Two initiatives seeking to better track federally funded efforts and grants in the opioid crisis, including one introduced by U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus, are being considered in the U.S. House.
On May 25, Rothfus, R-12, Sewickley, introduced the Coordinated Overdose and Drug Epidemic Response to the Emergency Declaration (CODE RED) Act, which was referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
A few days earlier, U.S. Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., saw their amendment to the CRISIS Act (HR 5925) unanimously pass the oversight committee. The amendment would create a system to track grants addressing opioid abuse and, according to a joint statement, implement “evidence-based decision-making to guarantee the most effective programs are funded.”
Rothfus’ legislation, his office said, was in response to a recommendation from President Donald Trump’s Commission on Combatting Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis that the Office of National Drug Control Policy have a system to monitor federally funded grants and initiatives by working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice.
CODE RED would also offer benchmarks and goals for grant recipients to measure success and increase accountability, establish a plan to standardize multiple drug-control grant applications, create a public portal where federal drug grants would be disclosed and require a feasibility study of block grants to states be submitted to Congress.
“The opioid epidemic still plagues our nation, including my home district in western Pennsylvania,” Rothfus said in the joint statement. “The CODE RED Act will provide additional reforms to the Office of National Drug Control Policy through greater coordination, efficiency and accountability of federal grant programs combatting the epidemic.”
Rothfus praised Raskin and Mitchell for their bipartisan work, which he hopes results in the Office of National Drug Control Policy being reauthorized with reforms.
“The opioid crisis we’re facing requires immediate and common-sense solutions,” Raskin said. "We should be using every tool at our disposal to combat the ongoing epidemic — from improving access to treatment, to investing in prevention, to protecting access to health insurance coverage.”
Rothfus also recently co-introduced the Naloxone Guidelines Act with U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass. That legislation would require the Health and Human Services secretary to provide recommendations for naloxone use from any type of opioid and not just prescriptions.