Combating the Opioid Crisis

WASHINGTON, DC – Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR) remarks at an Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing, titled – “A Public Health Emergency: State Efforts to Curb the Opioid Crisis” – where we will be conducting oversight of states' utilization of federal funding to combat the opioid crisis.

As Prepared for Delivery

Madam Chair, thank you for holding this critically important hearing.

For many years, the Energy and Commerce Committee—and this Subcommittee in particular—has been at the forefront of the Congressional effort to address the opioid crisis, as well as substance...

WASHINGTON, DC – Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Republican Leader Brett Guthrie (R-KY), and Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA) are renewing an investigation into the role of top opioid manufacturers in the ongoing opioid crisis. In letters to Insys Therapeutics, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, and Purdue Pharma, the lawmakers press for further answers from the manufacturers to an August 2018 inquiry into the three manufacturers.

"We are continuing our work investigating the causes and effects of the opioid epidemic. Last Congress, the Committee on Energy...

WASHINGTON, DC - The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act is being utilized by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to help the U.S. move #ForwardwithSUPPORT. The DEA proposed a rule to better regulate opioid quantities to decrease the potential for diversion, this is when the legal supply chain of prescription drugs is broken and drugs are improperly distributed or used. To determine quotas the DEA would consider, "...rates of overdose deaths and abuse, the overall public health impact related to specific controlled substances and may include other factors as appropriate."

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