passed the comprehensive addiction and recovery act and the 21st century cures. we added, as the chairman said, $4 billion in the omnibus for funding. we are spending this week and next week passing more than 70 bills dealing with this addiction. this is not the first step and it's not the last step. it is simply the next step. this is destroying the fiber of this nation. and we should battle it in the seriousness of what it is. that's why you'll find the work that not just one committee but numerous committees of every different element of what we're trying to do.

and our commitment to the american public that we will not stop until we're able to deal with every ability of this addiction. america deserves better, and families need to be protected. that's what our goal is. that's what our mission and hat's what we'll accomplish. >> you heard some stories here today. speaker ryan: let me give you a number. 115. 115 lives lost every day in america. addiction can feel all-consuming. it can seem impossible to live out your true purpose. but it does not lower the inherent value of a human life. every life has meaning and no drug can take that away. all of us can offer our compassion to one another so people struggling feel they have a place to turn.

that is also something we are tackling here today. ok, this is michelle viscolski, that's a good wisconsin name. has two sons. former high school athletes. they became addicted to prescription painkillers from injuries and then later heroin. they are alive. they are clean now. but it was a long road there, and michelle still worries because you all know, sew bright, it's very fragile -- sew bryity, it's very fragile. they don't fully recover. it takes a long time. one thing that strikes me about how she describes dealing with her son's addiction, it's the pervasive loneliness. she says she felt like no one dealing with her same struggle. she felt disconnected from her friends. she felt disconnected from her parents, her faith. it goes to show this can be such an isolating battle, not as one struggling with drug

use, but those trying to figure out how they can be there for their loved ones. michelle has made it her mission to help families like hers struggle. it's her mission to help families like hers get through the wilderness of addiction and to the road of recovery. she's been an advocate for more resources to treat addiction. congress has heard that call too. we have taken action to tackle this opioid epidemic. this will stem the flow of opioids in our country. they change the way opioids are prescribed and encourage nonopioid treatments and crack down on deadly synthetic drugs like fentanyl. and then they strengthen resources, prevention and treatment, including establishing more comprehensive recovery centers. we learned a whole lot of this problem in a short period of time. in fact, the recovery community, the community that michelle now helps uphold someone of the most resilient. this is what she is doing now with her life, making sure that

other families don't fall in the trap that hers did. we should apply that model of support. our institutions should immolate and encourage this kind of fellowship. those overcoming addiction and those supporting them, this is where i see america at its strongest. people coming together to help each other through these difficult times, getting rid of the isolation and having a multiprong approach to tackle this opioid crisis. this is all about restoring hope. it's about lifting up communities and it's about hopefully saving lives. questions. reporter: good morning. this agreement -- bringing immigration bills to the floor next week, it's unclear what the bills will look like, if it will pass. wasn't it an effort to stall the discharge petition so you won't imperil the farm bill? the farm bill went down because this issue of immigration was not resolved in your

conference? speaker ryan: this is to bring our caucus together on immigration. i'm very pleased with our members. what happened was our members got together, spoke with one another, and compromised with each other so we can find a way forward without exercising a discharge petition which mean we would never make law. now we have a chance at making law and solving this problem. and members wanted to have votes on their issues. there are members that wanted to have a vote on the goodlatte-mccaul bill. a compromise will be brought to the floor so members can vote on legislation tackling this issue. this has a chance going into law. like i said before, last thing i want to do is bring a bill out of here that i know the president won't support. we have been working hand in glove with the administration on this to make sure we're bringing a bill that represents the president's four pillars so we can come together, have the votes everybody's looking for, but more importantly, this represents a consensus between our members so we can move forward on the immigration issue. i think it's a product of good

compromise by my members. reporter: stall the effort of the farm bill -- speaker ryan: the discharge petition was the time sensitive activity we had. reporter: on the opioid -- speaker ryan: thank you. [laughter] reporter: i do have a question. south carolina voters told mark sanford take a hike last night. is that because he opposed the president? speaker ryan: i can't speak to it. i talk to mark sanford and the south carolina voters. some our members lost primaries. that's what happened in contested primaries. reporter: because he opposed the president? speaker ryan: every cycle primaries.oses what was your opioid question? [laughter] reporter: how much responsibility do pharmaceutical companies bear or it? speaker ryan: i'd ask some of the members of the committee. maybe the chairman could chime in on this i think there is responsibility to go all

