OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Support for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act

Floor Speech

Date: Dec. 11, 2023
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his extraordinary work and the chairperson for her extraordinary work on this particular bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in favor of H.R. 4531, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act.

This bipartisan package reflects dozens of bills to reauthorize and strengthen critical opioid and substance abuse treatment and prevention policies, including four bills I lead with my bipartisan colleagues, such as the Combating Illicit Xylazine Act that I co-lead with Representative Pfluger and others.

Our bill will provide permanent schedule III penalties for human use of the animal tranquilizer drug xylazine, which is sadly being laced into fentanyl, leading to horrific side effects that is killing our constituents.

This is a public health crisis that our bill urgently addresses, all while preserving legitimate veterinary use for our farming community.

This package also contains my bill, the SWIFT Detection Act, which updates our methods to track fentanyl, identify public health trends, and better target relief using privacy-preserving wastewater surveillance.

Finally, the bill will also remove Medicaid's IMD exclusion to permanently provide coverage of treatment services for substance use disorder, as well as language from my bipartisan bill with Representative Castor of Florida, H.R. 4056, the Ensuring Medicaid Continuity for Children in Foster Care Act, which provides coverage for services for foster youth children staying in qualified residential treatment programs, struggling with serious mental and behavioral health needs.

These are just a few of the many policies that address and provide relief for opioid abuse in our communities around the country.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Guthrie and Chairman Rodgers and Representative Pallone, the ranking member, for their tireless efforts on this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4531.

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