mr. tonko: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the chair for yielding. although i know my colleague's plan to withdraw, i rise in opposition to this amendment that i just wanted to articulate a bit of my reasoning. i think my colleagues and i both share the same goal of safely expanding access to addiction treatment. where we differ is that i believe that the provisions of by prenor feen meet the test. we know there is a dire feed for expanded treatment capacity to meet the demands of this current epidemic. as many as 40% of counties across the country lack even a single provider that is able to offer buprenorphine. advanced practice nurses played an outside rolled in providing care in rural america. and h.r. 6 will help expand addiction treatment capacity in these communities where it is most needed. expanding the prescribing privileges to aprn's is supported by medical groups that serve on the frontline of this epidemic such as the american society for addiction medicine and american college of obstetricians and gynecolo

h.r. 5676 introduced by our lleague mr. macarthur, mr. schweikert, mr. tonko, ms. kuster, extends existing authority in the medicare fee for service program to medicare precipitation drug plans. according to a recent report released by the department of heath and -- health and human services, one third of medicare beneficiaries received an opioid prescription from 2016, costing the program $4.1 billion and represent as many as 79.4 million prescriptions. the report found as many as half a million part d beneficiaries received high ams of opioids with almost 70,000 receiving extreme amounts of opioids, many of them as a result of doctor shopping. for years, medicare fee for service program has been able to suspend payments to a provider or supplier pebbeding an investigation of a credible allegation of fraud against the provide ore supplier. extending this authority to the medicare advantage and prescription drug plan will help bridge the gap in care beneficiaries and halt the fraudulent activity that contributes to the opioid crisis. i'd like to thank the colleague

to make ated statement here about mr. tonko and all the reasonable people left in this country because there is not enough. i agree with almost everything he has said and most of these people will say -- they say it based on facts and these people who call in and are basing their information on conspiracy theories and obviously coming from fox news. i am so tired of this. i just hope that somewhere along the line we could go back to being a reasonable country. thank you for taking my call. host: thank you, skip. guest: thank you for your assessment. i think we are a nation with great intellectual capacity. we are facing complex issues and we need to address those issues with thoughtfulness, facts, and at times, wherever applicable, science. to go forward and do this in an academic way would mean that our legislative response, executive response would be optimum and i think we can do it, it just requires our will to do it. i have seen the dismissiveness of science in this town. very troubling. so much so that i authored th

i just wanted to make a statement here about mr. tonko and all the reasonable people still left in this country, because there's not, it seems to me there's not enough. i agree with almost everything he has said, and most reasonable people will say, and they say it base on facts. and these people that call in and are basing their information on conspiracy theories and, obviously, coming from fox news. i am so tire of this. i just hope that somewhere along the line we can go back to being a republican country, and thank you for -- a reasonable country, and thank you for taking my call. [laughter] >> host: thank you, skip. >> guest: thank you, skip, for your assessment. i think that, yes, we're a nation with great intellectual capacity. we're facing some very come for example issues, and we need to address those complex issues with thoughtfulness, with facts, and at times -- wherever applicable -- science. and so to go forward and do this in an academic way would mean that our legislative response, our executive response would be opti

the chair recognizes mr. tonko for five minutes. >> thank you. mr. thompson f the rfs is replaced with the high-octane standard, as you suggest, it's my understanding there are other petrochemical derived chemicals that could be blended into gasoline to achieve the octane rating of premium fuel. is that correct? >> yes, that's correct. there are gasoline is a blend, and there's lots of blends that have octane in it, but our analysis shows if we went to a 95 r.o.n. standard, ethanol would continue to be the dominant source of octane. >> okay. some refineries might choose to meet the octane standard with an additive other than ethanol. wouldn't that be an option in the absence of the rfs program's mandate or some other requirement to blend renewable fuel with gasoline? >> certainly that would be an option. it would be done consistent with air quality and local permitting, which absolutely, our modeling shows there would be no environmental detriment due to other sources of octane being used. >> thank you. i would point out that when congress mandated a

