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Ms. WEXTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for yielding and for her leadership on the very fine bills we have before the House here this afternoon.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of my bill, H.R. 3153, the bipartisan EFFORT Act, which would expand Federal research on opioid addiction.
Since 2011, more than 200 people in the northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia have lost their lives due to an opioid overdose. Some of the highest numbers of children being born in Virginia with neonatal abstinence syndrome have been from my district.
But these numbers don't tell the heartbreaking devastation the opioid crisis has wrought for families who have lost their mother, their father, their brother, their sister, or their child. Meanwhile, our law enforcement officers and first responders are struggling with the trauma and burnout that comes from being on the front lines of so many tragic and needless deaths of their friends and neighbors.
Tens of thousands of Americans and more than 1,000 Virginians are dying every year from overdoses. Addiction is an illness, and fighting the crisis effectively requires adequate research and funding. The EFFORT Act will help to do this by directing the National Science Foundation to support research on the science of opioid addiction.
The NSF has done an exceptional job in establishing some of the foundational understanding on opioid addiction, including research regarding the use of technology to address the crisis, the secondary effects on families, and options for alternative therapeutics for pain. And while this research has significantly increased our understanding of addiction, research gaps remain in a wide range of disciplines, including, for example, social and behavioral issues such as stigma, socioeconomic status, or treatment accessibility.
The NSF has a unique ability to help us close some of these gaps and, in turn, to help us develop solutions. By expanding the NSF's research on opioid addiction both within the agency, as well as jointly with the National Institutes of Health when needed, we can more effectively integrate clinical and basic research, obtain a broader understanding of the science of opioid addiction and its impact, and have a more comprehensive approach to tackling the crisis.
As a founding member of the bipartisan Freshmen Working Group on Addiction, I have worked to be a strong advocate for addiction prevention and recovery efforts, and I am pleased to have introduced this legislation with my fellow freshman colleague from Indiana, Dr. Baird. I thank him for his leadership on this issue, as well.
I urge my colleagues to support this important bipartisan legislation.
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