Avon Patch - Esty Named To Federal Addiction Committee

By Chris Dehnel

U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, (D-5th District) has been appointed by Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to serve on the conference committee charged with crafting legislation to address the nation's opioid addiction epidemic.

Last week, the U.S. House passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, a bill combining several different initiatives to help prevent and treat addiction to heroin and prescription drugs. The Senate passed its own version of that legislation on March 10. The conference committee to which Esty was appointed has been charged with combining the House and Senate bills into a single piece of legislation that can be sent to the President and signed into law.

"I'm grateful for this opportunity to craft meaningful, bipartisan legislation to help the families facing this crisis, which has destroyed so many lives in Connecticut and across the country," Esty said. "I will use my role on the conference committee to champion bipartisan solutions to help folks avoid becoming addicted to drugs in the first place. And I will push the committee to include funding in the bill that will provide our cities and towns with the resources they need to fight this epidemic and save lives."

Esty serves on the Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic.

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