Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. PALLONE. I rise in opposition to H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act.
Mr. Speaker, throughout this debate today, House Republicans will claim that they are committed to tackling fentanyl, but their actions show that simply is not true.
As the Trump administration illegally stole billions of dollars from Federal programs dedicated to helping people who are fighting a substance use disorder, House Republicans buried their heads in the sand.
Last week, the Trump administration froze virtually all Federal funding, stealing billions of dollars in funding for critical opioid prevention, treatment, and recovery programs. Clinicians have been left wondering if they would receive a paycheck for their work. Patients have been left worrying about whether their access to treatment and recovery had been cut off indefinitely.
Fortunately, several courts have already ruled in favor of parties seeking to put a stop to this unconstitutional power grab. Make no mistake, there are still real concerns about Federal funding not getting out the door to help us combat the drug overdose epidemic. Moreover, if this freeze is allowed to go forward, substance use and mental health clinicians who dedicate their lives to helping those experiencing substance use disorder would be forced to shut down, and millions of Americans would lose access to care. This is not the way to combat this epidemic.
House Republicans are now considering trillions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid so they can give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations. Medicaid covers nearly 40 percent of all people with an opioid use disorder. Republican plans to cut Medicaid will further limit access to care for substance use disorders leading to more deaths.
Again, Mr. Speaker, when you hear Republicans talk about their commitment to fighting this epidemic, remember their actions over their words.
Let's go to the bill before us today. Two years ago, my Democratic colleagues and I shared deep concerns with the partisan approach Republicans were taking with this legislation. Last Congress, Democrats offered a commonsense alternative to achieve a shared goal of tackling fentanyl and offered solutions to improve the HALT Fentanyl Act. Unfortunately, none of our priorities were included in the legislation, and, again, we find ourselves debating the same bill that stalled in the Senate and still exacerbates inequities in our criminal justice system.
In 2018, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA, first issued a temporary class-wide scheduling order of fentanyl-related substances under schedule I, which is the strictest classification for drugs. Since that administrative action, Congress has voted to extend the temporary order numerous times, most recently in the American Relief Act where we voted to extend the scheduling until March 31 of this year.
House Republicans know we cannot simply schedule our way out of this crisis, but they have refused to pass bipartisan solutions that address prevention, treatment, and recovery to help stop overdose deaths. This is not just a criminal justice issue. We must combat this crisis through a multipronged public health approach.
That is exactly what we did in an end-of-year bipartisan deal that would have extended temporary fentanyl-related substances scheduling for 2 years. However, it also reauthorized a wide range of prevention and treatment programs to help address the opioid overdose crisis. The deal has bipartisan support, but it was squashed by Speaker Johnson so he could please Elon Musk, the unelected billionaire who is now illegally stealing Americans' personal private information from inside of Federal agencies.
Again, Mr. Speaker, actions speak louder than words, and Republicans are not serious about combating this fentanyl crisis.
Mr. Speaker, I oppose this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia for his comments, but I want to inform him that the Trump administration's funding freeze could impact as much as $164 million in funding for substance abuse and mental health services and research in the Commonwealth of Virginia that his constituents rely on.
Cutting this vital funding will greatly hamper our response to the opioid epidemic and result in more overdose deaths in Virginia.
I urge my colleagues to work together with Democrats to ensure that the Trump administration end this illegal funding freeze and work together to pass bipartisan, evidence-based legislation to address this intractable crisis.
Castor), who is the chair and ranking member of our Energy Subcommittee.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta) but inform him that the Trump administration's funding freeze could impact as much as $304 million in funding for substance abuse and mental health services and research in the State of Ohio that his constituents rely on. Cutting this vital funding will greatly hamper our response to the opioid epidemic and result in more overdose deaths.
I urge my colleagues to work together with Democrats to ensure that the Trump administration ends this illegal funding freeze and work together to pass bipartisan, evidence-based legislation to address this intractable crisis.
Gillen).
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Mr. PALLONE. Stansbury).
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Mr. PALLONE. Castor).
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Mr. PALLONE. Dexter).
Mr. Speaker, I think you have heard many statements on the Democrat side of the aisle about how this legislation that is before us today only looks at one aspect of the fentanyl crisis and ignores funding, if you will, for treatment.
