Date: 2016-05-11
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. let me congratulate the gentleman from Texas for his leadership and the gentleman from New Mexico for his outstanding leadership on this important legislation and his concern and passion. Let me thank my friends who are managing the legislation and let the American people know and our colleagues know that we are continuing our commitment on dealing with the issues of addiction. in this instance. opioid. And. of course. we know that there are other forms of addiction. from alcohol. to crack. to cocaine. but we are moving forward. I rise to support H.R. 3691. the Improving Treatment for Pregnant and Postpartum Women Act of 2015. It is clear that this is an issue that has plagued both the woman and as well the newborn baby. Let me offer to say that President Obama has updated that guideline to encourage doctors to be more cautious when prescribing opioid painkillers and to emphasize nonopioid therapies for certain conditions. Many times women who are pregnant are under treatment. Additionally. the Obama administration has awarded $94 million to community health centers to improve and expand the delivery of substance abuse services. In the Presidents FY 2017 budget. the administration proposed $1.1 billion to combat drug addition considering modifying certain rules to improve treatment. As misuse of opioids have increased over the past decade. so has the incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome. referring to the medical effects on newborn infants suffering from drug withdrawal because their mothers were drug addicts. The GAO report found that a lack of available treatment programs for pregnant women and newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome. including the availability of comprehensive care and enabling services. such as transportation and child care. has hampered Federal efforts to address the issue. I am glad that this bill. which is why I rise to support it. reauthorizes residential treatment grant programs for pregnant and postpartum women who have substance abuse problemsprograms that are administered by the Health and Human Service Departments Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. increasing the authorized funding level by 6 percent. This gives me an opportunity to say that. with regard to all of these bills. I know that we will all join together to make sure the right funding is available for these bills to really work. I join in support of this legislation and add to it legislation that I have introduced. Improving Safe Care for the Prevention of Infant Abuse and Neglect Act. and. which I introduced recently. the Stop Infant Mortality and Recidivism Reduction Act of 2016. which will help the Federal Bureau of Prisons to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Federal prison system for pregnant offenders by establishing a pilot program of critical stage development nurseries in Federal prisons for children born to inmates. Likewise. at that time. one may discover the concerns that are being expressed here today. However. the Improving Treatment for Pregnant and Postpartum Women Act of 2016. also establishes a pilot program to provide grants to State substance abuse agencies to promote innovative service delivery models for pregnant women who have a substance use disorder. such as opioid addiction. including for familybased services in nonresidential settings. This is a good bill because it is more than the adult who is being treated here. It is a good bill because we are concerned about the newborn. the innocent baby who needs to have a start in life. In this instance. this legislation will both treat the mother and provide assistanceresidential and nonresidential careso that these individuals can have the starts in life that they need. Let us be reminded of the fact that this addiction of these drugs becomes an illness. We have seen overdoses that cause the loss of life. Let us be part of stemming the tide. but. more importantly. let us help those who are trying to hang onto life and to start a new life. This legislation does that. and I ask my colleagues to support it. Again. I thank the gentleman from Texas for his leadership. and I thank him for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of H.R. 3691. the "Improving Treatment for Pregnant & Postpartum Women Act of 2015." that was approved by the Energy and Commerce Committee. In the past decade and a half. the growth in the number of physicians prescribing opioids to help patients deal with pain from surgeries. dental work and chronic conditions has resulted in an increasing number of patients becoming dependent on the powerful and highly addictive painkillerswith patients not only abusing the use of those painkillers but often turning to heroin once their opioid prescription ended. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nearly 259 million opioid prescriptions were written in 2012. more than enough for every adult in the United States. It is estimated that in 2013 nearly 4.5 million people in the United States without a valid medical need were using prescription painkillers. The Health and Human Services Department estimates that the number of unintentional overdose deaths from prescription painkillers almost quadrupled between 1999 and Abuse of prescription opioids now kills nearly 30.000 Americans each year. Both states and the federal government have begun responding to this growing public health crisis. with many states moving to make antioverdose drugs more available and shield firstresponders from liability in administering those drugs. President Obama. meanwhile. has updated prescribing guidelines to encourage doctors to be more cautious when prescribing opioid painkillers and to emphasize nonopioid therapies for certain conditions. Additionally. the Obama administration has awarded $94 million to community health centers to improve and expand the delivery of substance abuse