Meth Free Families and Communities Act

I want to thank my colleague and good friend and wonderful chairman of my subcommittee on Energy and Commerce for giving me this opportunity.

I also want to thank, and I am sorry she is not here tonight, Representative Cubin who has worked so hard on this issue. Battling the meth epidemic has been amongst my top priorities in Congress, and it is also a priority for the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Cubin). It is something that we share.

Those of us in the West have long been familiar with the ways that meth has worked to destroy communities, families and property. For over two decades as a county commissioner and as a Member of Congress representing the mid-Willamette Valley and Oregon's central coast, I've dealt with the fallout of meth production in small communities and rural areas where law enforcement and social services are stretched beyond their limit to handle this scourge.

The Federal Government must step up to the plate and do its part in defending families and communities against this threat. Meth is one of the fastest-growing drug problems in the

country because it is cheap, easy to make, and gives addicts an intense, long-lasting high. The consequences of its use can be severe not just for the addict but for the community.

Meth addicts frequently abuse or neglect their children. Meth labs are toxic to our environment. Meth use and production raise the rate of property crime and identity theft.

When we talk about fighting drug abuse, we frequently talk about this concept of a three-legged stool: prevention, treatment and enforcement. Just like a stool, our efforts to fight drug abuse will collapse if we try to stand on just one or two of those legs.

During the last Congress we in the Meth Caucus worked together to make significant progress on both the enforcement aspect and controlling the meth supply through the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act. But treatment and prevention issues have largely been ignored, which is why I am so pleased that today we will consider the Meth Free Families and Communities Act that Congresswoman Barbara Cubin and I have worked together to craft.

Our legislation has four important provisions that will help our communities. One concern I have heard throughout Oregon in meetings with treatment and prevention officials and nationally is that we need to start looking at the meth epidemic as not just a criminal problem, but as a public health problem.

The first section will require the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment to work with primary care providers to apply evidence-based practices for screening and treating people with drug addiction or those at risk of developing one. It will also direct the center to collaborate with both addiction professionals and primary care providers to raise awareness of how do we recognize the signs of drug addiction so doctors can direct the addicted patients into treatment.

The second provision will reauthorize an existing grant program for pregnant and parenting women so they can receive comprehensive, family- based substance abuse treatment. Congresswoman Cubin has led the way in fighting for the resources needed for this vital initiative. Too many children have gone into the foster system because their mothers are sent to jail for meth addiction. This initiative will provide treatment to pregnant and parenting women which is much more effective for the mother and certainly cost effective and better for the child.

Another issue that has employers seeking our help is ensuring safe and drug free workplaces. Employers are concerned about finding employees who are able to pass a drug test. In some cases, companies are worried about implementing drug free workplace policies out of concern for the employee filing suit against them. Although the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration already provides guidelines to employers on creating a drug free workplace policy, the chief concern I have heard from businesses is that the guidelines can be difficult to navigate and assistance is not readily accessible.

So this legislation will create a single information clearinghouse in the Office for Substance Abuse Prevention that will serve as a resource for both employers and employees on drug testing policies and programs.

Finally, this legislation will create a national version of an incredibly successful program we have in Oregon, the Methamphetamine Awareness Project. The project goes into the high schools throughout the State with a film production crew and works with the students to produce anti-meth advertisements or sometimes even short documentaries that are entirely student driven. It is a great project that allows students to create the message that they think will best reach their fellow students. And it also gives them an after-school activity that keeps them from being idle and teaches them new skills. This project has been so effective in Oregon, I want to see it expanded on a national level which is why this legislation will allow SAMHSA prevention grant dollars to be used for professionally mentored, student-driven methamphetamine awareness projects around the country.

I thank the gentleman.

Congresswoman Cubin and I have both met extensively with prevention and treatment experts in our respective States and throughout the country. These provisions reflect what professionals have told us are the greatest needs in their field.

With gratitude, I would like to recognize Alison Craig of my own staff and Landon Stropko of Congresswoman Cubin's staff who have taken these ideas from sessions and turned them into provisions in this legislation.

I also want to recognize the work of the late Timm O'Cobhthaigh of my staff who helped Alison Craig put together many of these forums in Oregon.

I would like to thank Congresswoman Cubin for her leadership and her great passion to do a bill against methamphetamine that isn't just limited to enforcement efforts. I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting the Meth Free Families and Communities Act.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in partnership with Representative Darlene Hooley to address an issue that transcends district boundaries and party lines--methamphetamine addiction.

While we hail from different political parties, Representative Hooley and I are natural partners in the fight against meth. We both represent rural, western districts that have struggled with the horrible effects of the meth epidemic. We both feel that we need a comprehensive approach to fighting meth, including increased education, awareness, and treatment for the addicted.

