Addiction Policy Forum invites organizations to sign on to a national letter of support for the bipartisan SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4531), sponsored by Congressman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Congresswoman Ann Kuster (D-NH). H.R. 4531 will continue to strengthen areas of prevention, treatment, recovery, overdose reversal, research, law enforcement responses, veterans programs, and child welfare services, acting as a comprehensive response to the addiction and overdose crisis. The legislation would reauthorize and expand upon critical programs and grants from the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act (H.R. 6), which Congress passed in 2018 to combat the ongoing opioid epidemic.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), over 48 million Americans met the criteria for a SUD in 2022. Recent data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that more than 108,400 people died of a drug overdose between June 2022 and May 2023, which is equivalent to 297 people a day. The SUPPORT Reauthorization Act is a vital piece of legislation that would allow communities across the country to have the resources needed to continue addressing the opioid crisis.
H.R. 4531 provides important funding and services for states and localities to build upon evidence-based efforts to support millions of Americans impacted by addiction through:
Programs to support the monitoring and education of infections commonly associated with illicit drug use;
Prescription drug monitoring programs;
Overdose prevention programs;
Residential treatment recovery services for pregnant and postpartum women with substance use disorder;
A national peer-run training and technical assistance center for addiction recovery support;
Programs for first responders and members of other key community sectors to reverse overdoses;
Technical assistance and support to recovery community organizations and peer support networks;
Comprehensive centers that provide a full spectrum of treatment and recovery support services for individuals with substance use disorder;
Greater opportunities for people in recovery to reenter the workforce;
Allowing states to use certain grants toward fentanyl or xylazine test strips where legal;
A loan repayment program for the substance use disorder treatment workforce;
Reauthorizing the Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program to recruit and educate students on the behavioral and mental health fields;
Extending the requirement for state Medicaid plans to provide coverage for Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD), which have shown to reduce opioid use, overdose deaths, criminal activity, infectious disease transmission, and other adverse health and behavioral consequences; and
Requiring any reference to opioid overdose reversal agents in Department of Health and Human Services grant programs to refer to all opioid overdose reversal agents approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
APF thanks the members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce for their leadership on the SUPPORT Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4531), and respectfully urges the U.S. House of Representatives leadership to advance this critical bill.
Sign On to a Letter of Support
We invite all local, state, and national organizations to show their support for this critical bill by signing onto our national sign-on letter that reiterates the importance of the SUPPORT Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4531). The deadline to sign the letter is December 8, 2023 at 5 p.m. Please sign on by filling out this form. Tweet to Show Your Support
Join Addiction Policy Forum in showing your support and thanking our Hill champions by clicking the links below to send tweets to key leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives:
I respectfully urge @SpeakerJohnson and @RepJeffries to advance the SUPPORT Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4531), which will reauthorize and expand upon critical programs and resources that address the addiction crisis. Click to tweet
Thank you @cathymcmorris and @FrankPallone for your leadership on the SUPPORT Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4531), which would provide critical funding and services needed to combat the continuing addiction crisis nationwide. Click to tweet
Thank you @RepGuthrie and @RepAnnieKuster for your leadership on the SUPPORT Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4531) and working to provide critical funding and services for millions of Americans impacted by addiction. Click to tweet