VIDEO RELEASE Chairman Rick Scott Leads Aging Committee Hearing on Combating the Opioid Epidemic

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Chairman Rick Scott and Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, convened a hearing entitled, “Combating the Opioid Epidemic.” The hearing included testimony from expert witnesses discussing how Congress can better help those affected by the opioid epidemic and actions public and private partners can take to curb this devastating health crisis from afflicting even more American families and communities.

Chairman Scott welcomed three witnesses for this hearing, including Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma, of Florida, Raleigh County Commissioner Greg Duckworth, of West Virginia, and Dr. Bradley D. Stein, Director of Opioid Policy, Tools, and Information Center at the RAND Corporation, of Pennsylvania.

As Florida’s U.S. Senator, and now Chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, Chairman Scott has fought tirelessly to end the deadly opioid epidemic. He was proud to have his Eradicating Narcotic Drugs and Formulating Effective New Tools to Address National Yearly Losses of Life (END FENTANYL) Act signed into law last year, and continues fighting to pass the following legislation:

• Caribbean Border Counternarcotics Strategy Act:
• Requires the Office of National Drug Control Policy to produce an overall strategy focused on preventing the illegal trafficking of drugs from the Caribbean region into the U.S., specifically relating to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
• Continuing High-Quality Evaluations of Concerning and Known Persons of Interest through National Training Updates (CHECKPOINT) Act:
• This bill will require regular updates to internal secondary internal border checkpoints’ drug seizure data categories, establish a Southern Border Intelligence Center to develop an understanding of the threat in the environment along the southern border, and ensure that the Checkpoint Management Office at U.S. Border Patrol remains consistently staffed.
• Extending Limits of U.S. Customs Waters Act:
• This bill extends the customs waters territory of the United States from 12 to 24 nautical miles from the baselines of the United States, allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) and the U.S. Coast Guard the jurisdiction necessary to keep American families safe from drug and human traffickers.
• National Fentanyl Awareness Week:
• To declare February 23^rd, 2025 to March 1, 2025, as National Fentanyl Awareness Week to raise awareness of the negative impacts of fentanyl in the United States
• Overcoming Prevalent Inadequacies in Overdose Information Data Sets (OPIOIDS) Act:
• This bill allows for better data collection from law enforcement agencies, grants to contain suspected narcotics and upgrade essential testing and tracing systems, and increased collaboration between the Office of National Drug Control Policy and other federal and state agencies.
• Overdose Response Action Data And Reforms (RADAR) Act:
• To allow for more grants to support improved data and surveillance related to opioid-related overdoses, reforms the ONDCP's role as a Cabinet-level position and improves interagency collaboration and adds fentanyl test strips to the list of excluded materials in the drug paraphernalia category of the Controlled Substances Act.
• Stopping Online Confusion for Investigative Agencies and Law-Enforcement by Maintaining Evidence Determined Interparty Arrangements (SOCIAL MEDIA) Act:
• To combat the sale of fentanyl and other illicit drugs on social media platforms. The SOCIAL MEDIA Act will allow for better law enforcement coordination in criminal cases with social media platforms by requiring 24/7 staffed-in-the-U.S.A. call centers for fielding information requests with clear guidelines for agencies to best expedite the process. Time is critical when catching these criminals. This bill will promote enhanced data collection, transparency in the data collected, and uniformity in data presented to better compare platform to platform on their efforts to combat illegal drug sales.
• Upholding the Law At Our Border Act:
• The bill requires the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the vetting and processing of migrants apprehended along the southwest border and to ensure that all laws are being upheld.

Watch Chairman Scott’s full remarks HERE. Read Chairman Scott’s remarks as prepared for delivery below:

“Over the last decade, we have lost hundreds of thousands of American lives to drug overdoses.

It’s happening in every community, across every state. None of us have been spared from the carnage left by this crisis.

And we have all heard the heartbreaking stories of families who have lost children, parents and siblings to fentanyl and other opioids. 