mr. tonko: thank you, mr. speaker. and i thank representative ise in support to the teach to combat addiction act, which i join from my friend from ohio, representative bill johnson in introducing. one of the biggest challenges facing us in the midst of this opioid ep dimic is the -- epidemic is the lack of high quality treatment in parts of con only one in five individuals with opioid use disorder is able to access any type of treatment. in many instances, individuals struggling with addiction can be placed on waiting lists for months or years before they are able to see an addiction professional. that is simply not right. when we place barriers and roadblocks between patients and their care, we kw that these deys can be deadly. we need to move toward a system of treatment on demand so when an individual is crying out for assistance, when that person has that moment of clarity, there is a helping hand ready to meet them. way that moves us in the in a direction by investing in our addiction infructure. the teach to com

to make ated statement here about mr. tonko and all the reasonable people left in this country because there is not enough. i agree with almost everything he has said and most of these people will say -- they say it based on facts and these people who call in and are basing their information on conspiracy theories and obviously coming from fox news. i am so tired of this. i just hope that somewhere along the line we could go back to being a reasonable country. thank you for taking my call. host: thank you, skip. guest: thank you for your assessment. i think we are a nation with great intellectual capacity. we are facing complex issues and we need to address those issues with thoughtfulness, facts, and at times, wherever applicable, science. to go forward and do this in an academic way would mean that our legislative response, executive response would be optimum and i think we can do it, it just requires our will to do it. i have seen the dismissiveness of science in this town. very troubling. so much so that i authored th

our discussion of mr. barr and mr. tonko is timely. earlier sent the weapon's history as justified became the 13th horse to complete the triple crown. today will hear from you the experts about racing industry and how it is currently regulated and what can be done to protect these wonderful, wonderful animals. want to know your thoughts on the legislative and hand and we know your thoughts on it depending on your issue. its impact on the industry and how to promote the integrity of the sport. you have insight how we can address concerns that currently exist as i thank you all for being here today with this important discussion. i'm looking forward to your practice on the sport and i'll back the balance with time and as we like to say in eastern oregon, let her buck. >> the gentleman you back. thank you very much. at this time it's delayed right now that the ranking member of the subcommittee and ranking member of the full committee will informally pass on their opening statements on the right into mine at this time. what do you thank y

our discussion of mr. bar and mr. tonko's bill is also very timely. earlier this month, the world witnessed history as justify became the 13th horse to complete the triple crown. today we will hear from you, the experts, about horse racing industry, how it is currently regulated and what can be done to protect these wonderful, wonderful animals. we want to know your thoughts on the legislation at hand. we know you have different thoughts on it, depending upon your position on this issue. its impact on the industry and how best to promote the vitality and integrity of this celebrated sport. you all have insight that will help inform us as to how we can address some of the concerns that currently exist in the industry. so i thank you all for being here today for this important, important discussion. and i'm looking forward to your perspectives on this bill and this sport. and with that, mr. chairman, i yield back the balance of my time and as we like to say in eastern oregon, let her buck. >> okay. thank you very much. and at this time, the ranking memb

thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back the balance of my ime. mr. lowenthal: i yield to the representative, my good friend from new york, congressman tonko. this is 100 days of the land and water conservation furned. the wl crmpfmp has assisted nosht. it's 50 years to protect new york's special places and ensure for hunting and fishing. both the house and senate have introduced bipartisan bills to re-authorize the wl crmp f. i'm a proud co-sponsor and i urge the house leadership to bring it up to a vote. and the speaker pro tempore: the the entleman's time has expired. the gentleman's time has expired. tonchingtonching i yield back --. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's a nounsed policy, the air recognizes gentleman from texas, mr. ohmert, until 10:00. mr. gohmert: it's been an interesting week. we were told that we were going to be taking up a couple of immigration bills. and before we could get that arted we were met with a firestorm, outraming about children being separated -- children being separated from their parents. anybody who is