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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, joined his fellow leaders of the committee in raising concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the ongoing substance use disorder (SUD) and opioid crisis in the United States.

“As the global coronavirus pandemic wears on, we must make sure that we do not lose the progress that we have made against the opioid epidemic,” said Guthrie. “Over the last several years, Kentucky has been hit especially hard by the opioid crisis. I have been proud to work with my colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee to help provide treatment for Kentuckians struggling with substance use disorder, and we must continue our work.”

Guthrie, along with Energy and Commerce Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR), Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Health Subcommittee Republican Leader Michael Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), Health Subcommittee Chairwoman Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Diana DeGette (D-CO), sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) to request a briefing on the latest trends in substance use and overdoses, how those trends are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and what more the federal government needs to do to address this growing crisis.

“While we continue to fight the COVID-19 crisis, we cannot lose sight of another: the ongoing substance use disorder (SUD) and overdose crisis that our country has been battling for decades,” the bipartisan committee leaders wrote. “Since 1999, over 750,000 Americans have died from drug overdoses, representing the worst drug crisis in American history, and we are concerned that overdose deaths are increasing while attention is focused on COVID-19.”

In 2018, the number of fatal drug overdoses decreased for the first time in over two decades, but last year, overdose deaths increased to an all-time high. Now, recently reported increases in overdose deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic threaten to exacerbate these trends. According to the Washington Post, data indicate that, compared to the year before, suspected overdoses nationwide increased 18 percent in March, 29 percent in April, and 42 percent in May. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to more Americans suffering from depression and economic hardship, as people continue to isolate and often are unable to seek the necessary treatment. Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, recently stated, “that the support systems that were there to actually help them achieve recovery are no longer present. At the same time, access to some of the treatment programs has become much harder to get by and that actually includes emergency departments.”

“The world’s public health experts, governments, and industries are focused on the COVID-19 pandemic – and that work continues, but we must not become complacent about other threats that our country faces, nor allow the progress we have made to become undone,” the committee leaders continued in their letter to Azar.

To read the full letter, click HERE. 

This week’s letter builds upon Congressman Guthrie’s previous work to combat the opioid epidemic. Earlier this year he led a hearing on state responses to the opioid epidemic, and he also led a hearing last year on the impact of the illicit fentanyl trade on the ongoing opioid crisis. Congressman Guthrie’s Comprehensive Opioid Recovery Centers Act was signed into law as part of the SUPPORT Act in 2018. This legislation was funded recently in the Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations packages along with a total of $1.5 billion for the opioid epidemic. 

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