Sen. Durbin: I Regret Voting Yes on a Bill that Limited the DEA’s Ability To Crack Down on Opioid Distributors

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
TODD: "Ask you about opioids. Senator hatch did an interesting thing in his talk. I'll deal with it later in the show, but opened his questioning and seemed to address all of you. All of your colleagues in the Judiciary Committee referring to the bombshell "Washington Post" "60 minutes" report about the bill that stripped the Dea of some of its enforcement powers and the attempt to crack down on opioid distributors and senator hatch said, everyone on the commit and in the Senate voted for this bill twice and it was only a seven-page bill and you can't sit here and deny you didn't know what this bill was about. A. Is he right? Are you complicit and, B., do you regret your vote?"
DURBIN: " I do regret my vote and I'm joining in with Claire Mccaskill to reverse this change in policy, because we know what happened. As a result of that change in law, the number of raids made on those who were M distribution networks dwindled down to a handful and that in this time of opioid crisis is inexcusable. I can make my own excuse. The Dea saying a good version of the bill. I added amendments I thought were available. My president, Barack Obama, a man I served with on the Senate signed it into law. All good arguments on the side of the law, but the net result of it, lack of vvigilance is unacceptable. They need to be health to a higher regard with regards to these opioids."
TODD: "This story strikes me the distrust between the public and Washington. I sit here and ask myself how do 100 extraordinarily intelligent people get snowed by this bill? What do you say to the American public?"
DURBIN: "They have a legitimate interest in it and legitimate reason to be skeptical how this was handled. I look at the end product and say I didn't see this coming. I certainly wasn't there standing up saying I've got to find a way to go easy on distributors senting many more opioid pills into communities than they could possibly need. Clearly used for abusive conduct. I should have seen that coming. I didn't see it coming. Now that I've seen the result of it I want to undo it as quickly as possible."