Fighting the opioid crisis has been an incredible challenge.

The precursors of these drugs come from Communist China and are bought by the evil drug cartels to make deadly opioids like fentanyl. These cartels then traffic these drugs over the border and into our communities where they poison and kill tens of thousands of Americans EVERY YEAR.  

Thanks to the hard work of our governors, state attorneys general, law enforcement and advocates, from 2022 to 2023 we saw a drop in overdose deaths for people aged 15 to 54.

That’s great news – but it shows we have more work to do.

While overdose deaths in the U.S. dropped for people between the ages of 15 and 54 – we saw deaths INCREASE from 2022 to 2023 for Americans who are aged 55 and older after seeing an INCREASE in the 65 and older age group in 2022.

In 2023, more than 29,000 Americans aged 55 and older died from an opioid overdose. 

That’s 80 seniors dying from opioid overdoses EVERY SINGLE DAY. 

Think about it this way…in the two hours we’ll spend together in this hearing today, SIX people aged 55 and older will die.

Every overdose is preventable. Every single one of those nearly 30,000 lives of older Americans lost could have been saved. 

While we have all heard the heart wrenching stories of the children and young people lost to the opioid crisis, the stories that have been largely untold are those about the devastating impact that this crisis is having on American seniors. 

That includes not only the horrible deaths I just talked about, but also the toll of becoming a caretaker again when parents are impacted by these drugs. I know that we will hear firsthand about that from Ms. Mateer today.

I believe the Aging Committee must take this issue on and that’s why we are having this hearing today. This isn’t a partisan issue; it’s an American issue and Congress must act NOW. 

Last year, I was proud to have my bipartisan END FENTANYL Act, signed into law, which fellow Aging Committee member, Senator Mark Kelly, cosponsored. 

The END FENTANYL Act was a bipartisan success because it exposed just how behind parts of the federal government were when it comes to fighting to opioid epidemic and stopping the deadly fentanyl that is killing thousands of our fellow Americans. 

In 2019, a study from the Government Accountability Office found that drug interdiction guidance at U.S. Customs and Border Protection had not been updated in 20 years.  

That is UNACCEPTABLE. Now that the END FENTANYL Act is law, CBP is required to update its policies at least once every three years to ensure operational field manuals, including their drug interdiction guidance, are up to date. 

These are the kinds of commonsense policies we need to get done here in Washington. 

Seeing the END FENTANYL Act become law makes me even more optimistic that we can get things done, and I have more ideas with bipartisan support to combat the opioid crisis.

Last week, I reintroduced my OPIOIDS Act with Senator Welch of Vermont. This bipartisan bill is one step we can take to fight this epidemic here and now.

It would provide better insight into overdose deaths nationwide. 

Local law enforcement agencies are on the frontlines of this crisis, and this would provide additional grants to support for law enforcement in communities with high rates of overdoses.  

It would make federal agencies collaborate on this problem.

And my OPIOIDS Act would stop the bad practice of stealing money from the National Drug Control Strategy and Budget through “automatic approvals” that aren’t explicitly approved by the Office of National Drug Control Policy Director. 

I am also proud to lead a bipartisan awareness resolution each year for the lifesaving drug, naloxone. 

As our witnesses know all too well, naloxone literally stops an overdose in its tracks.

That is why each June 6^th we do a National Naloxone Awareness Day resolution to raise awareness and educate people on the lifesaving capabilities of something so simple to carry. 

In addition to those, I also have several other pieces of legislation on this issue including:

1. National Fentanyl Awareness Week Resolution;
2. Overdose RADAR Act for better health data on overdoses; and
3. SOCIAL MEDIA Act to combat illicit online sales of drugs. 

This is by no means all we can do, but we have to start somewhere.  

Like I said earlier, I am optimistic. I know it may not seem like there is a clear path forward, but if we keep fighting every single day, I know we can make a change.

I look forward to hearing your testimony and working with my colleagues on next steps to fight this issue. 

I’d now like to recognize Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand for her opening statement.

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