Sweeping bill to fight opioid addiction will be considered by Senate health committee

The Senate health care committee will consider a sweeping bill next week meant to combat the opioid epidemic, according to four lobbyists and a congressional aide familiar with the legislation. 

The proposal would reauthorize a number of programs first created by the SUPPORT Act, an addiction-focused bill that Congress first passed in 2018. Many of those programs’ authorizations expired earlier this year, however, leading addiction treatment advocates to fret that lawmakers — and specifically the committee’s chairman, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — no longer view the issue as a priority.    

If passed, the legislation would mark Capitol Hill’s first major action this year on the addiction crisis. Current data shows that roughly 110,000 Americans are dying of drug overdoses each year. Roughly 85,000 of those overdoses involve opioids. 

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