This afternoon, Congresswoman Annie Kuster (NH-02) introduced an amendment to H.R. 4641, a bill that would establish an inter-agency task force to review, modify, and update best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication. Kuster’s amendment would specifically direct the task force to research trends in communities like New Hampshire in which the prescription opioid use and fatality rate exceeds the national average.

“Coordinating efforts among agencies and stakeholders is one of the most important steps we can take in our fight against the opioid epidemic. The inter-agency task force created by the legislation today was also introduced in my STOP ABUSE Act, and I’m so proud that Members from both sides of the aisle were able to come together and vote in favor of its creation today. There is no silver bullet for solving the opioid crisis; only by combining resources and working together can we take a multi-faceted approach, and pooling resources to share best practices will allow us to streamline the fight and more effectively meet this challenge head on,” said Congresswoman Annie Kuster. “What’s more, we need to examine prescribing practices in areas that are being hit particularly hard by the opioid epidemic. Physicians, treatment providers, and all stakeholders should work together to ensure that best practices are implemented and steps are being taken to reduce addiction on every level.”

The inter-agency task force to be created by H.R. 4641 would include representatives from HHS, VA, FDA, DOD, DEA, CDC, NIH, ONDCP, HRSA, state medical boards, pharmacists, physicians, and other community stakeholders. Congresswoman Kuster was a leading advocate for the creation of the task force. It was included in her STOP ABUSE Act, which she introduced last year in order to address the opioid epidemic on multiple levels.

Kuster serves as Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Opioid Epidemic, a separate task force including more than eighty Members of Congress. Today, Kuster also applauded House passage of a number of bills that were included as part of this Congressional task force’s recently announced legislative agenda.

“I’m so pleased the House has moved forward on a number of different measures my Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Opioid Epidemic has recommended,” said Kuster. “These bills will take necessary steps to increase access to treatment, expand education and prevention programs, reform prescribing practices, and create new grants and funding sources for communities involved in this fight. We must address this epidemic from a number of different angles, and I applaud my colleagues in the House for putting aside party differences to embrace my Task Force’s bills, which will take us one step closer to putting an end to this epidemic once and for all.”

Bills from Kuster’s legislative agenda that were passed today include: H.R. 4586, Lali’s Law, which would help states increase access to naloxone, a life-saving drug that can counter the effects of an overdose; H.R. 4976, The Reducing Unused Medications Act of 2016, which would allow prescriptions to be partially filled at the request of doctors or patients, in order to cut down on overprescribing and the reselling of unused prescription drugs on the street; and H.R. 4981, the Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Expansion and Modernization Act, which would improve access to treatment for those struggling with opioid addiction.  Additionally, yesterday the House passed the PROMISE Act, a bill Kuster promoted through her role on the Veterans Affairs’ Committee to improve prescribing practices and prescription drug monitoring at the VA.

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 additional bills put forth by Kuster’s Task Force will be considered later this week. She continues to urge her colleagues to come together to pass these bills into law.

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