House Republicans are hoping to send a series of House bills aimed at combating the opioid abuse epidemic to President Obama’s desk by July 4.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said that the House would consider more than a dozen opioid bills when it returns from its recess on May 9. He emphasized that the bill has no new funding, despite complaints from Democrats for more funding for the crisis that takes the lives of about 72 people each day.
More than 70 addiction and education groups criticized House lawmakers for omitting key provisions of a Senate bill called the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act that passed that chamber by a 94-1 vote.
But the House decided not to take up the Senate bill, much to the chagrin of co-sponsor Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
A major problem with CARA was that it “only concentrated on grants from the [Department of Justice], particularly through education,” Sensenbrenner said. “As a result, the decision was made to have more than 12 opioid bills introduced, each concentrating on a specific part of this problem.”
House committees are marking up the legislation now, and hope to get it to the House floor by the second week of May, he said. The House will combine them all into one title and send it to the Senate.
“Hopefully we can get a pre-conference on this and get the bill in and out of conference, and hope to have a final product by the Fourth of July,” he said.
Sensenbrenner said the bills employ spending offsets to generate the money they need.
“People who are complaining about, ‘there they go again spending money that we don’t have and increasing the national debt,’ do not have complaints about this bill because it is offset,” he said.
There have been complaints, however, from Democrats that the House hasn’t taken up emergency funding for fighting opioids. President Obama called for $1 billion in new funding in his latest budget proposal.
Portman has criticized the House for not simply taking up CARA. He said that the House could quickly pass the bill and that there shouldn’t be any delay.
A group of roughly 70 addiction groups and schools wrote to leaders in two House committees upset that recovery provisions in CARA were cut in the bills considered there. The provisions focused on providing more treatment options for high school students.
