Portman

Sen. Rob Portman voted no when it came to funding numerous programs, including those for drug treatment, saying the overall bill was irresponsible. Now he's promoting those very programs.

(J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press)

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Rob Portman wants to fight the heroin scourge -- the one killing more than 120 Americans a day from overdoses, a deadlier toll than from either car crashes or firearms.

But he voted against the very bill that would pay for his proposed solutions. Portman aides confirmed to cleveland.com that money for fighting heroin addiction would come from the $1.1 trillion spending bill Congress passed in December, a measure that Portman denounced as wasteful and likely to drive up deficits.

This puts the Ohio Republican in an awkward position. Today, he hosted an Ohio mother, Tonda DaRe of Carrollton, at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing called to bring attention to the heroin epidemic. DaRe's daughter, 21-year-old Holly, died in 2012 of a heroin overdose.

Portman lobbied colleagues to include heroin-fighting and addiction-treatment dollars in the 2016 $1.1 trillion "omnibus" or comprehensive government-spending bill that Congress passed in December. This was just one of more than a dozen provisions Portman got in the bill, and he bragged about at least 14 in separate press releases.

Yet he then he joined a minority of Congress members voting against the entire spending package.

Portman, facing reelection in November, is not the first member of Congress to vote against a bill after bragging about its benefits. He and others before him said it shows an understanding of how Washington works, demonstrating an ability to provide benefits for constituents back home -- even in a package so distasteful that it warrants a "no" vote. There was little question the bill would pass, regardless of how Portman voted.

Here are

Portman bragged about, before voting against them in the broader bill.