A bipartisan group of senators introduced new legislation on Tuesday that would create new restrictions on opioids and increase funding levels for grant programs to fight opioid abuse in anticipation of more funding coming next month.
The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act 2.0 aims to complement legislation of the same name that was signed into law in July 2016. It would raise the funding authorization levels for CARA grant programs enacted that year to fight opioid abuse, and create new policies to build on that effort.
It would also increase funding levels for those grant programs to coincide with $6 billion in new funding expected to be included in a two-year long-term spending bill called an omnibus. Congress is expected to vote on the omnibus next month.
“Now that CARA has been implemented and is starting to help communities around the country, it’s time to start the discussion about reauthorizing this important federal law,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, in a statement. Portman led the effort to pass the first CARA bill.
“Now it’s time to extend CARA’s reach deeper into communities where the opioid crisis rages, and, given what we learned from people on the front lines of that crisis, add new policy reforms we know can make a difference,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
The new bill includes several new policies aimed at curbing opioid overdose deaths. One would impose a three-day limit on initial opioid prescriptions for acute pain, with exceptions for chronic pain or pain from an ongoing illness. Such a move could curb overprescribing of opioids, a major driver of an epidemic that federal data shows killed 42,249 people in the U.S. in 2016.
It would also allow states to waive a limit on the number of patients that a physician could prescribe the addiction treatment buprenorphine as long as they follow evidence-based guidelines, a release on the bill said. There is currently a cap of 100 patients per physician.
The bill would increase penalties on opioid makers for failing to report suspicious orders for opioids. Another major driver of opioid abuse is the sales of illicitly obtained opioids.
The legislation comes a day before the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s health subcommittee is expected to hold a hearing to consider eight bills aimed at tackling the opioid epidemic. The bills include ways to fight the shipments of illicit synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which is 100 times more potent than morphine.
The bill is cosponsored by Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska; Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.; Bill Cassidy, R-La.; and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.