Standing at the Brink?

Kim Jong-un's pursuit of nuclear weapons poses a threat to the United States and our allies in Asia. We have few good options to effect change in North Korea, but one is to apply crippling economic sanctions that leave the regime with no alternative but to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

After President Trump rightfully decided to cut short his negotiations with Kim Jong-un over sanctions, I joined my colleague Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) in reintroducing the bipartisan Otto Warmbier Banking Restrictions Involving North Korea (BRINK) Act. The bill -- which passed the Senate Banking Committee unanimously last Congress -- is designed to offer foreign banks and businesses a stark choice: continue business with North Korea or maintain access to the U.S. financial system.

I hope the Senate will quickly approve this important measure. Watch my appearance with Senator Van Hollen on Andrea Mitchell's news show here.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a community in Pennsylvania that has not been impacted by the opioid and heroin epidemic. This scourge hasn't discriminated on age, race, gender, or geography.

Congress has taken significant action in recent years to fight opioid abuse. But our efforts are undermined by foreign countries that turn a blind eye to drug kingpins who traffic this poison into our country.

Last week, I joined law enforcement officials in Luzerne County to discuss bipartisan legislation I introduced with Senator Doug Jones (D-Ala.) to prevent the importation of the illicit, deadly, synthetic opioid known as fentanyl. Our bill, the Blocking Deadly Fentanyl Imports Act, would stop certain American foreign aid to countries, like China, that do not cooperate with U.S. drug enforcement efforts relating to fentanyl.

Here is one thing that Republicans and Democrats agree on in the Senate: the medical device tax should be repealed.

Enacted as part of Obamacare, the medical device tax is a 2.3 percent excise tax on one of the nation's most innovative industries, impacting the sale of a broad swath of products from pacemakers to tongue depressors. While the tax took effect in January 2013, it has been suspended twice, with the most recent moratorium set to expire at the end of this year.

The specter of the re-imposition of this tax threatens patients, American jobs, and medical innovation. That's why I'm working with Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and 18 other Republican and Democratic senators in introducing the bipartisan Protect Medical Innovation Act, which would repeal this tax, once and for all.

This week, I met with representatives from the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) to discuss ways we can better serve the residents of Pennsylvania at all levels of government. Representing the CCAP were Kathy Dahlkemper (Erie), Kathi Cozzone (Chester), and Ed Bustin (Bradford).

The topics discussed in our meeting ranged from flood insurance to the opioid crisis.

Hearing from local leaders about issues unique to their communities greatly helps to inform my overall approach in Washington, and I look forward to more meetings like this in the future.

This week, I met with members of the Pennsylvania Down Syndrome Advocacy Coalition.

We had a meaningful conversation about promoting and expanding job opportunities for individuals with disabilities. We also discussed the importance of the ABLE Act, which established tax-advantaged savings accounts for individuals with disabilities. I supported the legislation creating ABLE accounts in 2014 and am pleased with how they are benefitting persons living with disabilities.