Poison Center Network Enhancement Act of 2018

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from New Jersey for yielding, and I rise in strong support of H.R. 5329, the Poison Center Network Enhancement Act.

I remember when I was a little boy, my mother used to have a poison control number that she taped to the medicine chest so that, if there was ever a tragedy or a problem, we could call the number quickly. This is obviously along those same lines. That is why it is so important for the American people to have this.

I want to thank Congresswoman Susan Brooks. I coauthored the bill with her. I want to thank her for her hard work. It reauthorizes, for an additional 5 years, as the gentlewoman just said, the nationwide network of poison control centers, which are playing a critical role in the fight to end the opioid crisis.

Our country's 55 poison centers are staffed by trained toxicologists, pharmacists, physicians, and nurses who are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, to provide real-time, lifesaving assistance via a national toll-free number, which is 1-800-222-1222.

In 2016, someone in this country called the poison center roughly every 12 seconds. So it shows you that it is being utilized and it saves lives. More than 90 percent of those calls were due to a poison exposure in someone's home. More than half of all cases involved children under the age of 12.

That is why speedy access to poison centers is such an invaluable resource and so important, especially for parents.

Poison centers are also saving hundreds of millions in Federal dollars by helping to avoid the unnecessary use of medical services and shortening the amount of time a person spends in the hospital, if hospitalization due to poisoning becomes necessary.

It is clear that these centers are a smart public health investment, but they are also an integral part of our response to the opioid epidemic.

Since 2011, poison centers have handled nearly 200 cases per day in this country involving opioid misuse. Data from poison centers has helped detect trends in the epidemic, and experts have helped educate Americans about the crisis and ways they could potentially save the lives of their loved ones.

The Upstate New York Poison Center, for instance, used the New York State Fair to educate New Yorkers about proper use of naloxone, the overdose reversal drug. This bill would make sure that activities like this can continue.

Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege of coauthoring the last poison center reauthorization signed into law in 2014, and I am pleased to have worked on this important bill.

Again, I want to thank Congresswoman Brooks for partnering with me on this legislation, as well as Congresswoman DeGette and Congressman Barton for being original cosponsors. Let me also thank Chairman Burgess, Ranking Member Green, Chairman Walden, and Ranking Member Pallone for their assistance in bringing this bill to the floor today.

As I mentioned earlier, in Westchester County, part of which I represent, 124 people died due to opioids in 2016. In the Bronx, part of which I also represent, more New Yorkers died of overdoses than in any other borough of the city of New York.

We must do more to end this epidemic, and I am proud to see this legislation moving forward as part of that effort, again, in a bipartisan manner. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5329, the Poison Center Network Enhancement Act.

I want to thank Mr. Engel, the Democratic sponsor, for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5329, the Poison Center Network Enhancement Act.

This legislation reauthorizes the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Poison Control Center program.

Poison control centers provide essential support to the public and healthcare providers nationwide.

They assist with guiding the public to appropriate medical care and advise physicians and other healthcare providers on the appropriate medical management whenever an exposure to a poison has occurred.

There are over 70 Poison control centers in the U.S and U.S. Territories and they serve a vital role in our emergency infrastructure, operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The centers handle calls concerning over 430,000 different substances, but in recent years have seen a huge increase in calls related to opioid exposure.

Receive nearly 200 consults per day on opioid related exposures alone.

There is no doubt that Poison control centers play a role in fighting the national opioid epidemic.

I support this legislation and continuation of the great work our nation's Poison Control centers do.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel).

Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers. I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5329) to amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize and enhance the poison center national toll-free number, national media campaign, and grant program, and for other purposes, as amended.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I support H.R. 5329, the Poison Center Network Enhancement Act. This is legislation that will reauthorize the national network of poison control centers.

Poison control centers are on the front lines of the opioid crisis. They offer free, confidential, expert medical advice 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. By reauthorizing this essential system resource, we will help reduce visits to the emergency rooms and save countless lives.

I want to thank the leadership of Representative Susan Brooks and Eliot Engel, my colleagues, along with Representatives Joe Barton and Diana DeGette, who worked hard on this legislation to get it right and get it to the floor in a bipartisan manner and, I would dare say, out of committee in a unanimous vote.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Brooks), a leader in this effort.

Mr. Speaker, this is more important bipartisan legislation moving forward. I have no other speakers. I would encourage passage of the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to pass H.R. 5329, the Poison Center Network Enhancement Act of 2018, a bill that reauthorizes the national network of poison control centers, as we have heard, that offers free, confidential, expert medical advice 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

We heard during an Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing that this past summer the Georgia poison control center was the first public health entity to detect and respond to a deadly opioid outbreak where yellow pills were being sold, stamped with the brand Percocet that, in fact, contained substances chemically similar to fentanyl. Without calls to poison control centers to report this drug, these pills could have gone undetected indefinitely.

Poison control centers are fielding almost 192 cases a day of opioid abuse and misuse. In 1 month alone, there were 9,039 opioid exposures related to poison control centers nationwide. They are essential in combating the opioid crisis because these are the centers that compile the data that can be used to discover hotspots for opioid abuse and misuse and save lives.

I want to thank all my colleagues, especially Representative Engel, Representative DeGette, and Representative Barton, who have been strong voices, as well as Chairman Walden and Ranking Member Pallone, for supporting this and so many other impactful bills.

On behalf, most importantly, of the 1,526 Hoosiers who have died of an opioid overdose in 2016, I want to urge my colleagues to pass H.R. 5329.