This evening, Congresswoman Kuster (NH-02) applauded the passage of an amendment she introduced with Congressman Guinta to restore vital grants for recovery and prevention programs to the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act (COARA). COARA is the House companion to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), which passed the Senate 94-1 earlier this year. This bill will provide critical Department of Justice Grants to local communities fighting the heroin epidemic. However, the current House version did not include prevention and recovery program grants that were present in the original Senate bill. Kuster’s amendment restores these grants.

“I’m so proud of my colleagues for coming together this week to pass legislation through the House – much of which was introduced by my Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic   – that will help communities across the country tackle this public health crisis head on. However, we simply cannot address this epidemic without funding, and we cannot address it without acknowledging that we must expand prevention and recovery efforts if we want to put an end to this crisis once and for all. I thank my colleagues in the House for passing both this legislation, which will create DOJ grants to help local communities battling the epidemic, and my amendment, which will restore funding – as intended by the Senate version of this bill – for prevention and recovery. Let’s get this signed into law, so our stakeholders on the ground can access the vital resources they need without further delay.”

COARA would create $103 million in Department of Justice (DOJ) grants to states and local governments working to stop opioid abuse. It would also establish grant programs for veteran treatment courts, treatment alternatives for incarceration, medication-assisted treatment programs used or operated by criminal justice agencies, interstate prescription drug monitoring programs, the prevention of opioid misuse by juveniles, and other purposes.

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 CARA in order to provide funding for law enforcement, treatment, and recovery efforts.  She is pleased COARA has passed the House, and she will continue to urge House and Senate leadership to act quickly to make resources available to constituents around the country as soon as possible. Yesterday, Kuster also introduced a bill that would provide an additional $600 million for communities fighting the epidemic, and she will continue to push for increased funding. However, Kuster is pleased that this week, known as “opioid week” in the House, a number of bills put forth by Kuster’s Task Force have been passed and will continue to be considered through tomorrow. She thanks House Leadership for bringing her Bipartisan Task Force’s Legislative Agenda to the floor for consideration.

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