mr. udall: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to talk about our drug crisis, the prescription drug crisis. every day someone in our nation dies -- a son, a daughter, a parent -- from a drug overdose. most are from prescription drugs, from opioid painkillers, drugs intended to bring comfort and too often bring tragedy. oxycodone, hydrocodone, oxycontin -- we have an epidemic of these prescription drugs and the abuse of them. drugs that wreck lives, wreck families, wreck entire communities. in my home state of new mexico, we know this all too well. we have the second-highest rate of drug overdose deaths. we are in a crisis, and it's getting worse. more new mexicans are dying from drug overdoses than ever before. it touches home, and it hits hard. one of those re-lost was a young man named cameron weiss. he was 18 years old, an athlete, a poet. then he became addicted to painkillers for the treatment of sports injuries. that led, as it often does, to heroin. within two years this promising young man, with his

mr. udall: thank you, madam president. madam president, i would ask to speak in morning business for as much time as i may consume. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. udall: thank you, madam president. madam president, i rise today to remember a great new mexican, a great american, dr. miguel encinas who passed away on saturday, february 20, at the age of 92. new mexico has a long and proud tradition of military service. dr. encinas is often called new mexico's most decorated veteran. he fought in three wars, was the recipient of three distinguished flying crosses, 14 air medals and two purple hearts. his military career is one of courage and sacrifice, and he later played an important role in the creation of the world war ii memorial here in washington, d.c. if the measure of a life is living the utmost to one's talents and living up to one's talents and giving the utmost of oneself, miguel encinas is an inspiration to all of us, and that's why i think he will long be remembered with such admiration and gratitu

which was led by mo udall, democrat from arizona and his records became available in recent years at the university of arizona library which were a vital source to me. we'll hear in mr. about a man named john hadden, cia -- about a man named john hadden, c. a state and chief station in tel aviv at the time of this event. his son made his records available to me about two years ago after his father to death, and they proved invaluable as you will see from quotations i will provide. and then in 2006 the department of energy declassified some tactical information -- technical information about the uranium that was stolen, it helped put the whole story together. so some of us broke very late compared to what had happen. but these a couple things that israel's nuclear program. the first reactor built in israel was applied by the united states under president eisenhower's atoms for peace program. some of you are probably old enough to remember that. it was an attempt by the eisenhower administration to stay in the lead over the soviets in the distribution of nuclear technology in the world, and a small research reactor was built in israel. about the same time i'm at becau

mr. udall: we believe this nomination has really, really strong bipartisan support, and we look forward to working together to get this to the floor, get an up-or-down vote. so i rise again today to urge support for roberta jake object son. she is a dedicated public certificate advance, more than ready to be our ambassador to mexico. "the l.a. times" has called roberta jacobson among the most qualified people ever to be tapped to represent the u.s. and mexico. we have a distinguished candidate, a career member of the senior executive service. shows a ready to serve. -- she's ready to serve. we have strong support for her on both sides of the aisle. what we need now is an up-or-down vote. and once again we failed to get one. it's hard to explain this dysfunction when i talk to my constituents in new mexico. they just don't understand this kind of dysfunction. they don't understand it neither do i, frankly, and we are a border state. this is a critical position. it is critical to our security. it

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator udall. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and secretary kerry, let me echo what others have said about your excellent service around the country and all you're doing to try to bring peace to many of these difficult regions. i'm glad you mentioned roberta jacobson in your opening and other senators have mentioned her here. i've worked with her extensively. i think she's a very capable career state department person. you know, as you said, she doesn't make the policy about cuba and so if you're objecting to the policy, it doesn't make any sense to hold up her nomination, and i went down last week to the senate floor to offer her name in consent and it was objected to, and i can just tell you, this is an area that she's nominated for mexico to be the ambassador to mexico. this has a real impact on my state. the state of new mexico borders with mexico. we have dramatic trade that's going on from in the last 15 years, it started at about $7.5 million, now it's up to about $1.2 billion. we have all sorts of cooperative ki