For the benefit of Wyoming, Oregon, and other rural areas across the Nation, we decided to combine our work into one bill, H.R. 6901, the Meth Free Families and Communities Act. This legislation incorporates portions of H.R. 405, the Family-Based Meth Treatment Access Act, which I introduced in both the 109th and 110th Congresses. My meth treatment provisions, combined with the education and awareness provisions authored by Representative Hooley, will give our citizens more tools to fight meth in our schools, in places of work, and in the family unit itself.

Too many young men and women in Wyoming are getting hooked on meth. In a survey conducted in my home State of Wyoming, nearly half of Wyoming's young adults believe there are significant benefits to meth use, including weight loss and happiness.

It's this misperception that leads young people into the nightmare of meth. These people have families, and children, that suffer right along with them. We need increased awareness in Wyoming. We also need treatment options for those that succumb to meth addiction.

I crafted the provisions of H.R. 6901 that reauthorize the pregnant and parenting women grant program. These grants support family-based treatment centers, which meet the needs of the entire family--mother, father, and children, rather than just the addict. This

means healthy mothers, healthy fathers, and safe and healthy children. Every success story is one less family torn apart by meth.

H.R. 6901 authorizes over $110 million for family-based treatment over 5 years. We need this funding in rural areas like Wyoming that otherwise lack treatment options. This legislation points us in that direction,

I know that some question the wisdom of spending taxpayer dollars on drug treatment. I don't think we can afford not to invest in treatment. The cost of treatment pales in comparison to what meth has cost the taxpayer through our courtrooms, our prisons, our emergency rooms, and our foster care system. Moreover, the emotional cost to Wyoming's families has been immeasurable. Family treatment is a sound investment, one that this body should make.

I want to thank Representative Hooley for her leadership and willingness to tackle the meth problem in a bipartisan fashion. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in support of H.R. 6901, which will make a real difference for meth-affected families in Wyoming and across the Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6901) to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for the establishment of a drug-free workplace information clearinghouse, to support residential methamphetamine treatment programs for pregnant and parenting women, to improve the prevention and treatment of methamphetamine addiction, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening in support of H.R. 6901, the Meth Free Families and Communities Act. Despite recent Federal efforts to curb abuse, meth addiction remains a national epidemic. In 2006, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that 1.9 million Americans age 12 and older had abused meth at least once in the year prior to being surveyed. Recent trends suggest that meth use is up among women, including pregnant women and women of child-bearing age.

H.R. 6901 would amend the Public Health Service Act to improve prevention and treatment programs for meth addiction. The bill expands grants available for student-driven meth awareness programs, and prioritizes grants that are intended to reach areas lacking in mental health professionals and substance abuse treatment options.

This legislation seeks to improve treatment for meth addiction to pregnant and parenting women, and aims to help professionals recognize vulnerable populations for the purpose of preventing and treating addiction.

H.R. 6901 also provides information and educational materials to employers and employees about drug testing policies and programs.

H.R. 6901 helps our communities battle meth addiction by providing targeted education and treatment programs to the areas and people that need it most. It is the result of the very hard work of Representatives Hooley and Cubin. I urge my colleagues to support the passage of the bill.

I want to particularly thank Representative Hooley for her work on this legislation. As many of you know, she will not be with us after this session and I very much regret that because of all she has contributed as a congresswoman over the years. But passage of this bill is important to her legacy and important for the American people.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield at this time 5 minutes to the sponsor of the bill, the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Hooley).

I yield the gentlewoman an additional 2 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I would urge passage of this meth addiction bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, in deference to the sponsor of the bill, I will reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 6901, the Meth Free Families and Communities Act. I also want to commend Congresswoman Hooley and Congresswoman Cubin for their tireless work on this bill.

This bill reauthorizes a grant program administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Methamphetamine is a powerful central nervous system stimulant which affects neurochemical mechanisms responsible for regulating heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, appetite, attention and mood. The grant program at the agency provides comprehensive family-based substance abuse treatment for methamphetamine addiction for pregnant and parenting women.

The bill updates the law by directing the agency to expand, intensify and coordinate efforts to provide for pregnant and parenting women and for the family-based treatment for methamphetamine addiction. In addition, the bill attempts to increase awareness of methamphetamine addiction amongst providers and employers.

By helping people break their addiction, this program helps to put them on a road towards self-sufficiency and ends the vicious cycle of methamphetamine addiction.

I commend Congresswoman Hooley and Congresswoman Cubin for their work on this bill and for all of their years of service to this body and to our Committee on Energy and Commerce. Both Members will be sorely missed, and I wish them well in whatever life has in store for them in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.