Updated at 10:10 p.m.
A House panel advanced more than 50 bills aimed at tackling the opioid crisis Wednesday, but Democrats cried foul after the panel didn’t consider several Democrat-led bills.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s health subcommittee advanced 57 bills to the full panel Wednesday, but didn’t finish work on the full 63 that were proposed. The legislation focuses on a myriad of areas surrounding the fight to curb opioid abuse, including efforts to expand treatment options and incentivize use of nonopioid drugs.
But what wasn’t considered caused major fireworks between Democrats and Republicans.
The markup hearing started at 1 p.m. and concluded before 10 p.m. Wednesday night. Democrats objected that several of the bills that weren’t considered were led by Democrats.
“It appears there are several Medicaid bills sponsored by Democratic members on the list,” said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., top Democrat on the panel.
Among them was a bill to expand access to birth control for women who give birth to babies addicted to opioids.
“This is a bipartisan bill. It is an important bill about babies getting access to treatment,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo. “It says the [Department of Health and Human Services] standards shall be implemented and the HHS standard allow for access for the mothers of these opioid addicted babies to get birth control access. The chairman’s amendment takes out the birth control access.”
DeGette said the issue isn’t about abortion, but rather about access to birth control, which is recommended by HHS. She said the bill should be included among the final legislation that is brought before the committee in the next few weeks.
“I am going to make sure that every member of this committee has to vote on whether women who give birth to opioid-addicted babies should have access to birth control while they get treatment,” she said.
While a majority of the bills passed unanimously, there were Democratic objections to some pieces of legislation. The chief objection was due to the short time frame to review the impact of the bills, some of which were still drafts.
“Many of these bills are works in progress and still in discussion draft form,” said Pallone. “Some bills lack technical assistance from federal agencies or lack a [Congressional Budget Office] analysis.”
Pallone added that it would be “irresponsible to push policies forward without understanding the full impact.”
The bills focus on a comprehensive approach to fighting an epidemic that killed more than 42,000 Americans in 2016, according to federal data.
One bill would provide grants to federal, state, and local agencies to create or operate labs to better detect fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin. Fentanyl overdoses have been surging in recent years.
Another bill seeks to boost telehealth options for people in rural and underserved communities.
Some legislation aims to bolster the use of nonaddictive pain therapies. One bill would call for the Food and Drug Administration to look into new clinical trial designs to approve nonaddictive painkillers and help create regulatory guidance for drug makers on how to create such products.
The push includes a bill, which passed unanimously, to give the FDA more power to catch shipments from overseas of illicit opioids like the powerful fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin.
Health subcommittee Chairman Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said it was one of the most important pieces of legislation on which the committee will focus.
“If we don’t fix this problem it is going to be very difficult to get on top of it,” Burgess said.
There were a few bills that did not focus on opioids, including a bill to authorize an animal drug user fee program for the FDA.
Republicans and Democrats also clashed over some amendments to legislation.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., sought to add an amendment to a bill that would have called for the Trump administration to conduct a study into abuse-deterrent formulations for opioids, which prevent a painkiller from being chewed or snorted.
Those are common forms that addicts use to get a quicker higher.
Schakowsky wanted to add an amendment to also call for a study into naloxone, an overdose reversal drug.
Republicans objected that the amendment was not related to the bill and voted it down.
“What we are addressing in this bill is abuse-deterrent formulations. This is a bill that will happen before the fact,” said Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., referring to the bill focusing on preventing addiction and Schakowsky’s amendment related to overdoses.
But Schakowsky stressed it is related. “This is such a simple idea that I can’t figure out how we can’t fold it into this legislation,” she said.
Burgess said the full committee markup wouldn’t happen for several weeks.
The full committee will take up the bills to advance them to the House. Committee leaders expect all the bills will be passed by the Memorial Day recess.
