Joe Pitts: Opioid Crisis

Congressman Pitts, spending much of his career on the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee, was an important influence on federal policy concerning pharmaceutical drugs. He worked to incentivize new drug therapies, spoke against needle exchange programs, and also helped shape recent federal policy on illicit drug abuse. During his last term as Chairman, he helped guide eleven bills addressing opioid abuse through the subcommittee that became a part of Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), passed in July 2016.

In the spring of 2018, the Pitts Center for Public Policy hosted “The Opioid Crisis: Seeking Solutions Conference” on the current opioid epidemic affecting both Kentucky and the rest of the nation. State officials and medical professionals spoke about the past and current crisis, as well as potential solutions for the future. Visit the news article on the conference for more details.

Below are documents and media files from the Pitts Collection, housed in Asbury Archives related to Pitts work on opioids:

Documents

• Floor transcript: Needle Exchange Program Reflects A Disastrous Federal Drug Policy (April 22, 1998)
• Floor transcript: District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 2000 (July 29, 1999)
• Floor transcript: Secure And Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010 (September 29, 2010)
• Floor transcript: Ensuring Patient Access And Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2014 (July 29, 2014)
• Floor transcript: Protecting Our Infants Act of 2015 (November 16, 2015)
• Office release: Speaker Ryan Names Pitts to Opioid Conference Committee

Media

Podcast: Report from Capitol Hill (April 21, 2016)

Podcast: Report from Capitol Hill (July 21, 2016)