The hottest candidate for lame-duck motion is a bill to enhance obtain to treatment method for opioid addiction — which has a fantastic likelihood of passing in the omnibus this month, congressional aides notify Axios.
Why it matters: We all know about the disaster of opioid overdose fatalities — and advocates issue to data from SAMHSA demonstrating only 1 in 10 folks with opioid use problem obtain treatment for it.
How it performs: The monthly bill would take out a need that health treatment vendors get a distinctive waiver from the DEA prior to they can prescribe buprenorphine, a drug used to deal with opioid habit, assisting maximize obtain to the therapy.
What they are declaring: Rep. Paul Tonko, a single of the lead sponsors of the bill, advised Axios he is “incredibly assured” it will make the omnibus. “Leadership is doing work challenging to get it completed,” he mentioned, calling the monthly bill a “lifesaver.”
- Practically 200 companies sent a letter to Congress this week urging passage, such as the Nationwide Affiliation of Counties, American Professional medical Affiliation and National Sheriffs’ Affiliation.
- “We have occur alongside one another to question you to act on the overdose crisis now,” the letter states. “By passing the MAT Act, you have the possibility to maximize access to a procedure that can open the doors of healing and recovery to thousands and thousands.”
The path ahead: Backers say they have not encountered a big sum of opposition, but there is nevertheless a whole lot of uncertainty close to how massive the finish-of-12 months package will be and what will make it in.
- And there is at the very least some opposition from specified Home Republicans, which includes associates who are medical doctors, like Rep. Larry Bucshon. Bucshon reported previously this calendar year that the bill is “building it simpler to prescribe a medicine recognised to be extremely diverted and misused.”
- At least at the second, though, backers do not believe the opposition will be enough to prevent it from producing it into the bill.
- The checklist of cosponsors in the Senate involves associates from across the ideological spectrum, which include Maggie Hassan, Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul and Marsha Blackburn.
In the Residence, Rep. Mike Turner is top the energy with Tonko.
- Chris Krepich, a spokesman for Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the major Republican on the Property Power and Commerce Committee, mentioned it is a precedence for her to get the House’s psychological health deal, which incorporates the MAT Act, handed and signed into regulation in this Congress.
- The package deal got over 400 votes in the Property before this year.
- “Overwhelmingly we are listening to support as an alternative of opposition,” mentioned Reyna Taylor, a senior vice president at the Nationwide Council for Psychological Wellbeing.