Republican senators have signed off on a legislative package to fight the opioid crisis and now wait for Democrats to weigh in, with GOP Senate leadership hoping for a vote next month.
“The ball is in the other court,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in a press conference Tuesday. “We are hoping Democrats will be able to clear those as well and this is something we can reach a consent agreement on to have a vote after Labor Day.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who is shepherding the legislation, said that every Republican has approved the legislation. Now Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., must do the same for the Senate’s Democrats.
“As soon as both parties agree, we can have a roll call vote next week,” Alexander said. “When we do that we can get virtually unanimous support.”
Murray told reporters Tuesday that Democrats are “working our way through” the legislation, but declined to elaborate further.
More than 42,000 people died of opioid overdoses in 2016, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics.
If the Senate approves its own collection of opioid bills, it will then move to a conference with the House, which passed its own package in June.
The legislation will likely include the Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention Act, which is meant to give the Postal Service more tools to stop shipments of illicit fentanyl from getting into the U.S. President Trump called for the Senate to take up the STOP Act without delay more than a week ago.
[Related: House lawmakers probe opioid makers’ role in epidemic]
