Trump nominates Pennsylvania's Marino to be drug czar

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A Pennsylvania Republican who was one of presidential candidate Donald Trump’s earliest backers on Capitol Hill has been nominated to be the nation’s drug czar.

The Trump administration announced Friday that President Trump has tapped U.S. Rep. Tom Marino to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

In Congress, Marino has worked to expand access to treatment for people struggling with opioid addiction.

The 64-year-old Marino lives near Williamsport, Pa., and is a former county prosecutor who served as U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania's Middle District under President George W. Bush.

Marino was the first Pennsylvania congressman to endorse Trump in the presidential primary contest. He was also the fifth GOP congressman overall to back Trump, Politico reported.

The congressman told Politico at the time that Trump had “overwhelming support” in his district because “he’s the man for the unprotected ... not the protected, not for the Wall Street people, not for the D.C. insiders, but for the hard-working taxpayers.”

Marino was previously nominated for the drug czar role, but withdrew from consideration in May because of an illness in his family.

In 2016, Marino was part of a GOP effort to look into whether Hillary Clinton committed perjury when she testified before Congress about her private email server, Fox News reported.

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.