Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2020

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARR. Madam Chair, I rise today to offer my amendment to increase funding for the Building Communities of Recovery program.

We all know that the opioid epidemic is a major health crisis that has impacted every community and every congressional district. My home State of Kentucky suffers from the fifth highest overdose mortality rate in the country, and we learned from the CDC that last year 72,000 of our fellow citizens died of an opioid overdose. This is a national crisis.

Last fall, Congress passed a historic package of legislation to address the opioid epidemic to research treatment and prevention. The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act builds upon past resources authorized and funded by Congress, including the 21st Century Cures Act and the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act.

Additionally, Congress has appropriated $4 billion, the largest Federal investment to date, to address the opioid epidemic, but there is more work to be done. We cannot continue to focus our Federal efforts on prevention and treatment without looking toward long-term recovery through housing, job placement, financial literacy, and life skills.

Not all recovery is the same. Everyone has a different recovery journey, and we must not prioritize one pathway to recovery over another. If there is one thing I have learned talking to folks who are struggling through an addiction recovery is that what works for one individual may not work for another.

I have heard from my constituents of the need for funding to be made available for programs that provide alternatives to medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. Obviously, medication-assisted treatment is considered evidence-based and the gold standard in many cases for helping people to recovery, but there are alternatives, and some individuals need a different course.

Currently, the Building Communities of Recovery program is one of the only sources of funding for nonmedication for opioid-use disorder.

According to SAMHSA, non-MAT programs are ineligible for the State Opioid Response Grants which constitute the majority of opioid funding.

My office has been told time and time again that the reason they cannot receive funding is because they do not offer medication-assisted treatment.

I would like to emphasize that I am not critical of medication- assisted treatment programs, but I do believe that non-narcotic alternatives to recovery complement medication-assisted treatment for certain individuals.

As we continue to combat this crisis, we must make critical, nonmedication resources for recovery available to those who need them. Treatment programs that choose to offer non-MAT recovery options are doing incredible work despite their inability to access most Federal grant programs that we enacted last year.

I would like to highlight the story of Zachary Thomas, my constituent, and a prime example of someone who successfully worked through addiction to recovery. At the age of 18, Zach dropped out of Mercer County Senior High School just 4 months before graduation. He was hooked on methamphetamines, heroin, and alcohol and was homeless.

At age 19, Zach was in the Boyle County Detention Center on drug charges. Upon recommendation of the county attorney, Zach was sent to the Shepherd's House, a recovery residence in Lexington, Kentucky, that provides transitional residential treatment for men 18 years and older.

Shepherd's House has been providing treatment for clients who suffer from drug and alcohol issues for the past 30 years. It offers structured programs that promote personal responsibility and accountability for those seeking sustained abstinence from mood and mind-altering substances.

Zach now works at DV8 Kitchen, a Lexington restaurant owned by Rob and Diane Perez that has a practice of hiring employees in recovery from drug and alcohol addictions.

Zach's success is just one example of the great work of the people at the Shepherd's House and the great work that these nonmedication- assisted treatment recovery programs are doing to combat this crisis.

The Shepherd's House's desire is to live in the solution of recovery, to make a positive economic impact on the communities we serve, and to one day put a small dent in the national crisis that we know as addiction.

Another example I would like to highlight is my good friend, Jenell Brewer, in Powell County, Kentucky, the SPARK program. It is an advocacy center that helps families navigate addiction, educates them on addiction, and connects them with recovery resources in the State. At a time when many families don't know what to do, SPARK offers a personal approach and an outlet for those coping with this crisis.

But these great organizations, SPARK and the Shepherd's House, are not eligible for many of the Federal grant programs that we have funded. And so this amendment would simply provide increased funding for that program, the Building Communities of Recovery program that would provide funding for these alternatives that are desperately needed.

I encourage my colleagues to vote in favor of the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. BARR. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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Mr. BARR. Madam Chair, I thank my friend, the gentleman from Arkansas, for his leadership on this very important issue, providing employers with flexibility.

Yes, we want to support Department of Labor-registered apprenticeships, but we need employers to be able to fill these job openings with skilled workers using apprenticeships that are actually tailored for the jobs that are available.

When I visit the employers in central and eastern Kentucky, they all tell me the same story: Because of tax cuts and deregulation, the economy is booming, they are creating jobs, but they can't find workers.

There is a labor supply shortage in this country, and we need more skills. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that labor force participation among prime-age men has dropped from 86 percent in 1950 to a rate currently of 71.5 percent.

We have got to get that labor participation rate up, and, because of that, we need skills. That is why I am proud, as chairman of the Republican Study Committee's American Worker Task Force, to support the Hill amendment, which would allow Federal grant funds to be used for apprenticeship programs that are not just DOL-registered.

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Mr. BARR. Madam Chair, not just DOL-registered programs, but also apprenticeship programs tailored by the employers for those particular jobs.

So, while the economy does need to utilize these DOL-registered apprenticeship programs, a one-size-fits-all solution is not the answer. Many employers need specific, tailored apprenticeship programs, and I urge support for the gentleman's amendment.

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