[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 23, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H8678-H8681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 METH FREE FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES ACT

  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 6901) to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for 
the establishment of a drug-free workplace information clearinghouse, 
to support residential methamphetamine treatment programs for pregnant 
and parenting women, to improve the prevention and treatment of 
methamphetamine addiction, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 6901

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Meth Free Families and 
     Communities Act''.

     SEC. 2. ENHANCING HEALTH CARE PROVIDER AWARENESS OF 
                   METHAMPHETAMINE ADDICTION.

       Section 507(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 
     290bb(b)) is amended--
       (1) by redesignating paragraphs (13) and (14) as paragraphs 
     (14) and (15), respectively; and
       (2) by inserting after paragraph (12) the following:
       ``(13) collaborate with professionals in the addiction 
     field and primary health care providers to raise awareness 
     about how to--
       ``(A) recognize the signs of a substance abuse disorder; 
     and
       ``(B) apply evidence-based practices for screening and 
     treating individuals with or at-risk for developing an 
     addiction, including addiction to methamphetamine or other 
     drugs;''.

     SEC. 3. RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT PROGRAMS FOR PREGNANT AND 
                   PARENTING WOMEN.

       Section 508 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 
     290bb-1) is amended--

[[Page H8679]]

       (1) in subsection (a)--
       (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking 
     ``postpartum women treatment for substance abuse'' and 
     inserting ``parenting women treatment for substance abuse 
     (including treatment for addiction to methamphetamine)'';
       (B) in paragraph (1), by striking ``reside in'' and 
     inserting ``reside in or receive outpatient treatment 
     services from''; and
       (C) in paragraph (2), by striking ``reside with the women 
     in'' and inserting ``reside with the women in, or receive 
     outpatient treatment services from,'';
       (2) in subsection (d), by amending paragraph (2) to read as 
     follows:
       ``(2) Referrals for necessary hospital and dental 
     services.'';
       (3) by amending subsection (h) to read as follows:
       ``(h) Accessibility of Program.--A funding agreement for an 
     award under subsection (a) for an applicant is that the 
     program operated pursuant to such subsection will be 
     accessible to--
       ``(1) pregnant and parenting women in low-income 
     households; and
       ``(2) pregnant and parenting women in health disparity 
     populations.'';
       (4) by amending subsection (m) to read as follows:
       ``(m) Allocation of Awards.--In making awards under 
     subsection (a), the Director shall give priority to any 
     entity that agrees to use the award for a program serving an 
     area that--
       ``(1) is a rural area, an area designated under section 332 
     by the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services 
     Administration as a health professional shortage area with a 
     shortage of mental health professionals, or an area 
     determined by the Director to have a shortage of family-based 
     substance abuse treatment options; and
       ``(2) is determined by the Director to have high rates of 
     addiction to methamphetamine or other drugs.'';
       (5) in subsection (p)--
       (A) by striking ``October 1, 1994'' and inserting ``October 
     1, 2009'';
       (B) by inserting ``In submitting reports under this 
     subsection, the Director may use data collected under this 
     section or other provisions of law.'' after ``biennial report 
     under section 501(k).''; and
       (C) by striking ``Each report under this subsection shall 
     include'' and all that follows and inserting ``Each report 
     under this subsection shall, with respect to the period for 
     which the report is prepared, include the following:
       ``(1) A summary of any evaluations conducted under 
     subsection (o).
       ``(2) Data on the number of pregnant and parenting women in 
     need of, but not receiving, treatment for substance abuse 
     under programs carried out pursuant to this section. Such 
     data shall include, but not be limited to, the number of 
     pregnant and parenting women in need of, but not receiving, 
     treatment for methamphetamine abuse under such programs, 
     disaggregated by State and tribe.
       ``(3) Data on recovery and relapse rates of women receiving 
     treatment for substance abuse under programs carried out 
     pursuant to this section, including data disaggregated with 
     respect to treatment for methamphetamine abuse.'';
       (6) by redesignating subsections (q) and (r) as subsections 
     (r) and (s), respectively;
       (7) by inserting after subsection (p) the following:
       ``(q) Methamphetamine Addiction.--In carrying out this 
     section, the Director shall expand, intensify, and coordinate 
     efforts to provide pregnant and parenting women treatment for 
     addiction to methamphetamine or other drugs.'';
       (8) in subsection (r) (as so redesignated)--
       (A) by redesignating paragraphs (4) and (5) as paragraphs 
     (5) and (6), respectively; and
       (B) by inserting after paragraph (3) the following:
       ``(4) The term `health disparity population' means a 
     population in which there is a significant disparity in the 
     overall rate of disease incidence, prevalence, morbidity, 
     mortality, or survival rates in the population as compared to 
     the health status of the general population.''; and
       (9) in subsection (s) (as so redesignated), by striking 
     ``such sums as may be necessary to fiscal years 2001 through 
     2003'' and inserting ``$20,000,000 for fiscal year 2009, 
     $21,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, $22,050,000 for fiscal year 
     2011, $23,152,500 for fiscal year 2012, and $24,310,125 for 
     fiscal year 2013''.

