Pubdate: Fri, 11 Mar 2016
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2016 Associated Press
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Alan Fram, Associated Press

SENATE APPROVES BIPARTISAN BILL BOLSTERING ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate paused Thursday from its nasty partisan 
clash over the Supreme Court vacancy and easily approved 
election-year legislation reinforcing government efforts against 
heroin and the abuse of opioid painkillers.

By an overwhelming 94-1 margin, lawmakers completed a bill that would 
create grants to bolster state and local programs targeted at a 
growing, deadly problem. More than 47,000 Americans died of drug 
overdoses in 2014 in cities and rural areas alike, a death rate that 
has more than doubled since 2000.

The bipartisan vote contrasted with the parties' rancorous divide 
over Republicans' refusal to consider anyone President Barack Obama 
picks to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the high court.

That battle has dominated the Senate's business since Scalia's Feb. 
13 death, with Democrats using it to label Republicans as 
obstructionists. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and 
other GOP lawmakers have been eager to pass the anti-drug bill and 
cite it as an achievement of the Republican-run chamber.

"We've accomplished something important today, and that is to pass 
legislation that will actually help to address a very real problem in 
our communities," said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who with Sen. 
Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., is a sponsor of the measure.

Portman, along with Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and other Republicans 
facing competitive re-election races in swing states have sought to 
highlight the bill as an example of the Senate addressing pressing 
local problems.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the 
drug problem has grown most significantly in the Northeast, Midwest 
and South. West Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Kentucky and 
Ohio had the highest death rates from drug overdoses in 2014.

The bill's one-sided approval came after Republicans defeated a 
Democratic effort last week to add $600 million to the legislation.

The measure provides no new money for its grants. Republicans argued 
previously approved money could be used and said more could be 
provided when Congress writes next year's spending bills, but 
Democrats said the measure would be badly weakened without additional funds.

In a letter this month expressing support for the bill's grants, 
White House officials said that unless Congress provides extra money, 
the bill "would do little to address the epidemic" of drug abuse. The 
letter did not threaten a veto.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said the bill would 
establish programs worth $725 million through 2021.

The bill includes money to train emergency workers to treat drug 
abusers, create treatment programs that would be alternatives to 
imprisonment and finance recovery programs at schools and non-profit 
groups. There would be grants for helping veterans and pregnant 
offenders, and funds for using drugs like naloxone that can reverse 
opiate overdoses and for local law enforcement efforts.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., has written similar House legislation 
that has 92, mostly Democratic co-sponsors. Committees there plan to 
work on the issue and their timetable for producing a bill is uncertain.

"I hope that they don't stall it and fiddle around with it. If the 
House does not act, then the Senate's work is a sham, and that would 
be a shame," Whitehouse said.

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., was the lone vote against the bill. In a 
written statement, he expressed doubt that fighting addiction "is 
best addressed at the federal level."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom