[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11397]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                CRIB ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Massachusetts (Ms. Clark) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, in my home State of 
Massachusetts, and in many other States across the country, we are 
battling a crisis that is blind to income, race, gender, and politics. 
That crisis is opiate addiction. It is happening at a deadly rate 
across the country, increasing by nearly 60 percent over the last 
decade.
  Today, I want to focus on the youngest of those affected by this 
epidemic.
  Every hour, a baby is born in the United States addicted to opiates. 
In Massachusetts, the number of babies born with this condition has 
risen to five times the national rate. In Kentucky, the rate has 
increased thirtyfold; in Ohio, sixfold; and in Colorado, as many as 6 
percent of the babies born will experience these addiction symptoms.
  Babies born with the condition known as Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, 
or NAS, are born into the pain of opiate withdrawal, which adults 
report as the worst pain they have experienced in their lives. These 
babies may suffer from seizures, breathing problems, fevers, tremors, 
or difficulty feeding. These symptoms can last for months and lead to 
weeks of hospitalization. One boy suffering from NAS in my district 
experienced such severe seizures that he suffered a detached retina.
  In an urgent response to the surge of NAS diagnoses, hospitals across 
the country have begun piecing together the best methods to diagnose 
and treat NAS. But incomplete and uncoordinated data collection hampers 
a State's ability to identify the scope of the problem and apply 
solutions and treatment effectively.
  I am asking my colleagues to join me in taking a critically important 
first step in caring for these newborns by supporting the Coordinated 
Recovery Initiative for Babies Act, known as the CRIB Act.

                              {time}  1030

  I have partnered with my good colleague from Ohio (Mr. Stivers) to 
introduce this bipartisan legislation.
  The CRIB Act is the first proposed bill to take proactive steps to 
help hospitals diagnose and treat newborns suffering from opiate 
dependency. It will give the Department of Health and Human Services 1 
year to collect the data necessary to assemble a portfolio of the best 
practices.
  The final product will be based on the most successful models in the 
country and will be accessible to every State and the medical 
community. In addition to being the right thing to do for newborns, 
this bill will save us money.
  NAS births are five times more expensive than healthy births, and 
Medicaid has been paying for 75 percent of these costs. This bill will 
help us identify the best ways to diagnose and treat these newborns, 
and it provides an important tool for addressing the opiate epidemic.
  I urge my colleagues to join national medical groups, such as the 
American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of 
Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and support the CRIB Act.

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