[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 155 (Tuesday, September 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6209-S6210]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            OPIOID EPIDEMIC

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, in 2017, more than 72,000 Americans died 
from drug overdoses, and 49,000 of those deaths were related to 
opioids. Opioid overdoses have surpassed motor vehicle accidents as the 
leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Whole 
communities have been devastated by the opioid epidemic. The situation 
is rightly described as a crisis.

[[Page S6210]]

  Here in Congress we are focused on doing everything we can to support 
the fight against substance use disorder. In 2016, we passed the 
Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which authorized a variety of 
grants to States to boost their efforts to reduce opioid deaths and 
help individuals overcome opioid addiction. That same year, we also 
passed the 21st Century Cures Act, which provided $1 billion in State 
grants over 2 years to combat the opioid epidemic.
  In March of this year, Congress passed an appropriations bill that 
provided $4.7 billion to address the opioid crisis. Today, we voted on 
an appropriations bill that will provide another $3.8 billion to fight 
this epidemic. Overall, Federal funding to address the opioid crisis 
has increased by nearly 1,300 percent over the past 4 years.
  Then there is the bill we passed last night. The Opioid Crisis 
Response Act, which passed the Senate yesterday evening, is the product 
of months of work by five Senate committees. It contains more than 70 
proposals from Senators of both parties and represents the serious 
efforts Congress has made to address opioid addiction on a number of 
fronts.
  This legislation will support critical treatment and recovery 
efforts. It will help babies born in opioid withdrawal. It will help 
support family-focused residential treatment programs, and more. Just 
as importantly, it will also take steps to address what I see as the 
supply side of the opioid epidemic. It will help stop the movement of 
illegal drugs across our borders through the mail--the work of the 
Senator from Ohio, Rob Portman. It will promote research into and fast-
track approval of new nonaddictive pain management alternatives. It 
will help stop the practice of ``doctor shopping'' by improving State 
prescription drug monitoring programs.
  The bill also provides grants for law enforcement agencies to help 
protect law enforcement officers from accidental exposure to deadly 
drugs in the course of their duties.
  I am proud that this legislation includes a bill that I introduced, 
the Expanding Telehealth Response to Ensure Addiction Treatment Act, 
which will help expand access to substance use disorder treatment for 
Medicare recipients by using telehealth technology.
  The Opioid Crisis Response Act also includes my legislation to close 
a safety gap in railroad drug and alcohol testing regulations and 
require the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department 
of Transportation to include fentanyl in the drug-testing panel.
  Opioid addiction destroys lives, not just the lives of the addicted 
but the lives of their children, their parents, their siblings, their 
spouses, their relatives and friends. The Opioid Crisis Response Act 
and the funding that we passed today will help move us forward in the 
fight against this deadly epidemic. We will continue to make combating 
opioid addiction a top priority here in the Congress.

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