This week the House passed, and U.S. Congressman Mac Thornberry (R-Clarendon) supported, a series of 18 bills to address the nation’s growing opioid abuse epidemic. The bills were combined to become the “Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act,” which passed the House by a vote of 400-5.

Opioids, often used to suppress pain, can become addicting for many Americans, including adolescents, veterans, and pregnant women. The number of deaths related to opioid overdose quadrupled to 28,647 between 2000 and 2014. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an estimated 15 million Americans abused prescription drugs during the past year.

“This abuse of opioids has really become epidemic,” said Thornberry. “Statistics show that one in five Americans have a family member who has become dependent upon these pain killers, both prescription and illegal narcotics. With strong bipartisan support, Congress voted to remove bureaucracy and provide more tools to deal with this crisis.”
 
You can download video interview footage for news purposes on this issue by clicking here.

The bills passed this week that were combined into a final package include:

·         H.R. 4063, the “Jason Simcakoski PROMISE Act,” would improve opioid management in treating veterans;
·         H.R. 4985, the “Kingpin Designation Improvement Act of 2016,” would target international drug trafficking in the U.S.;
·         S. 32, the “Transnational Drug Trafficking Act of 2015,” would provide the Department of Justice with additional tools to target extraterritorial drug trafficking activity;
·         H.R 5048, the “Good Samaritan Assessment Act of 2016,” would protect first responders from liability law that could interfere with emergency treatment of opioid overdoses;
·         H.R. 5052, the “OPEN Act,” would require an evaluation of the effectiveness of grant programs that address opioid abuse;
·         H.R 4843, the “Improving Safe Care for the Prevention of Infant Abuse and Neglect Act,” would strengthen safeguards and state abuse programs as a condition of receiving a federal grant for child abuse or neglect prevention; 
·         H.R. 4978, the “NAS Healthy Babies Act,” would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to submit a report to Congress on neonatal abstinence syndrome in the U.S. and its treatment under Medicaid;
·         H.R. 3680, the “Co-Prescribing to Reduce Overdoses Act of 2016,” would allow the Secretary of HHS to carry out a five-year grant program for co-prescribing opioid overdose reversal drugs;
·         H.R. 3691, the “Improving Treatment for Pregnant and Postpartum Women Act of 2016,” would reauthorize residential treatment programs for pregnant and postpartum women and establish a pilot program to develop models for treating women with substance abuse;
·         H.R. 1818, the “Veteran Emergency Medical Technician Support Act of 2016,” would streamline the process for veterans with military emergency medical training to become civilian emergency medical technicians;
·         H.R. 4969, the “John Thomas Decker Act of 2016,” would direct the Centers for Disease Control to provide educational materials to help prevent addiction in adolescents who are injured playing sports;
·         H.R. 4586, “Lali’s Law,” would increase access to the lifesaving opioid antidote;
·         H.R. 4599, the “Reducing Unused Medications Act of 2016,” would permit partial fillings of certain prescriptions;
·         H.R. 4976, the “Opioid Review Modernization Act of 2016,” would require new opioids to be referred to an advisory committee at the Food and Drug Administration prior to approval;
·         H.R. 4982, the “Examining Opioid Treatment Infrastructure Act of 2016,” would require a GAO report on the inpatient and outpatient treatment capacity in the U.S.;
·         H.R. 4981, the “Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Expansion and Modernization Act,”would increase the number of patients a qualified practitioner could treat for opioid use disorder;
·         H.R. 4641 provides for the establishment of an inter-agency task force to review, modify, and updated best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication, and for other purposes; and
·         H.R. 5046, the “Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016,” would establish grants awarded to state and local governments to provide opioid abuse services.

The House and Senate will now move to a conference to negotiate the differences between their respective versions of the bill.