POTUS Signs Lance’s Opioid Package Into Law

WESTFIELD, N.J. — Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ-07), a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, today hailed the signing of the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act into law by the President.  Lance’s Committee wrote the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act with the measure including the Lance-Kennedy billEliminating Opioid-Related Infectious Diseases Act in the final product.

“It’s law – the resources and funding our neighbors are counting on to fight opioid addiction are on the way.  We have made progress, but we need to do more to combat the great public health challenge of drug addiction.  We have all seen the struggle in our New Jersey communities and know too many of our neighbors who have lost a loved one to addiction.  Included in this package is my bipartisan bill with Congressman Joe Kennedy, the Eliminating Opioid-Related Infectious Diseases Act.  This measure deals with the sensitive but critical topic of confronting the rise in infectious diseases related to opioid abuse.  Too many of those suffering are endangering their loved ones and we must take action.  I am pleased this measure is law and now the hard work begins to help those reclaim their lives,” said Lance.

Lance’s Energy and Commerce Committee has tackled some of the most pressing public health issues of our time and delivered on the critical matters of CHIP, mental health care, childhood cancer prevention and now, again, tools to fight the menace of drug abuse and addiction.  H.R. 6 was advanced out of the Committee and passed in an overwhelming bipartisan vote in the House earlier this year.  Today’s vote includes input from the U.S. Senate and sends the final bill to the President.  It’s not the first time Lance and his Committee took charge against this national crisis.  Lance served as a member of the conference committee that produced the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, signed into law by President Obama in 2016.

Lance also recently backed a government spending measure that appropriated $6.7 billion in funding boosting programs that fight, treat and stop substance abuse as well as support access to mental health services.  These resources include increased funding for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).  New Jersey has received $26 million in anti-opioid grant funding secured by Lance, in addition to the substance abuse treatment services funded through Medicaid.