Paul Tonko: “I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 6, the SUPPORT for Patients…”

“I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 6, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act incorporates legislation that I introduced along with my good friend and colleague, Representative Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, which will provide a meaningful expansion to addiction treatment across our country, especially in rural areas, and for vulnerable populations like pregnant and postpartum women and the 13,000 babies born on average each year with neonatal abstinence syndrome. Our legislation includes three main policy changes to expand access to treatment. First, it eliminates the current sunset provision that would prohibit nurse practitioners and physician assistants from treating patients with addiction medicine after 2021. By ending this sunset, we can provide certainty to our healthcare community and encourage more NPs and PAs to become part of the addiction treatment workforce. Second, this legislation would expand the classes of practitioners eligible to prescribe buprenorphine to other advanced practice nursing professionals to include nurse midwives, clinical nurse specialists, and certified nurse anesthetists.…”