[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 105 (Friday, June 22, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E902-E903]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   SUPPORTING PASSAGE OF H.R. 6 AND URGING FURTHER ACTION TO PREVENT 
                               ADDICTION

                                  _____
                                 

                          HON. TERRI A. SEWELL

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 22, 2018

  Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank all of the 
Members who have worked across the aisle on the opioid bills we've 
passed over the past two weeks. The bipartisan work that has gone into 
these bills is exactly what our constituents sent us to Congress to do. 
I have enjoyed working with Rep. Peter Roskam on H.R. 5773, the 
Preventing Addiction for Susceptible Seniors Act, which passed on 
Tuesday as a suspension. Since our committee has jurisdiction over the 
Medicare program, we found it necessary to

[[Page E903]]

work on legislation that helps the seniors impacted by the opioid 
crisis across this country.
  The bill included another bill I worked on with Rep. Renacci, H.R. 
5715, the Strengthening Partnerships to Prevent Opioid Abuse Act. The 
bill encourages greater data sharing between CMS and insurers.
  All the bills passed in recent weeks represent the first step in 
addressing a crisis that has impacted millions of Americans and their 
families. In 2016, we lost 64,000 American lives from drug overdoses. 
Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 
the age of 50.
  After today, we must continue to focus on policies that lift our 
constituents out of the conditions that lead to addiction. Whether that 
results from social isolation, financial anxiety, emotional or physical 
trauma, inadequate access to primary or mental health care, we should 
consider how all of the policies we advance in this body will impact 
our constituents.
  The lessons from past drug crises and the evidence supporting the 
public health approach we are taking today can guide us as we seek an 
end to the current opioid crisis--without revamping the failed and 
costly War on Drugs.
  Opioid addiction is a disease that has spread to millions of 
Americans across the country, from our young students to our parents 
and grandparents, from our rural communities to our big cities. 
Alabama, which has the highest rate of opioid prescriptions in the 
country, is a battleground in our fight against this epidemic.
  Millions of Americans become addicted to opioids after being 
prescribed opioids after surgery or to manage pain. My congressional 
district and state is home to many retired coal miners and men and 
women who have spent their lives working in physically intensive jobs 
in manufacturing. I have no doubt that the chronic pain they have 
sustained from years in physically taxing work environments is real and 
requires pain medication.
  I also have heard from constituents with sickle cell disease and 
cancer, who require pain management to treat the pain that results from 
their conditions.
  Moving forward, I am committed to working on policies that advance 
and encourage the development and adoption of non-opioid alternatives 
for pain management. From increased access to physical therapy and 
chiropractic care to post-surgical non-opioid alternatives, I urge CMS 
to take the steps they can today to change reimbursement policies that 
discourage providers to prescribe non-opioid alternatives.
  The preventative action necessary for a crisis as such can be 
observed in the case of Jessica Kilpatrick, an Alabama woman in a small 
town in Northwest Alabama. As stated in the Washington Post, ``for as 
long as she could remember, pills made the intolerable possible. Now, 
without them, she was a poor woman in a poor town with a swollen right 
foot from a 10-hour shift [at Burger King] and a new key tag from 
Narcotics Anonymous that said ``Clean and Serene for Eighteen months.''
  Susceptibility to relapse on this road to recovery is fueled by the 
lack of access to adequate treatment for both pain and addiction. I am 
deeply concerned about Alabamians who work hard every day but yet fall 
into the Medicaid gap. Workers who make more than 18 percent of the 
poverty line but less than the federal poverty line do not qualify for 
any assistance, making prevention and treatment more expensive in non-
expansion states and unaffordable for Alabamians in minimum wage jobs.
  I urge all Members of Congress to support H.R. 6 today because it 
marks a positive step in the right direction as we work to improve the 
lives of the millions of Americans impacted by the opioid and addiction 
crisis.

                          ____________________