On the recordJune 8, 2018
I thank the gentleman for yielding. I support the efforts by the gentleman from Massachusetts to combat opioid abuse, which really has been a scourge in every region of this country and has left almost no region in this Nation untouched. The rates of prescription opioid misuse and overdose continue to increase sharply, and prescription opioids are now a leading cause of death in the United States. In fact, Mr. Chairman, we are about to reach the third year in a row that life expectancy in the United States will have gone down. That is the first time that has happened since all the way back to World War I, and it can be directly attributed to opioid abuse and the resulting deaths that has caused. So I agree with my friend from Massachusetts that the VA should have a toolkit similar to the mental health toolkit and that it could save lives. I support the amendment.
