This evening, Congresswoman Kuster (NH-02) applauded the passage of the PROMISE Act, a bill to improve prescribing practices and prescription drug monitoring at the VA. The bill was part of the Legislative Agenda announced last month by the Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic, which Kuster co-founded. Kuster is an original cosponsor of the PROMISE Act.

“This week, I’m proud to announce that the House is moving forward on passage of many of the bills I support to address the opioid epidemic, including those my Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic announced last month as part of our Legislative Agenda. The PROMISE Act is one of those bills, and it will take important steps to help improve prescribing practices at the VA by  expanding the VA’s Opioid Safety Initiative, ensuring providers are properly trained, creating pain management teams at each facility, and expanding VA use of state prescription drug monitoring programs,” said Congresswoman Kuster. “As Ranking Member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, I brought the Subcommittee to New Hampshire for a hearing on pain management best practices and reducing prescription drug addiction among our veterans. This bill takes a great step in the right direction by implementing a number of suggestions that came out of that hearing, and I applaud its passage today. However, we cannot stop here. I urge my fellow members of Congress to put aside party difference and vote for passage of the myriad of bills my Task Force has put forth this week to address the crisis on a broader scale; our constituents cannot wait.” 

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 pleased that this week, House leadership has listened to her concerns and dedicated the week’s legislative calendar to bills related to the opioid crisis. A number of bills put forth by Kuster’s Task Force will be considered this week, and she continues to urge her colleagues to come together to pass these bills into law.

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