U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn says Congress will start work next week on fixing any damage that may have been caused by an opioid measure that she helped get passed into law.
The Brentwood Republican says that, even before a CBS News/Washington Post investigation claimed over the weekend that the legislation had kept drug enforcement agents from seizing shipments to pill mills, a hearing was in the works to address the situation. She says it’ll take place next week.
A spokesman for Blackburn acknowledged earlier this week that there may have been “unintended consequences” from the bill that Congress approved last year stripping the Drug Enforcement Administration of its authority to interdict opioids headed from distributors to questionable pharmacies. Blackburn herself had not spoken about the issue directly until asked about it shortly after a speech in Clarksville on Tuesday.
“What we were trying to do, and attempting to do, and still are, is to clean up the distribution process. There were some problems there,” she says. “So the goal was to clean up the process so that we can stem this flow into communities.”
The measure’s primary backer was Pennsylvania Rep. Tom Marino, with Blackburn signed on as its first co-sponsor. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch sponsored the final version.
The measure eventually gathered nearly two dozen co-sponsors and passed both houses of Congress on unanimous consent. The DEA did not object, and it was signed into law by President Barack Obama last year.
But CBS and The Washington Post claim that, within the DEA, there was deep division about the bill. Blackburn is accused of co-signing a letter that appears to have led to one critic being removed from his duties with the agency.
The investigation came out as Marino was being considered to be the White House’s next drug czar. He withdrew his name from consideration Tuesday.
Blackburn is running for the U.S. Senate. So far, her main competition for the Republican nomination is conservative activist Andrew Ogles. Nashville attorney James Mackler is the only Democrat in the race.
On Tuesday, Mackler circulated a petition calling on Blackburn to drop out.
The House of Representatives is currently on its October recess, but Blackburn says lawmakers are planning a hearing as soon as they return. She did not provide specifics.
But other lawmakers from Tennessee
say they’re open to taking swift action. That could include repealing the measure.
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