     SEC. 4. DRUG-FREE WORKPLACE INFORMATION CLEARINGHOUSE.

       Section 515(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 
     290bb-21(b)) is amended--
       (1) in paragraph (10), by striking ``and'' at the end;
       (2) by redesignating paragraph (11) as paragraph (12); and
       (3) by inserting after paragraph (10) the following:
       ``(11) develop a clearinghouse that provides information 
     and educational materials to employers and employees about 
     drug testing policies and programs; and''.

     SEC. 5. STUDENT-DRIVEN METHAMPHETAMINE AWARENESS PROJECT.

       Section 519E(c)(1) of the Public Health Service Act (42 
     U.S.C. 290bb-25e(c)(1)) is amended--
       (1) by redesignating subparagraphs (B) through (G) as 
     subparagraphs (C) through (H), respectively; and
       (2) by inserting after subparagraph (A) the following:
       ``(B) to develop, with the guidance of adult mentors and 
     professionals, a student-driven methamphetamine awareness 
     project such as a public service announcement or a 
     television, radio, or print advertisement;''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. Pallone) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey.


                             General Leave

  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New Jersey?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening in support of H.R. 6901, the Meth 
Free Families and Communities Act. Despite recent Federal efforts to 
curb abuse, meth addiction remains a national epidemic. In 2006, the 
National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that 1.9 million 
Americans age 12 and older had abused meth at least once in the year 
prior to being surveyed. Recent trends suggest that meth use is up 
among women, including pregnant women and women of child-bearing age.
  H.R. 6901 would amend the Public Health Service Act to improve 
prevention and treatment programs for meth addiction. The bill expands 
grants available for student-driven meth awareness programs, and 
prioritizes grants that are intended to reach areas lacking in mental 
health professionals and substance abuse treatment options.
  This legislation seeks to improve treatment for meth addiction to 
pregnant and parenting women, and aims to help professionals recognize 
vulnerable populations for the purpose of preventing and treating 
addiction.
  H.R. 6901 also provides information and educational materials to 
employers and employees about drug testing policies and programs.
  H.R. 6901 helps our communities battle meth addiction by providing 
targeted education and treatment programs to the areas and people that 
need it most. It is the result of the very hard work of Representatives 
Hooley and Cubin. I urge my colleagues to support the passage of the 
bill.
  I want to particularly thank Representative Hooley for her work on 
this legislation. As many of you know, she will not be with us after 
this session and I very much regret that because of all she has 
contributed as a congresswoman over the years. But passage of this bill 
is important to her legacy and important for the American people.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, in deference to the sponsor of the bill, I 
will reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield at this time 5 minutes to the 
sponsor of the bill, the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Hooley).
  Ms. HOOLEY. I want to thank my colleague and good friend and 
wonderful chairman of my subcommittee on Energy and Commerce for giving 
me this opportunity.
  I also want to thank, and I am sorry she is not here tonight, 
Representative Cubin who has worked so hard on this issue. Battling the 
meth epidemic has been amongst my top priorities in Congress, and it is 
also a priority for the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Cubin). It is 
something that we share.
  Those of us in the West have long been familiar with the ways that 
meth has worked to destroy communities, families and property. For over 
two decades as a county commissioner and as a Member of Congress 
representing the mid-Willamette Valley and Oregon's central coast, I've 
dealt with the fallout of meth production in small communities and 
rural areas where law enforcement and social services are stretched 
beyond their limit to handle this scourge.
  The Federal Government must step up to the plate and do its part in 
defending families and communities against this threat. Meth is one of 
the fastest-growing drug problems in the

