Establishing Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force

Floor Speech

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Ms. BROWNLEY of California. Mr. Chairman, I rise to offer a very straightforward amendment to H.R. 4641.

The amendment would include the Office of Women's Health in the interagency task force created under the bill.

As we all know, the underlying bill includes a list of Federal agency representatives to be included in the interagency task force, which will review, modify, and update best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication.

However, the bill does not currently include the Office of Women's Health. The Office of Women's Health, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was established in 1991 to improve the health of women by advancing and coordinating a comprehensive women's health agenda to address healthcare prevention and service delivery.

The Office of Women's Health works with numerous government agencies, nonprofit organizations, consumer groups, and associations of healthcare professionals to coordinate and advance policies and programs that best meet the unique healthcare needs of women.

As a national leader in the health of women and girls, the Office of Women's Health has critical specialized expertise that will help the interagency pain management task force address the unique pain management needs of women who may be pregnant or who may be nursing.

This expertise is desperately needed because opioid abuse among women has increased substantially in recent years. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of women who fall victim to an opioid-related fatality increased an alarming 400 percent from 1999 to 2010, totalling 48,000 women who have died during that span of time.

During this decade, opioid abuse among women increased more than abuse of any other drug, including cocaine and heroin. Shockingly, the CDC reports that in 2010, 18 women per day died of a prescription painkiller overdose, accounting for nearly 7,000 women in total.

It is critically important that we include experts on women's health in the opioid task force. Women who are pregnant or who may be nursing have specialized healthcare needs, and the Office of Women's Health is uniquely qualified to ensure that the interagency task force takes the needs of women and girls into account as it examines best practices for pain management in prescribing pain medication.

I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment.

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Ms. BROWNLEY of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone).

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Ms. BROWNLEY of California. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey and the gentlewoman from Indiana. I think we all realize the importance of ensuring that this interagency task force is effective and works, and I think the eyes on specific healthcare needs of women and girls is most important.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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