WASHINGTON, DC – Nearly two months ago, the House acted and passed H.R. 6, the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act, by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 396-14. At the time, ABC News called it “the lower chamber’s extensive effort” to combat this scourge.
Combating the opioid crisis has long been a top priority at Energy and Commerce. Our current efforts have been moving forward on two tracks: advancing collaborative, bipartisan legislative solutions and continuing investigations into several key issues that have contributed to the crisis. Taken together, this is the most significant congressional effort against a single drug crisis in history.
It is imperative that the Senate quickly follow suit, sending H.R. 6 to President Trump’s desk to become law.
House passes comprehensive bill to combat growing opioid epidemic
The House of Representatives passed a bipartisan, comprehensive bill Friday that aims at curbing the country’s growing opioid epidemic.
By a vote of 396-14, the House passed H.R. 6, the SUPPORT for Patients Communities Act, which is the collective product of the lower chamber’s extensive effort this year to combat the opioid crisis.
The bill contains several Medicaid, Medicare, and public health reforms, such as adding a review of current opioid prescriptions and screening for opioid use disorder as part of the Welcome to Medicare initial examination. It also aims at reducing the trafficking of Chinese fentanyl into the United States by giving law enforcement new tools to detect suspicious packages in the mail.
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White House press secretary Sarah Sanders applauded the House for passing the bill, and urged the Senate to follow suit.
“These necessary bills will help save American lives through prevention and education, treatment and recovery, and law enforcement and interdiction, Sanders stated. “We look forward to continuing our work with Congress on a problem that affects everyone and that should be solved by everyone. We urge the Senate to continue the bipartisan tradition of helping Americans who are affected by the crisis, to swiftly pass the legislation from the House, and to get these lifesaving bills to the President’s desk. Enacting this legislation will be another step in our long but worthwhile effort to ameliorating and then ending this crisis once and for all.”
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To learn more about Energy and Commerce’s comprehensive efforts to combat the opioid crisis, click here. To learn more about the House’s comprehensive efforts to combat the opioid crisis, click here.
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