[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16386]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        BINGHAMTON OPIOID FORUM

  (Ms. TENNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss a recent community 
forum I held at Binghamton University to raise awareness about the 
heroin and opioid epidemic ravaging our country.
  Every day in America, more than 144 Americans die of a drug overdose. 
In Broome County, where our forum was held, 76 people died of an 
overdose last year, 90 percent from opioids.
  Before the forum, I had the opportunity to tour the New Horizons 
Alcohol & Chemical Dependency program at United Health Services to see 
firsthand the arduous work our healthcare professionals are undertaking 
to fight back against this disease.
  In addition to the tour, the forum highlighted that our panel of 
healthcare professionals, law enforcement agencies, and community 
organizations continues to struggle to keep pace with the rise of 
addiction, and it became clear to me by the end of the forum that more 
resources are needed.
  It was an honor to bring together members of our community to talk 
about solutions and highlight that there is hope for the future. I look 
forward to taking those ideas that I learned at the forum and putting 
those ideas into action by working with my colleagues to reduce and 
eliminate the scourge of addiction.

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