The House is Tackling the Opioid Crisis Head-On

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the efforts the House is undertaking this week to combat our Nation's opioid crisis. We will consider dozens of bills this week that are aimed at fighting the crisis next door that affects our families, our friends, and our loved ones.

Mr. Speaker, as you know, there is a nationwide epidemic of heroin and prescription drug abuse that is resulting in drastic increases in addiction rates, overdose deaths, and incarceration. No zip code in this country is immune from this crisis.

Heroin and pain pill addiction does not discriminate on age, race, gender or socioeconomic class. Your neighbor could be using heroin, or so could their high-honors high school student. It is the public health crisis of this generation.

As a senior member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, I want to highlight some of the work that we have done to help combat this pandemic. The committee has collaboratively worked in a bipartisa manner to introduce and support the following bills:

H.R. 5889, which requires Health and Human Services to provide resources to early childhood care and education providers, as well as professionals working with young children, on ways to properly recognize and respond to children impacted by trauma related to substance abuse.

H.R. 5890, which calls on the HHS to re-evaluate plans under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act to ensure the safe care of infants affected by prenatal substance abuse.

H.R. 5891 establishes interagency task forces to effectively and efficiently assist families who have been impacted by substance abuse disorders.

H.R. 5892 establishes an Advisory Committee on Opioids and the Workplace to advise the Secretary of Labor on actions the department can take to address the impact of opioid abuse on the workplace.

I am proud to be a cosponsor of all these bills, and I urge my colleagues to support them as well.

Mr. Speaker, the House is working to not only address this crisis, but combat it and overcome it. We will do so through treatment and recovery, through prevention, by protecting our communities, and by fighting fentanyl and other ever-changing synthetic or foreign illicit drugs.

No person can beat addiction alone, and overcoming this epidemic will not only take a community-wide effort, but a nationwide effort, and that is what we are prepared to do.

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