Congress’ New COVID-19 Package Includes Addiction Funding

Congress at night

For the millions of Americans impacted by addiction, it’s been no surprise that the COVID-19 pandemic has made the overdose crisis worse. Isolation, unemployment, loss of structure and access to services—it’s been a perfect storm since day one. According to the CDC, 81,230 Americans died from an overdose between June 2019 and May 2020, the highest number ever recorded in just one year.

Luckily, some help is on the way. Today, President Trump signed Congress’ $900 billion coronavirus relief package into law, and it includes help for communities affected by addiction.

Key pieces include:

This funding is welcome and needed, but it’s especially noteworthy that Congress recognizes that the public health and economic emergencies created by COVID are making an already dire addiction crisis much worse.

Early next year, we’ll continue to urge Congress to finish its work and pass the MATE and MAT Acts to advance addiction education for medical professionals and permanently remove regulatory barriers for treatment.

If you’ve contacted your representatives about addiction issues this year, you should be proud to see this new legislative package. Your voice made this happen. We’re so grateful for your support. Thank you, and let’s keep up the momentum in 2021.

Women in a support circle

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