Manchin: Marino will be drug czar 'over my dead body'
Source: Politico
By LOUIS NELSON 10/17/2017 08:34 AM EDT
Sen. Joe Manchin said Tuesday that he intends to stop Rep. Tom Marino from becoming the nation’s drug czar, telling CNN that “over my dead body” will the Pennsylvania lawmaker be confirmed to the post.
The White House announced last month that President Donald Trump would nominate Marino (R-Pa.) to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy, an appointment that appears uncertain now in the wake of reporting from CBS News and The Washington Post that Marino championed legislation that hamstrung DEA efforts to combat opioid abuse.
“He is not going to be -- over my dead body will he be the drug czar,” Manchin (D-W.Va.) said of Marino on CNN’s “New Day” on Tuesday. “That is not the person that a person from West Virginia can look at this man, being the drug czar, a person that basically weakened it and allowed hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people get killed. This is wrong. And I'm sure when the president sees this, adjustments will be made.”
The legislation backed by Marino, the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act, made it essentially impossible for the DEA to freeze suspicious narcotics shipments from drug companies. The bill had been backed by pharmaceutical industry lobbyists and opposed by the DEA.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/17/joe-manchin-marino-drug-czar-243855?lo=ap_c1