services. In the presidents FY 2017 budget the administration proposed $1.1 billion to combat drug addiction. considering modifying certain rules to improve treatment. As misuse of opioids has increased over the past decade. so has the incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome. referring to the medical effects on newborn infants suffering from drug withdrawal because their mothers were drug addicts. A 2015 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that a lack of available treatment programs for pregnant women and newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome. including the availability of comprehensive care and enabling services such as transportation and child care. has hampered federal efforts to address the issue. This bill reauthorizes residential treatment grant programs for pregnant and postpartum women who have substance abuse problems that are administered by the Health and Human Services (HHS) Departments Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. increasing the authorized funding level by 6%. Seeking to right the same wrongs as H.R. 4843. the "Improving Safe Care for the Prevention of Infant Abuse and Neglect Act." I introduced the. "Stop Infant Mortality and Recidivism Reduction Act of 2016." or the "SIMARRA Act." which will help the Federal Bureau of Prisons to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Federal prison system for pregnant offenders. by establishing a pilot program of criticalstage. developmental nurseries in Federal prisons for children born to inmates. It is time that our nation recognizes a longpersistent need to break the cycle of generational. institutional incarceration amongst mothers serving time for nonviolent crimes and the children they birth behind prison bars. H.R. 5130. the. "SIMARRA Act of 2016." gives those infants born to incarcerated mothers a chance to succeed in life. "SIMARRA" is not merely yet another second chance program. demanding leniency from the criminal justice system. Instead. H.R. 5130 asks our national criminal justice system what it can do for those young Americans born and relegated to a life of nearly impossible odds of survival. "SIMARRA" provides that first chancea first chance for American infantsthat many of their mothers. born themselves to mothers behind bars. never received. The "Improving Treatment for Pregnant & Postpartum Women Act of 2015." also establishes a pilot program to provide grants to state substance abuse agencies to promote innovative service delivery models for pregnant women who have a substance use disorder. such as opioid addiction. including for familybased services in nonresidential settings. Of the amounts appropriated for the HHS residential treatment program. up to 25% would be available to carry out the pilot program. No funds would be made available to carry out the pilot program for a fiscal year. however. unless the amount made available to carry out the residential treatment program for the fiscal year is more than the comparable amount made available for FY 2016. The Senate on March 10. 2016. passed by a 941 vote. S 524. an antiopioid abuse bill that would authorize grants for opioid treatment services and firstresponder training in using antioverdose drugs. as well as create a task force to review and update best practices for prescribing pain medication. The measure offsets the increased authorization through a $5 million reduction in the existing FY 2017 authorization for Centers for Disease Control (CDC) public health capability enhancement activities. Under current law. $138.3 million is authorized for those activities each year through FY The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has not yet released a cost estimate for the bill. H.R. 3691 would also mandate investigations into heroin distribution and unlawful distribution of prescription opioids. and require the creation of a national drug awareness campaign that takes into account the association between prescription opioid abuse and heroin use. This week we are scheduled to consider a series of more than a dozen bills that address the opioid abuse problem facing America. This measure reauthorizes grants from HHSs Center for Substance Abuse Treatment to public and nonprofit private entities that provide residential substance abuse treatment for pregnant and postpartum women. authorizing $16.9 million each year through FY 2021-$1 million (6%) more than the current $15.9 million authorization. Under the pilot grant program. proposed services for eligible pregnant and postpartum women would not have to be provided solely to women who reside in facilities. However. the center must specify a minimum set of services. including substance abuse counseling. and it must solicit stakeholder input. The bill directs HHSs Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality to fund an evaluation of the pilot program at the conclusion of the first grant cycle. Under the program. grant recipients are required to provide an individualized plan of services for each participating woman that includes substance abuse counseling and certain supplemental services. such as pediatric health care for the womans children. The measure directs the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment to carry out a fiveyear pilot grant program to help state substance abuse agencies address identified gaps in the services that are furnished to pregnant and postpartum women with substance abuse issues. and encourage new approaches and models of service delivery. H.R. 3691. the "Improving Treatment for Pregnant & Postpartum Women Act of 2015." is a valuable piece of legislation that I encourage my colleagues to support. Additionally. I urge my colleagues to join me in sponsoring and supporting all legislation targeting the improvement of care for the prevention of infant abuse and neglect. such as H.R. 5130. the. "Stop Infant Mortality and Recidivism Reduction Act of 2016" or the "SIMARRA Act."