[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 98 (Wednesday, June 13, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H5105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        AMERICA'S OPIOID CRISIS

  (Mr. KILDEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, this week, the House is voting on bills 
meant to address the opioid crisis, a crisis facing communities across 
the country. This crisis deserves our full attention and bipartisan 
action. Mr. Speaker, 115 people die every day from overdose. These are 
real human beings.
  I think of Katie Lethbridge, from my home community of Brendan Bye, 
lost to this terrible, terrible addiction, this terrible tragic 
disease.
  We need more than just the legislation that is coming before us this 
week. We need a serious commitment to treatment, to funding treatment, 
not just with direct funding to ensure that the programs that support 
treatment are in place, but actually making sure that people have 
healthcare coverage that includes coverage for treatment.
  When this House works to undermine the guarantee that people with a 
preexisting condition, which could include addiction, if it is taken 
from them, we are really not living up to the promise that we owe to 
these folks.

                          ____________________