Establishing Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force

Floor Speech

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Mr. MOULTON. Mr. Chairman, the addiction epidemic has touched every community and demographic in America, but our veterans have been hit particularly hard. Veterans suffer from chronic pain at a higher rate than the civilian population, often due to injuries they sustained during their service. This puts our veterans at high risk of developing addiction and presents unique challenges as they search for ways to cope with the pain caused by the wounds of war.

The results of veteran addiction are tragic. Approximately 68,000 veterans struggle with opioid use. Veterans are also almost twice as likely to die from accidental opioid overdoses than nonveterans.

We need to do more to ensure that we are not losing veterans to the disease of addiction, while also ensuring that they get the absolute best care possible when they return home. That is why it is imperative that the veteran community has a seat at the table as we begin the process of reviewing and updating our pain management best practices.

By adding a representative of a veterans service organization to the interagency task force created by this bill, my amendment will ensure that the unique challenges our veterans face are part of the conversation.

In closing, I would like to thank my colleagues, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Zeldin) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Walz), for their bipartisan cosponsorship and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Vietnam Veterans of America, American Legion, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and Boston Scientific for their support of this amendment.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

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