The House on Thursday passed a bill that intends to provide new grants to address various facets of the opioid abuse epidemic.
The Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act passed the House 413-5 on Thursday. The bill calls on the Department of Justice to provide grants to states and local governments for programs that address opioid and heroin abuse, which takes the lives of 72 Americans each day.
The bill is part of a package of 18 bills that are making their way through the House this week. The chamber intends to put all of the bills into one package and then send them to the Senate for approval.
The bill contains $500 million in funding for the grants, which is offset from other programs. Democrats had sought to add mandatory funding to an earlier opioid bill, but their efforts were rejected by House Republicans.
