[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 6 (Thursday, January 11, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H86]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        OPIOID SETTLEMENT FUNDS

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce with Congresswoman 
Ashley Hinson of Iowa, my appropriations colleague, H.R. 6956, the 
bipartisan Opioid Settlement Accountability Act.
  This legislation will ensure that money from opioid settlements 
related to the ongoing crisis are used for opioid treatment, 
prevention, and enforcement rather than slush funds for road 
maintenance or local debts.
  The opioid crisis is far from over. In 2022, more than two-thirds of 
the reported 107,081 drug overdoses in the United States involved 
opioids.
  While opioid settlements have totaled $55.79 billion, many of these 
funds are not being used to address the ongoing damage done by the 
ongoing opioid epidemic.
  We must learn our lesson from the tobacco settlements of the 1990s. 
States used money they received for transportation projects and 
balancing budgets instead of prevention efforts.
  Today's opioid settlement funds must be used to help fight the 
ongoing opioid epidemic and not as piggy banks for politicians to break 
open and play around with.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to sign on with us.

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