Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Pallone and Mrs. McMorris Rodgers for their excellent bipartisan leadership in bringing these bills to the floor. It is the way Congress is supposed to work.

Mr. Speaker, I didn't know anyone who died of a drug overdose when I was in high school or college. But my two sweet kids can count five or six of their peers who have been lost to suicide, drug overdose- related. It is heartbreaking. Everybody in this House knows the horrifying 107,000 losses we have seen from opioid deaths last year.

So I do, in fact, rise in support of H.R. 7666, and to discuss my co- prescribing legislation that was included in this mental health package. My bill seeks to prevent opioid overdoses through co- prescription. This effort was inspired by my home State of Arkansas, which is one of 14 States that has co-prescribing now.

Co-prescribing is when a doctor prescribes an opioid overdose reversal drug like naloxone along with the prescription. My legislation encourages co-prescribing when medically appropriate. It also supports existing standing orders to increase laypersons' access to opioid overdose reversal drugs like naloxone.

Statistical modeling reported to the International Journal of Drug Policy suggests that high rates of naloxone distribution among laypersons and emergency personnel could avert 21 percent of opioid overdose deaths. The majority of overdose death reduction would be as a result of that increased naloxone distribution to patients.

Mr. Speaker, in 2021, 551 of our citizens of Arkansas are alive today because of a co-prescription legislation.

Mr. Speaker, the data is clear. Co-prescribing saves lives, and that is why I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 7666.

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