Efforts spearheaded by Democratic legislators to include more than $900 million for combating the opioid abuse epidemic failed in a congressional conference committee vote on Wednesday.
Negotiations on the proposed Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (PDF), versions of which overwhelmingly passed in both the House and Senate, became embroiled in partisan debate. Two amendments sponsored by Democratic conferees would have dedicated up to $920 million in new spending for states to provide opioid addiction treatment and prevention services.
The bipartisanship involved in passing the bills in both chambers was nowhere to be found during the spirited conference committee hearing. Amendments by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to add funding were defeated in straight party-line votes.
Congressional Republicans contended there was no need to add funding to the current bill since money has been proposed as part of the House Appropriations Committee's fiscal 2017 budget. GOP committee leaders released a draft of the funding bill on Wednesday, which allocates $581 million to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to specifically fight opioid and heroin abuse.
Democrats argued waiting to fund such programs through the annual budget process deprived states and patients of the resources needed now to address an epidemic responsible for more than 28,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2014.
“We have an opportunity and the clear responsibility to take life-saving action on this issue today,” Murray said. “We have a choice between preventing more of the deaths we've all heard too much about and allowing the status quo to continue.”
On Tuesday Democratic conferees sent a letter to conference committee Chair Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) threatening to vote against the bill if the new money wasn't included in the conference committee report.
If Democrats stick to that pledge, the legislation could go down to defeat in the Senate. While there was sufficient Republican support to pass the measure in conference and more than enough to move a final version through the House, a partisan split in the Senate—where 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster—could effectively stall the legislation.
The debate comes one day after the Obama administration unveiled its list of new actions to combat the opioid abuse epidemic. It included expanding the number of patients certified doctors can treat with buprenorphine from 100 to 275.
Also included in the White House plan is eliminating pain-management questions in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey from the hospital payment scoring calculation so that patient satisfaction in the treatment of pain is no longer viewed as an incentive for providers to prescribe pain relievers.