Right now, Medicaid cuts could and actually would seriously undermine our ability to address the opioid epidemic so they can give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations.
What I want to emphasize is that not only is there nothing in this legislation to deal with treatment, but in addition to that, what we assume is going to happen, based on statements that have been put out by Republicans, is they are going to cut the Medicaid program in order to pay for their tax cuts for corporations and the very wealthy.
Last week, in case anyone doubts it, the Trump administration temporarily suspended Federal Medicaid payments, and now we are hearing that congressional Republicans are considering up to $2.5 trillion in Medicaid cuts.
Keep in mind that Medicaid is the single largest payer for behavioral health services in the United States and covers nearly 40 percent of all individuals with opioid use disorder. Medicaid covers a full array of services and supports for people with behavioral health needs, including services and supports that typically are not covered by other health programs.
As the opioid crisis continues, States can draw down Federal funds to cover medication-assisted treatment, MAT, medications and therapy, expand coverage of community-based benefits to support treatment and recovery, and to integrate behavioral health services into primary care and other settings. All that will stop with the Medicaid cuts that we are hearing that the Republicans want to implement.
Republican plans to cut Medicaid will further limit access to care for substance use disorders, jeopardize treatment for Medicaid beneficiaries, and lead to more deaths as a result of termination of treatment.
Again, I understand that the Republicans are talking today about law enforcement and penalties, but they are completely ignoring the fact that for many people this crisis is really dependent upon the fact that people continue to seek out fentanyl, and if they don't get treatment, then there are going to be more people that are doing the same.
Part of the reason that we are opposed to this bill today is because it doesn't say anything about treatment, which is one of the major aspects of this crisis. What we hear is cuts, cuts, cuts on all these treatment programs, which are totally unacceptable if you actually want to deal with this epidemic.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Iowa for her comments, but I want to inform her that the Trump administration's funding freeze can impact as much as $57 million in funding for substance abuse and mental health services and research in the State of Iowa that her constituents rely on. Cutting this vital funding will greatly hamper our response to the opioid epidemic and result in more overdose deaths.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Let me be clear, what the Trump funding freeze does is to pause any funding to go to opioid prevention, treatment, and recovery programs. Fortunately, several Federal courts have enjoined this funding freeze from going into immediate effect, but make no mistake, if this freeze is allowed to go forward, substance use and mental health clinicians who dedicate their lives to helping those experiencing substance use disorder would go without their paychecks and close their doors.
Clinics and programs such as certified community behavioral health clinics and the Drug-Free Communities Support Program funded by the CDC would be cut off from Federal funding.
We just learned yesterday of community health centers closing in the State of Virginia, so it is already happening that some of the community health centers are closing. The millions of Americans who depend on these programs will be losing access to their care across the country.
The HALT Fentanyl Act is a bill that is opposed by over 190 organizations. It is a box to check rather than having the hard, collaborative conversations that must be done to address a longstanding problem.
Let me be clear again: The fentanyl-related substances do, in fact, pose a danger to public health. There is no question about it. That is why the DEA enacted a temporary classwide scheduling order in 2018, and we have voted to extend it over nine times since, most recently in December of last year. We included and supported it as part of a bipartisan end-of-year agreement to continue the temporary status for actually another 2 years.
Don't be fooled by the majority's fear-mongering. The upcoming expiration of the temporary order on March 31 is a crisis of their own making. If they had adopted the bipartisan agreement at the end of the year, we wouldn't be facing this deadline.
I hope that we can all agree that the substance use and overdose crisis impacts all of our districts. Those who are suffering deserve bipartisan solutions that protect public safety, support public health, and don't perpetuate criminal justice bias.
As I said before, Democratic opposition is primarily based on the fact that there is nothing here to help with support and treatment. If anybody on the other side of the aisle thinks we are just going to criminalize ourselves out of this fentanyl crisis, they are just kidding themselves.
A larger part of this problem is the fact that we need a lot more funding for support and treatment, so that the demand, if you will, for fentanyl is significantly decreased. Right now, the demand is so great, and that is a big part of why we have such a crisis.
If we don't do something about treatment and behavioral health, we are never going to deal effectively with this crisis.
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