[[Page H8680]]

country because it is cheap, easy to make, and gives addicts an 
intense, long-lasting high. The consequences of its use can be severe 
not just for the addict but for the community.
  Meth addicts frequently abuse or neglect their children. Meth labs 
are toxic to our environment. Meth use and production raise the rate of 
property crime and identity theft.
  When we talk about fighting drug abuse, we frequently talk about this 
concept of a three-legged stool: prevention, treatment and enforcement. 
Just like a stool, our efforts to fight drug abuse will collapse if we 
try to stand on just one or two of those legs.
  During the last Congress we in the Meth Caucus worked together to 
make significant progress on both the enforcement aspect and 
controlling the meth supply through the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic 
Act. But treatment and prevention issues have largely been ignored, 
which is why I am so pleased that today we will consider the Meth Free 
Families and Communities Act that Congresswoman Barbara Cubin and I 
have worked together to craft.
  Our legislation has four important provisions that will help our 
communities. One concern I have heard throughout Oregon in meetings 
with treatment and prevention officials and nationally is that we need 
to start looking at the meth epidemic as not just a criminal problem, 
but as a public health problem.
  The first section will require the Center for Substance Abuse 
Treatment to work with primary care providers to apply evidence-based 
practices for screening and treating people with drug addiction or 
those at risk of developing one. It will also direct the center to 
collaborate with both addiction professionals and primary care 
providers to raise awareness of how do we recognize the signs of drug 
addiction so doctors can direct the addicted patients into treatment.
  The second provision will reauthorize an existing grant program for 
pregnant and parenting women so they can receive comprehensive, family-
based substance abuse treatment. Congresswoman Cubin has led the way in 
fighting for the resources needed for this vital initiative. Too many 
children have gone into the foster system because their mothers are 
sent to jail for meth addiction. This initiative will provide treatment 
to pregnant and parenting women which is much more effective for the 
mother and certainly cost effective and better for the child.
  Another issue that has employers seeking our help is ensuring safe 
and drug free workplaces. Employers are concerned about finding 
employees who are able to pass a drug test. In some cases, companies 
are worried about implementing drug free workplace policies out of 
concern for the employee filing suit against them. Although the 
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration already 
provides guidelines to employers on creating a drug free workplace 
policy, the chief concern I have heard from businesses is that the 
guidelines can be difficult to navigate and assistance is not readily 
accessible.
  So this legislation will create a single information clearinghouse in 
the Office for Substance Abuse Prevention that will serve as a resource 
for both employers and employees on drug testing policies and programs.
  Finally, this legislation will create a national version of an 
incredibly successful program we have in Oregon, the Methamphetamine 
Awareness Project. The project goes into the high schools throughout 
the State with a film production crew and works with the students to 
produce anti-meth advertisements or sometimes even short documentaries 
that are entirely student driven. It is a great project that allows 
students to create the message that they think will best reach their 
fellow students. And it also gives them an after-school activity that 
keeps them from being idle and teaches them new skills. This project 
has been so effective in Oregon, I want to see it expanded on a 
national level which is why this legislation will allow SAMHSA 
prevention grant dollars to be used for professionally mentored, 
student-driven methamphetamine awareness projects around the country.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman's time has expired.
  Mr. PALLONE. I yield the gentlewoman an additional 2 minutes.
  Ms. HOOLEY. I thank the gentleman.
  Congresswoman Cubin and I have both met extensively with prevention 
and treatment experts in our respective States and throughout the 
country. These provisions reflect what professionals have told us are 
the greatest needs in their field.
  With gratitude, I would like to recognize Alison Craig of my own 
staff and Landon Stropko of Congresswoman Cubin's staff who have taken 
these ideas from sessions and turned them into provisions in this 
legislation.
  I also want to recognize the work of the late Timm O'Cobhthaigh of my 
staff who helped Alison Craig put together many of these forums in 
Oregon.
  I would like to thank Congresswoman Cubin for her leadership and her 
great passion to do a bill against methamphetamine that isn't just 
