Kuster Calls on House to Vote on Opioid Prevention Funding

WASHINGTON, DC - This morning, U.S. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, D-NH, took part in a bicameral press conference on the House steps to call on House leadership to allow a vote on badly-needed legislation to fund efforts to fight the heroin epidemic plaguing New Hampshire and other states across the country.

“Two weeks ago, the House passed 18 bills backed by my Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic, and the Senate passed legislation to address the heroin crisis almost unanimously. In New Hampshire, community stakeholders need resources NOW, and we cannot wait to provide the funding our communities need to address the epidemic head on. That’s why today, I called on House Leadership to cancel next week’s recess and get this done immediately,” said Kuster. “My colleagues on the Task Force – half Democrats, half Republicans – ALL understand the crucial need to provide funding to cut this epidemic off at its knees. House Republican Leadership needs to listen to our collective urging, cancel recess, and allow a vote, so we can immediately provide much-needed support and relief for our constituents back at home fighting to stem the tide of the heroin epidemic. Too many lives are at stake to put this off any longer.”

Although both the House and the Senate have passed legislation to address the heroin epidemic, the House and Senate bills need to be reconciled in a conference Committee, voted upon, and then sent to the President to sign into law. Though these bills represent important progress, we have to do much more to fund efforts in our communities to end this epidemic.

Because of her leadership on this issue, Kuster was appointed to serve on the Conference Committee that will be working out the differences between the House and Senate bills, and she is calling on House leadership to include emergency funding in the final bill that is signed into law; earlier this month, she introduced a $600 million emergency funding bill that would provide much-needed funds to advocates, treatment providers, law enforcement, and other community leaders fighting the opioid epidemic on the ground.

Kuster has helped lead the fight to address the heroin and opioid crisis at the federal level and in her home state of New Hampshire, and she has been an outspoken advocate of the need to pass legislation to immediately fight the epidemic. She is the cofounder of the Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic, which pushed the 18 bills passed by the House last week, and she will play a pivotal role in reconciling the final version of these bills as a member of the Conference Committee.

Submitted by Rosie Hilmer.