On the recordFebruary 6, 2018
I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, in New Hampshire and all across this country, people are dying every day. Communities have been devastated by the heroin and opioid epidemic. Last year, we lost nearly 500 people to substance abuse disorder in my small State of New Hampshire. Helping families, first responders, treatment providers, law enforcement officials, and activists in the Granite State confront this crisis has been one of my top priorities in Congress. Our communities need our help, and there is strong bipartisan commitment here in the House to respond effectively to this crisis. While we have passed effective legislation over the last 2 years, including the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, the most important thing that we can do is to provide the funding to help those on the front lines of this crisis do their jobs. While I and my Democratic colleagues welcome the President's declaration of an opioid public health emergency, the lack of corresponding funding means that this commitment has been little more than empty rhetoric. We need leadership from Congress and the President to save lives across the country by providing real solutions to the opioid epidemic, and I call on my colleagues to act now. During the State of the Union, the President, once again, expressed his commitment to working to address the opioid and heroin epidemic, but, unfortunately, his actions have fallen short of his rhetoric.…
