OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Opioid Settlement Funds

Floor Speech

Date: Jan. 11, 2024
Location: Washington, DC

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce with Congresswoman Ashley Hinson of Iowa, my appropriations colleague, H.R. 6956, the bipartisan Opioid Settlement Accountability Act.

This legislation will ensure that money from opioid settlements related to the ongoing crisis are used for opioid treatment, prevention, and enforcement rather than slush funds for road maintenance or local debts.

The opioid crisis is far from over. In 2022, more than two-thirds of the reported 107,081 drug overdoses in the United States involved opioids.

While opioid settlements have totaled $55.79 billion, many of these funds are not being used to address the ongoing damage done by the ongoing opioid epidemic.

We must learn our lesson from the tobacco settlements of the 1990s. States used money they received for transportation projects and balancing budgets instead of prevention efforts.

Today's opioid settlement funds must be used to help fight the ongoing opioid epidemic and not as piggy banks for politicians to break open and play around with.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to sign on with us.

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