WASHINGTON, DC - Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) today sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) following up on several exchanges that occurred between committee members and Mr. Neil Doherty, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Diversion Control at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) at a Wednesday hearing before the full committee.
When Mr. Doherty was asked if any existing statutes are currently preventing the DEA to conduct its enforcement duties, he testified:
“From the DEA’s standpoint, and I will address what was recently reported in the media, one of our administrative tools, an immediate suspension order, recently came under report in the media. We would be happy to work with Congress and we look forward to working with Congress with Department of Justice oversight to ensure that from an enforcement, criminal enforcement perspective, a civil sanction perspective, and an administrative perspective, which are all tools that we use to prevent the diversion of licit pharmaceuticals, we would be more than happy to work as I said with Congress, with Department of Justice oversight, to ensure that we have the most updated and applicable tools moving forward to attack the opioid crisis."
“Mr. Doherty was also asked to provide specific legislative recommendations that the Committee could take to assist the DEA," wrote Chairman Walden. “Mr. Doherty responded, in part, ‘we certainly look forward to working with Congress with Department of Justice oversight,’ and that the ‘matter is under coordination with the Department of Justice as we speak.’"
Chairman Walden continued, “Given Mr. Doherty’s references to the Department of Justice, we request your assistance in clarifying the Department of Justice and the DEA’s position on EPAEDE [the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act]. Please make Department and DEA staff available for a meeting with Committee staff by no later than November 8, 2017 to provide such clarification. We further request your assistance in providing the information and documents requested by the Committee in our bipartisan letters of May 8, 2017, and Oct. 14, 2017, as soon as possible."
