House and Senate Republicans agreed over the weekend on a final version of the 21st Century Cures Act , one of the last bills on the table before the new Congress is sworn in this January. WASHINGTON ― Congress is close to passing a bill, after several thwarted attempts, that would include a provision allocating $1 billion to address the opioid epidemic . And, in the process, they’ve encouraged lawmakers to offer their support by adding specific, popular provisions to the final product. One of those provisions was funding to tackle the opioid epidemic, a development that seemed unlikely to transpire as recently as several months ago. began a push to include opioid-related funding in the 21st Century Cures legislation, reminding lawmakers that Congress has yet to help states contain the growing crisis.

Source: Huffington Post November 28, 2016 23:37 UTC