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WASHINGTON, DC 20510

October 26, 2017

The Honorable Charles E. Grassley The Honorable Dianne Feinstein
Chairman Ranking Member

Committee on the Judiciary Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate United States Senate
Washington, DC. 20510 Washington, DC. 20510

Dear Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Feinstein:

We write to thank you for your commitment to holding a hearing on the Ensuring Patient
Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act #2016 and to encourage you to invite Drug
Enforcement Agency Chief Administrative Law Judge John Mulrooney to provide testimony as a
witness at the hearing.

In the midst of the opioid crisis that is devastating our country, we need to strengthen 
not weaken the ability of law enforcement to go after reckless opioid distributors that put our
communities at risk. We must ensure that law enforcement has the tools and resources it needs to
combat this crisis and any action that undermines law enforcement?s ability to go after bad
actors is unacceptable.

The Washington Post i 60 Minutes report that highlighted the changes in the Drug
Enforcement Agency?s authority drew extensively on the work Chief
Administrative Law Judge John Mulrooney. In his forthcoming article in the Marquette Law
Review, ?Current Navigation Points in Drug Diversion Law: Hidden Rocks in Shallow, Murky,
Drug-Infested Waters,? Chief Judge Mulrooney and his coauthor, Katherine Legel, lay out a
detailed, compelling argument about some of the potential problems that have and could result
from last year?s statute. The judge summarizes the Ensuring Patient Access and Ef?zctive Drag
Enfiircement Act provides his perSpective on how it changes prior law, and
discusses what impact the EPAEDEA has and will have on the agency. Chief Judge Mulrooney
writes that EPAEDEA has made it ?all but logically impossible" the DEA to use certain
enforcement powers against drug distributors and manufacturers.

Chief Judge Mulrooney is an expert on DEA enforcement and has written a IZ-page law
review article about the impact of EPAEDEA and we encourage you to invite him to give
testimony as a witness at the joint Drug Caucus Judiciary Committee?s EPAEDEA
hearing. Administrative law judges have served as witnesses for senate committees in the past,
appearing as recently as last year before a subcommittee of the Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee. Chief Judge Mulrooney has the knowledge, experience and

perspective to serve as a helpful witness for the Drug Caucus I Judiciary Committee and we
expect that DEA will allow him to participate.

Thank you again for your commitment to hold this important hearing, and we look
forward to continuing to work with you as you consider the impact and future of the EPAEDEA.

 

 

 

 

Sincerely,
I 7 -
Margaret?/?od Hassan {ammy aldwin
STATES SENATOR UNITE STATES SENATOR
Joe Manchin I Jeanne Shaheen
UNITED STA SENATOR UNITED STATES SENATOR

 

Robert P. Casey, Jr. a 9? 

UNITED STATES SENATOR