Durbin ’embarrassed’ by opioid-enabling bill

Posted on October 17, 2017
Dick Durbin
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin says,”It was embarrassing. We’ve got to reverse this and do it quickly.” This is in response to legislation passed under the Obama Administration, which in his words helped build the opioid epidemic up. (Photo courtesy Senate Democrats/flickr)

By Eric Stock

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said Congress must take the blame for passing a measure during the Obama administration that its critics say undermined enforcement efforts to combat the opioid epidemic.

PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Durbin on WJBC.

“It was embarrassing. We’ve got to reverse this and do it quickly. I looked at that and thought to myself, ‘of all the things that we would do in Washington.’ That was a camouflaged effort which we should’ve caught.”

The measure which passed without any debate was brought to light in a 60 Minutes report this week. A key sponsor of that bill, Pennsylvania Congressman Tom Marino, has since withdrawn his name from consideration to serve as President Donald Trump’s drug czar.

Amazon

Durbin said Illinoisans have plenty of reasons to find bipartisanship as Chicago competes for a bid to land Amazon’s second world headquarters.

“50,000 jobs directly and probably another 100… 150,000 jobs indirectly big deal, big deal. And of course we had to compete for it, and y’know I suggested democrats and republicans put your partisanship by the door, put your campaign speeches by the door.”

Durbin told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin Chicago has a lot to offer Amazon – noting it is the largest magnet for Big 10 graduates in America.

Chicago and Illinois have officially submitted their bid to land the online retail giant, but the details are not being made public.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].

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