Goodlatte Statement at Opioid Conference Committee Meeting

Washington, D.C.  – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) today delivered the following remarks at the meeting of House and Senate conferees on S. 524, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyZyR2FrV3w Chairman Goodlatte: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.  I am pleased to be here today, and I commend my colleagues for their hard work on this conference report. Over the past several weeks, conferees and staff worked diligently to produce the conference report in front of us today, which represents a comprehensive response to the opioid epidemic plaguing our nation. In particular, I am pleased that the conference report preserves the comprehensive Justice Department opioid grant program from H.R. 5046, the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act, sponsored by my colleague and fellow conferee Jim Sensenbrenner.  I believe this program will do a great deal to help stem the epidemic of opioid abuse, by offering States and localities the resources needed to fight opioid addiction, and the flexibility to use the grant dollars  to address their unique needs. Importantly, the comprehensive DOJ grant program is authorized at $103 million annually over five years, and is fully offset in accordance with the House’s Cut-Go protocol.  I am also thankful to Chairman Rogers, Chairman Culberson, and our colleagues at the House Appropriations Committee, who worked closely with us in this effort.  This year, the House appropriators have included $103 million in funding for anti-opioid activities in the CJS appropriations bill, which aligns with the authorization amount in H.R. 5046. Additionally, the conference report includes the provisions of the other bills in the jurisdiction of the House Judiciary Committee, including H.R. 5048, the Good Samaritan Assessment Act; H.R. 5052, the OPEN Act; and H.R. 4985, the Kingpin Designation Improvement Act.  Along with the other provisions in the conference report, these bills take real steps to address the opioid epidemic and provide real relief to a real problem affecting real Americans.  Members of this body should be proud of these accomplishments. I support the conference report, and urge my colleagues to do the same. ###