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, NBC News called it “…the most ambitious congressional push yet to address the growing opioid epidemic, with provisions directing federal agencies to prioritize training, support recovery centers and expand research on several fronts.”
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 massive package to address opioids crisis
The House on Friday passed the most ambitious congressional push yet to address the growing opioid epidemic, with provisions directing federal agencies to prioritize training, support recovery centers and expand research on several fronts.
The package, made up of 58 individual House-approved bills, is the largest legislative effort in recent history to address an epidemic that killed 42,000 people in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One of the provisions would direct the National Institutes of Health to develop nonaddictive painkillers. Another would try to change how prescription pills are distributed to reduce the potential for abuse.
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Friday’s vote follows months of debate on both sides of Capitol Hill, with members holding hearings and voting bills out of committee in a rarely seen bipartisan fashion.
“This is costing us lives. This is why we’re so focused on ending this opioid epidemic,” Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said at a news conference last week. “This is all hands on deck, and we’re going to keep at this for the sake of families that are hurting right now.”
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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.