House lawmakers advanced more than a dozen bills to combat opioid abuse despite objections from some lawmakers and addiction treatment groups that they lack key measures to help addicts.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Judiciary Committee advanced 14 bills on Wednesday in separate votes to the full House. The bills seek to address different facets of the opioid abuse epidemic and are part of a larger House effort to draft a response to the epidemic.
The collection of bills would give grants for treatment options, expand access to the overdose antidote naloxone and remove barriers to doctors prescribing the addiction treatment buprenorphine. The 12 bills from the House Energy and Commerce Committee could reach the full House by the second week of May, Chairman Rep. Fred Upton has said.
Lawmakers in the Energy and Commerce Committee battled over the funding.
Rep. Ben Lujan, D-N.M., tried to add $1 billion over two years in new mandatory funding to combat opioid abuse. That is the same figure introduced in President Obama’s budget, which has not been taken up by Congress.
Democrats said more finances are needed to combat the issue.
“One thing is clear. Right now there are just not enough resources to go around, and I urge adoption of this amendment,” Lujan said.
But Republicans voted down the amendment, with some saying that they had only just heard of it.
“It is fiscally irresponsible and represents bad process,” said Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa.
Other Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee were concerned about omissions in the two bills considered by that panel.
For instance, a bill considered in Judiciary excludes provisions from a Senate bill called the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act such as an expansion of a drug takeback program, said Rep. David Cilline, D-R.I., during a markup of two bills in the House Judiciary Committee.
Drug takeback programs are employed to get people to dispose of unwanted and unused opioids and other products. Those drugs can be taken by family or friends and contribute to the opioid epidemic.
Ironically, Congress sponsored a federal takeback day on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
The bills considered by the House Judiciary Committee would create a comprehensive grant program for states and localities to boost treatment offerings and to evaluate the effectiveness of grants.
Treatment groups were upset with not only the bills being considered by Judiciary, but also the House Education and Workforce Committee.
A group of 71 schools, universities and addiction centers were troubled about certain parts of the Senate bill. Specifically, the groups want provisions offering more treatment options for students.
“These important provisions expand recovery supports for students in high school or enrolled in institutions of higher learning and develop community-based recovery services in communities across the country,” according to a letter from the groups to House Judiciary leadership.
A similar letter was sent to the House Education and Workforce Committee.
The addiction treatment advocacy group Harm Reduction Coalition also wrote to Judiciary leaders complaining of provisions left out of the bills.
The letters come as the lead sponsor of the Senate bill, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, continues to pressure the House to take it up.
The Senate bill, which passed by a 94-1 vote, “is comprehensive,” Portman said on the Senate floor Monday. “No other bill comes close. As this process moves forward, I will insist that any final agreement represent a comprehensive approach to combating this epidemic.”