around. you're discharging people coming out of the hospital with 120, you speaker ryan: i'd ask know, vic comes kids coming out wisdom teeth with three weeks' worth. we need to come up with nonopioid pain management treatment. nonopioid is key here. there's a lot of responsibility to be shared. greg, do you want to add to that? buddy. mr. carter: one thing that's for sure about the opioid epidemic and that is there is enough blame to go around. certainly the pharmaceutical manufacturers have the responsibility and they know that. drug distributors, wholesalers have a responsibility, pharmacists, physicians, everyone shares in that responsibility. d.e.a. why did it take us so long to schedule hydrocould he doan and apap as a schedule 2 drug? that's a question that needs to be asked. it wasn't scheduled until a schedule 2 drug until 2014. there's a lot of blame to go around. the package of bills out there, you know, there's no one solution to this. that's one thing you have to keep in mind.

speaking specifically to the pharmaceutical manufacturers, i have been on them because there's a gap between what you and escribe like advil tylenol, there is a big gap and then go to opioids. they do what they're supposed to do but they're highly addictive. the pharmaceutical manufacturers, i have been calling on them to fill that gap. give us an option, something. we have been talking about nonmedication treatments and nonopioid treatments. that's the type of thing we need to encourage and we need to be pushing the main pharmaceutical manufacturers and medicine in general to do. reporter: you said this compromise coming out, members are working together. the supreme caucus said they would not back this bill. speaker ryan: i am not asking them to back bail they have not seen yet. they have been negotiating to come up with proposal. e had to put legislation

forward. we put something that all members agree to. that means we don't do a discharge petition and we bring these bills to the floor. members will reserve judgment on final vote of a piece of legislation before and after they read that legislation. would expect it of any. reporter: do you view kim jong un as a great guy and no longer poses a threat to the united states? speaker ryan: look, the status quo was not working with north korea. what was the status quo with north korea? they were racing toward a nuclear weapon, they were racing toward having independent icbm's with nuclear tipped warheads on top. the president needed to disrupt the status quo and the president has disrupted the status quo. he should be applauded for that we should be under no delusion with north creea. it's a terrible regime. done terrible things. it's really important we disrupted the status quo like the president has. i am encouragebyhe negotiatio are now

taking place betwe secretary pompeo and the north koreans. the path we were on was not working. prior administrations have failed to fix this. and so it's really important that we dealt with this issue as it was because it wasn't going to get any better. the president should be applauded for disrupting the status quo. now, let's go get an agreement. we should be under no delusion this will be fast. this will take time and we have to make sure we have irreversible, comprehensive denuclearization of north korea. so that's what we need to get out of this. i'm pleased the president has gotten us to the position we are in. time will tell how this ends. thank you very much. reporter: could you follow-up one question, mr. speaker. do you agree with the president that north korea is no longer a threat? [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. isit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp .2018]

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> the house will be back at noon eastern to work with dealing with the nation's opioid epidemic. among the bills on the agenda, targeting shipments of illegal drugs, housing for recovery addicts and dealing with the effects of opioid addiction on families, children, and grandparents. when the house comes back in we will have live coverage. tomorrow, the 57th annual congressional baseball game with democratic members of congress playing against republicans. that's at 7:00 p.m. eastern thursday and you can see it live on our companion network, c-span3. >> sunday on "q&a," filmmakers joe and skiz discuss their documentary "hit and stay," a history of faith and resistance. out the actions of the indicateonsville nine and those who protested the vietnam war. >> the anti-war movement was

known as scruffy haired, college-aged protesters. here were middle-aged clergy. the public thought, well, if they are against this war then maybe i should reconsider it myself. that was sort of a turning point for the anti-war movement. >> you know, their action clearly didn't end the vietnam war but i don't see how you can't argue it didn't help end the draft. the head of the selective service said publicly that they felt they were under attack so i think it clearly -- you can draw a line from what they did to the draft ending in 1973. >> sunday at 8:00 eastern on -span's "q&a." >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. and today we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of

congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. d we will also get pere from congress throughout the program. joining us now is ted yoho, who sits on the subcommittee for asia and the pacific, and is in the chair of that committee. we have heard from some viewers this morning about the nuclear threat north korea poses. do you think the president will get the follow-through from kim jong-un on destroying the nuclear program that he has promised in the negotiation? want to make sure we get to complete denuclearization, but that is a long ways off. we have two people that have decided to do a project, like to build a house.