Senate advances opioid legislation
The Senate on Wednesday advanced a bill that aims to treat those suffering from addiction to prescription painkillers and heroin, assuring the measure will reach President Barack Obama's desk just days before the summer recess is scheduled to begin.
The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act passed a test vote by a 90-2 margin after it was overwhelmingly approved in the House on Friday by a 407-5 vote. After a final vote in the Senate, Obama is expected to sign it into law.
Among its measures, the legislation allows the federal government to award grants to states to treat people who are addicted to painkillers like oxycodone and to its street alternative, heroin, and allows physician assistants and nurse practitioners to prescribe buprenorphine, a drug that helps curb addiction cravings.
The bill represents a shift from previous drug control policy, which has focused on law enforcement measures rather than on helping people with drug dependence access treatment.
Deaths from opioids like painkillers and heroin have reached epidemic proportions in recent years, killing 47,000 people in 2014 and surpassing car accidents as the No. 1 cause of injury death. In Congress, both parties have agreed the issue needs to be addressed, but funding has been an ongoing area of discussion.
The final bill does not come with any funding attached to it, even though the Obama administration requested $1.1 billion for the cause. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has called the bill "very meaningless" without resources.
Republicans have said that they will authorize funding when Congress returns in September from its summer recess, though they plan to appropriate only a fraction of the president's request – $581 million coming from the next year's health spending bill.
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