Sen. McCaskill Issues Statement on Withdrawal of Rep. Marino As Director

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 -- The office of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., the top-ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, issued the following statement after the Trump administration announced that Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., has withdrawn his name from consideration to become the Trump Administration's Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy:

"I think this is the right decision, and I look forward to the Administration nominating a leader that can aggressively bring to bear every tool the government has to confront what is unquestionably a national public health crisis."

Recent media reports indicated that Marino helped lead efforts to pass the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016 that dramatically restricted the ability of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to crack down on opioid distributors suspected of wrongdoing. McCaskill introduced legislation yesterday to repeal the law.

McCaskill launched the most comprehensive Congressional investigation into the opioid crisis to date earlier this year, requesting documents from opioid manufacturers and distributors. In September, McCaskill announced the first round of findings, detailing systemic manipulation of the prior authorization process by Insys Therapeutics.