[Pages S2680-S2681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. Grassley, Mrs. Capito, and
Mr. Durbin):
S. 2838. A bill to amend the Controlled Substances Act to require the
Drug Enforcement Administration to report certain information on
distribution of opioids, and for other purposes; to the Committee on
the Judiciary.
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise with my colleagues, Senators
Grassley, Capito, and Durbin to introduce the Using Data to Prevent
Opioid Diversion Act.
This legislation provides additional tools to drug manufacturers and
distributors to better enable them to determine when orders of opioids
are suspicious.
It also provides additional tools for law enforcement to hold
manufacturers and distributors who fail to identify, report, and stop
suspicious orders of opioids accountable.
Between 2006 and 2016, nearly 21 million opioids were distributed to
two pharmacies in Williamson, West Virginia, which has a population of
nearly 3,000. Even worse, between 2007 and 2008, nearly 9 million pills
were distributed to a single pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, which
has a population of only 392.
In total, between 2007 and 2012, 780 million oxycodone and
hydrocodone pills--two powerful opioids--were distributed to pharmacies
throughout West Virginia. These two drugs contributed to 1,700 drug
overdose deaths in the state.
All of this happened despite the fact that opioid manufacturers and
distributors are required to detect and disclose suspicious orders of
opioids to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). They are also
required to keep complete and accurate records relating to the sale,
delivery, or disposal of opioids through the Automated Reports and
Consolidated Ordering System, often referred to as ARCOS.
While required by law to provide this information, once obtained, the
DEA is not required to disclose to opioid manufacturers and
distributors the total number of distributors serving a single pharmacy
or practitioner, or the total quantity and type of opioids being
distributed.
This creates a blind spot because there is no awareness of how many
drugs are entering a community. This lack of information may be part of
the reason that millions of opioids were able to be delivered to small
mom and pop pharmacies in West Virginia.
Our bill corrects this problem by requiring the DEA to provide to
opioid manufacturers and distributors anonymized information related to
the number of distributors serving a single pharmacy or practitioner,
and the quantity and type of opioids being delivered to each.
This information, coupled with the algorithms that these companies
already use in their efforts to determine the legitimacy of opioid
orders, will help manufacturers and distributors better prevent these
substances from being diverted to someone other than the intended
recipient who has a lawful prescription.
Our bill also strengthens accountability by establishing civil and
criminal fines for drug manufacturers and distributors who fail to
consider ARCOS data when determining whether an order for opioids is
suspicious. Additionally, it increases existing civil fines for drug
manufacturers and distributors who fail to report suspicious orders and
keep accurate records ten-fold, from $10,000 to $100,000. It also
doubles existing criminal fines from $250,000 to $500,000.
In addition to opioid manufacturers and distributors, accurate and
timely data related to the manufacture and distribution of opioids can
also assist state officials in stopping suspicious orders.
That is why our bill requires the United States Attorney General to
share standardized reports with state officials, including regulatory,
licensing, attorneys general, and law enforcement agencies, related to
the distribution patterns collected by the ARCOS database on a semi-
annual basis.
Finally, our bill requires the Department of Justice to provide an
annual report to Congress on how it is using ARCOS data to identify and
stop suspicious activity related to opioids.
Opioid manufacturers and distributors are on the front lines and have
an important role to play in combatting the opioid crisis.
In 2016, we lost 64,000 individuals to drug overdose deaths in our
country. More than 42,000 of these were opioid related.
Prevention is critical to reducing these deaths.
The Using Data to Prevent Opioid Diversion Act will help ensure that
we never have another situation in which 9 million pills are delivered
to a single pharmacy in a town that has a population of less than 400
people. It will provide drug manufacturers and distributors with the
tools they need to better prevent the distribution of opioids to bad
actors, and will provide law enforcement with the authority to hold
them accountable for failure to do so.
I urge my colleagues to support this legislation and look forward to
its passage.

[[Page S2681]]

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
______

By Mr. FLAKE (for himself and Mr. McCain):
S. 2850. A bill to amend the White Mountain Apache Tribe Water Rights
Quantification Act of 2010 to clarify the use of amounts in the WMAT
Settlement Fund; read the first time.

S. 2850

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. USE OF FUNDS IN WMAT SETTLEMENT FUND FOR WMAT
RURAL WATER SYSTEM.

(a) Authorization of WMAT Rural Water System.--Section
307(a) of the White Mountain Apache Tribe Water Rights
Quantification Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-291; 124 Stat.
3080) is amended in the matter preceding paragraph (1) by
inserting ``, (b)(2),'' after ``subsections (a)''.
(b) Funding.--Section 312(b)(2)(C)(i)(III) of the White
Mountain Apache Tribe Water Rights Quantification Act of 2010
(Public Law 111-291; 124 Stat. 3093) is amended by striking
the period at the end and inserting the following: ``,
including the planning, design, and construction of the WMAT
rural water system, in accordance with section 307(a).''.

____________________