WASHINGTON D.C. --
Congress passed the most ambitious push yet to address our country's growing opioid epidemic.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, every day opiate overdoses kill 115 people in this country.
That startling statistic was the main driver behind a busy two weeks in Washington D.C. where congress passed a total of 58 bills, all of them related to this growing epidemic.
Friday afternoon the vote was 396 to 14 in favor of the latest package of bills.
That amount of overwhelming bipartisan support is rarely seen in Washington, which speaks to the perceived severity of this issue.
A few highlights from the 58 bills lawmakers passed include new funding for treatment and more payment options for addicts.
Another bill aims to establish new opioid recovery centers and treatment programs.
Congress also directed the National Institutes of Health to develop new nonaddictive painkillers to give people more alternatives to prescribed opiates.
Minnesota republican Erik Paulsen also authored a bill that gives seniors more education on the many opiate and non-opiate painkiller options that are available to them.
Paulsen also went on the house floor late last week to support another bill that gives the U.S. Postal Service more power to prevent illegal drugs from being smuggled in through international mail.
“While private carriers have to submit electronic data for any of their packages that come into the United States, the postal service has been exempt,” Paulsen explains.
“We have a loophole that is being exploited by smugglers.”
One of the most controversial and possibly one of the most impactful bills would put a patient’s addiction history on their medical records.
The bill has raised concerns over data privacy by some who criticize it, but authors of the bill say it will prevent relapses by giving doctors more information about their patient’s history.
These bills and the others still have to be approved by the senate and president Trump.
Senators are currently working on a similar set of bills in various committees.
President Trump has previously stated he would support new ideas to combat this growing epidemic.