limited to enforcement efforts. I urge my colleagues to join us in 
supporting the Meth Free Families and Communities Act.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise in support of H.R. 6901, the Meth Free Families and 
Communities Act. I also want to commend Congresswoman Hooley and 
Congresswoman Cubin for their tireless work on this bill.
  This bill reauthorizes a grant program administered by the Substance 
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Methamphetamine is a 
powerful central nervous system stimulant which affects neurochemical 
mechanisms responsible for regulating heart rate, body temperature, 
blood pressure, appetite, attention and mood. The grant program at the 
agency provides comprehensive family-based substance abuse treatment 
for methamphetamine addiction for pregnant and parenting women.
  The bill updates the law by directing the agency to expand, intensify 
and coordinate efforts to provide for pregnant and parenting women and 
for the family-based treatment for methamphetamine addiction. In 
addition, the bill attempts to increase awareness of methamphetamine 
addiction amongst providers and employers.
  By helping people break their addiction, this program helps to put 
them on a road towards self-sufficiency and ends the vicious cycle of 
methamphetamine addiction.
  I commend Congresswoman Hooley and Congresswoman Cubin for their work 
on this bill and for all of their years of service to this body and to 
our Committee on Energy and Commerce. Both Members will be sorely 
missed, and I wish them well in whatever life has in store for them in 
the future.
  Mrs. CUBIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in partnership with 
Representative Darlene Hooley to address an issue that transcends 
district boundaries and party lines--methamphetamine addiction.
  While we hail from different political parties, Representative Hooley 
and I are natural partners in the fight against meth. We both represent 
rural, western districts that have struggled with the horrible effects 
of the meth epidemic. We both feel that we need a comprehensive 
approach to fighting meth, including increased education, awareness, 
and treatment for the addicted.
  For the benefit of Wyoming, Oregon, and other rural areas across the 
Nation, we decided to combine our work into one bill, H.R. 6901, the 
Meth Free Families and Communities Act. This legislation incorporates 
portions of H.R. 405, the Family-Based Meth Treatment Access Act, which 
I introduced in both the 109th and 110th Congresses. My meth treatment 
provisions, combined with the education and awareness provisions 
authored by Representative Hooley, will give our citizens more tools to 
fight meth in our schools, in places of work, and in the family unit 
itself.
  Too many young men and women in Wyoming are getting hooked on meth. 
In a survey conducted in my home State of Wyoming, nearly half of 
Wyoming's young adults believe there are significant benefits to meth 
use, including weight loss and happiness.
  It's this misperception that leads young people into the nightmare of 
meth. These people have families, and children, that suffer right along 
with them. We need increased awareness in Wyoming. We also need 
treatment options for those that succumb to meth addiction.
  I crafted the provisions of H.R. 6901 that reauthorize the pregnant 
and parenting women grant program. These grants support family-based 
treatment centers, which meet the needs of the entire family--mother, 
father, and children, rather than just the addict. This

[[Page H8681]]

means healthy mothers, healthy fathers, and safe and healthy children. 
Every success story is one less family torn apart by meth.
  H.R. 6901 authorizes over $110 million for family-based treatment 
over 5 years. We need this funding in rural areas like Wyoming that 
otherwise lack treatment options. This legislation points us in that 
direction,
  I know that some question the wisdom of spending taxpayer dollars on 
drug treatment. I don't think we can afford not to invest in treatment. 
The cost of treatment pales in comparison to what meth has cost the 
taxpayer through our courtrooms, our prisons, our emergency rooms, and 
our foster care system. Moreover, the emotional cost to Wyoming's 
families has been immeasurable. Family treatment is a sound investment, 
one that this body should make.
  I want to thank Representative Hooley for her leadership and 
willingness to tackle the meth problem in a bipartisan fashion. I urge 
my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in support of H.R. 
6901, which will make a real difference for meth-affected families in 
Wyoming and across the Nation.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I would urge passage of this meth addiction 
bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 6901.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a 
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not 
present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.
  The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.

                          ____________________