Washington, D.C. – House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) spoke at a leadership press conference today on the House’s robust and bipartisan response to the opioid epidemic.
Full remarks are below or watch online here.
“As you heard from everyone here, addiction tears families apart. It doesn’t matter what neighborhood you’re in, doesn’t matter your age, doesn’t matter the color of your skin. It’s reaching every single district.
“I want to give some special thanks here to Congressman Bob Dold (IL-10), Congresswoman Susan Brooks (IN-05). They never gave up, and they worked together—they worked in a bipartisan manner. When you talk about and listen to what the bills are going to be on the floor this week, there will be 18 of them, dealing from every aspect of this challenge that we have in America.
“I want to thank the Senate. The Senate has worked hard on this as well. We expanded in the areas that the Senate did not. We streamlined with the Sensenbrenner (WI-05) bill and actually provided more money.
“It has reached every place, and it’s an epidemic. But what the Speaker just talked about, there’s a certain area that’s grown more than anywhere else, and that’s our veterans. They’ve been overprescribed. They’re coming back with PTSD. This will deal with it. So when we leave the floor this week, this is a place that all of America can be proud. We’re finding solutions in a bipartisan manner and dealing with it in the right approach.”