Washington, D.C. – As a member of the Bipartisan Opioid Task Force, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is proud to lead on several initiatives aimed at treating addiction and curbing abuse. Today, the Task Force unveiled their 2020 Legislative Agenda which includes several bipartisan bills that take action to combat the opioid crisis and support communities who have been devastated. Many of the bills the Congresswoman leads and supports were highlighted today during a press conference by leaders of the Task Force.
Of the bills on the agenda, Congresswoman Stefanik is a co-lead of the Opioid Workforce Act, which funds 1,000 additional residency positions in hospitals that have or are in the process of establishing approved residency programs in addiction medicine. She is also a co-lead of the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act, which would eliminate the requirement for health care providers to obtain a special waiver from the Drug Enforcement Agency in order to prescribe buprenorphrine, a drug that can help in the treatment of opioid addiction. Congresswoman Stefanik also co-leads the Community Service Block Grant Reauthorization Act, which would expand transparency efforts to improve Community Action at the federal, state, and local levels while also spurring innovation and evidence-based practices to help communities address the needs of families and individuals affected by the opioid crisis.
Additionally, Congresswoman Stefanik cosponsors several other bipartisan bills that are included in the Legislative Agenda to address the opioid epidemic from several perspectives, including prevention, treatment, law enforcement, criminal justice reform, veterans, and workforce development.
These bills include:
- The John S. McCain Opioid Addiction Prevention Act, which would limit to seven days the supply of a patient’s first opioid prescription for temporary pain caused by injury.
- The Fentanyl Sanctions Act, which would impose sanctions on drug manufacturers in China who knowingly provide synthetic opioids to traffickers, transitional criminal organizations who mix fentanyl with other drugs and traffic them into the U.S., and financial institutions that assist such organizations.
- The Community Re-Entry through Addiction Treatment to Enhance (CREATE) Opportunities Act, which establishes the Medication-Assisted Treatment Corrections and Community Reentry Program in the Department of Justice to award grants that support local programs and provide medication-assisted treatment for incarcerated individuals who have opioid-use disorder.
- The Non-Opioids Prevent Addiction Act, which addresses payment disincentives for practitioners to prescribe non-opioid treatment alternatives in surgical settings.
- The Suspicious Order Identification Act, which requires Drug Enforcement Agency registrants to electronically report on every sale, delivery, or disposal of a controlled substance within 30 days, and establishes the Suspicious Order Monitoring Task Force, a data sharing platform
- The Block, Report, And Suspend Suspicious Shipments Act, which requires drug manufacturers and distributors who discover a suspicious order for controlled substances to report and halt the shipment.
“The opioid crisis has unfortunately had devastating impacts on the North Country,” said Congresswoman Stefanik. “This legislative agenda includes many bipartisan bills that I am proud to co-lead and cosponsor in order to address this epidemic from all angles. It is so important that we equip our health care providers, first responders, and community members with the resources and the tools they need to continue to combat addiction issues. I am glad that this legislative agenda is being implemented and I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass more legislation to stop the opioid epidemic.”
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