{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://messer.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=681", "Messer Says All Hands on Deck Needed to Address Indiana\u2019s Growing Opioid Crisis", "2017-11-08", "2017", "2017-11", "Republican", "House", "IN", "Luke Messer", "M001189", "messer.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. (Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017) \u2014 U.S. Rep. Luke Messer (IN-06) participated in an Education and the Workforce Committee hearing today to discuss the impact of the growing opioid crisis on communities across Indiana.\r\n\u201cIn Indiana, opioids are wrecking communities and breaking hearts all across our state,\u201d Messer said during the hearing. \u201cOpioids are also creating an economic crisis as employers are having a hard time finding the workforce they need. President Trump was right to call this a public health emergency because it\u2019s become clear that more needs to be done.\u201d\r\nIn Indiana, drug overdose fatalities have increased by more than 500 percent since 1999. The total annual cost of drug overdoses exceeds $1 billion in Indiana alone.\r\nMesser also applauded Gov. Eric Holcomb for his recent statewide efforts to tackle the public health crisis.\r\n\u201cThis is an all-hands-on-deck approach and it\u2019s critical we work with state leaders like Governor Holcomb as well as the President to come up with real solutions to combat this devastating epidemic,\u201d Messer said.\r\nWitnesses at the joint subcommittee hearing entitled, \u201cClose to Home: How Opioids are Impacting Communities\u201d included public health and public school officials as well as local workers from addiction recovery centers.\r\nA VIDEO CLIP of Rep. Messer discussing the opioid epidemic at the hearing is available here\u00a0and can be viewed below.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://messer.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=681"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.739498995244503, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}