Ayotte Applauds Senate Progress On Conferencing Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte applauded action taken by the Senate to begin conferencing the bipartisan Senate-passed Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) that she helped introduce. The legislation will be conferenced with several opioid abuse-related bills subsequently passed by the House of Representatives. Senator Ayotte helped co-author, introduce, and then reintroduce CARA and has been a strong advocate for addressing the opioid abuse crisis in a full and comprehensive manner.

"I am pleased that my colleagues were able to come together today and move to conference CARA. I look forward to seeing a final product that is comprehensive in nature so that we can get this important bill to the President's desk and better assist those in New Hampshire who are on the front lines of this epidemic," said Senator Ayotte. "We cannot tackle this issue from one side and I'm urging the conferees to include all the necessary components of the comprehensive approach taken by the Senate, as well as additional resources proposed by Senator Shaheen that I supported. As they develop the final bill, I will continue to call on the conferees to retain important measures we fought for, including a focus on prevention, support for first responders, treatment, and recovery."

Ayotte worked for nearly two years to bring CARA to a vote, and it passed the Senate 94-1 in March. On Monday, Ayotte met with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) to discuss the urgent need to conference CARA and produce a comprehensive final product that promotes evidence-based solutions.

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