[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 74 (Wednesday, May 11, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H2219]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      EPIDEMIC OF OVERDOSE DEATHS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, next to me is a map of the United States 
which shows the sickening increase in overdose deaths in this country 
due to heroin and opioid use over the last decade or so.
  The first map is a map from the Centers for Disease Control 
statistics in 2004, when roughly 7,000 Americans lost their lives to 
opioid overdose. Again, the red color shows the intensity of regions 
where deaths occurred in excess of 20 per 100,000. The blue is 10 per 
100,000 or less.

                              {time}  1015

  In 2014, over 28,000 Americans lost their lives to heroin and opioid 
overdose deaths. As you can see, the red portions of the country are 
increasing at an alarming rate. We have not gotten the 2015 statistics 
yet from the Centers for Disease Control, but by all indication from 
State numbers that are coming out, this map is actually going to get 
worse for the 2015 numbers.
  Mr. Speaker, we have an epidemic in this country which far surpasses 
any challenge that is presented by any natural disaster. If we had an 
attack on the homeland that took the number of lives that these maps 
represent, this Congress would be on fire in terms of trying to move 
resources and help to communities all across the country.
  Again, it is indiscriminate. It hits rural America, it hits suburban 
America, it hits urban America, and it hits age groups and ethnic 
groups across the board.
  Today we are going to be taking up some legislation, H.R. 4641 and 
H.R. 5046. The first bill has 2 cosponsors; the second has 10 
cosponsors. The first provides for establishment of an interagency task 
force to talk about pain medication, and the second is to authorize, 
not appropriate, different programs for heroin and opioid reduction. 
They are benign bills. It would be impossible for anyone to object to 
them.
  But to be very clear, there is not a penny in either of these 
measures to help law enforcement. The police and fire who are 
responding to these crises day in and day out back home in eastern 
Connecticut are burning out because of the frequency of these calls. 
There is not a penny in these measures for treatment beds, for detox, 
or for long-term care treatment. In the State of Connecticut, it takes 
4 to 6 months to get treatment.
  These are addicts who are at points in their lives where to talk 
about a 4- to 6-month time span is to talk about an eternity. If you 
talk to the families who are dealing with their loved ones who are 
ensnared in these addictions, 4 to 6 months is really basically being 
told that there is no treatment available.
  There is not a penny for prevention and education. If we go upstream, 
that is how we solve this problem in terms of better practices for 
opioid and heroin prescription.
  It is not a coincidence that the White House last night issued a 
statement on this legislation, which basically points out the fact that 
they ``do little to help the thousands of Americans struggling with 
addiction.''
  The statement goes on to say that these alarming trends which are 
represented on this map ``will not change by simply authorizing new 
grant programs, studies and reports. Congressional action is needed to 
fund the tools communities need to confront this epidemic and 
accelerate important policies like training health care providers on 
appropriate opioid prescribing, an essential component of this 
effort.''
  The President submitted a budget with $1 billion of new funding paid 
for offset for 2017 that would put money into those three buckets: 
prevention and education, law enforcement, and treatment, again, no 
action by the majority in terms of dealing with actual funding to help 
people out there desperate for help.
  There is a bill also to provide emergency supplemental funding of 
$600 million for this year to get that help out now. We presented it to 
the Rules Committee last night, and it was rejected.
  If we had a hurricane or a tornado or a forest fire that was ravaging 
parts of this country or an attack on the homeland, this place would 
not hesitate about getting resources out there to help the folks that 
would respond to that type of a crisis; yet, somehow we have turned a 
blind eye to the thousands of Americans who are suffering from 
addiction and to the thousands of law enforcement fire and police who 
are responding to these calls literally as we are sitting here today.
  There are hundreds of people per day who are dying because of this 
problem, and we, again, are providing no resources about better opioid 
prescription practices and getting better education, particularly to 
our young people, that clearly this map shows we must do if we are 
going to get our arms around this conflict and this problem.
  Today there will be votes. There will be a lot of self-congratulatory 
rhetoric about the fact that we are moving on this. But, remember, 
there is not a penny for law enforcement, for treatment, or for 
prevention and education. Until we do that, we are kidding ourselves 
that we are going to turn this alarming, disturbing trend around.

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