{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://susielee.house.gov/media/press-releases/icymi-issue-thats-clearly-bipartisan-congresswoman-lee-joins-local-nonprofits", "ICYMI: \u201cThis Is an Issue That\u2019s Clearly Bipartisan\u201d: Congresswoman Lee Joins Local Nonprofits to Celebrate Newly-Signed Law to Prevent Youth Substance Abuse", "2025-12-15", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "House", "NV", "Susie Lee", "L000590", "susielee.house.gov", "susielee", "https://susielee.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "December 15, 2025\n\nLAS VEGAS, NV \u2013 Last week, Congresswoman Susie Lee (NV-03) joined two local nonprofits that combat addiction and substance abuse, The Phoenix and PACT Coalition, to announce and celebrate a newly-signed bipartisan law she championed to fund a critical program to support youth at risk of drug use, addiction, and overdose.\n\nThe Treatment, Recovery, Education, Awareness and Training for (TREAT) Youth Act, which Lee led with Congresswoman Jen Kiggans (VA-02), will provide resources for a critical program that expired in 2023 to support youth at risk of drug use, addiction, and overdose. The TREAT Youth Act was signed into law as part of the bipartisan SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act of 2025, which passed the House with strong bipartisan support in a 366-57 vote and unanimously passed the Senate.\n\nRead more below:\n\nKLAS-CBS 8: Nevada\u2019s Treat Youth Act targets substance abuse rise\n\nKamari Esquerra |December 8, 2025\n\nDemocrats and Republicans are coming together on a new law to fight youth substance abuse. While overdose deaths are going down nationwide, they went up more than 3% here in Nevada from December 2023 to December 2024.\n\n\u201cYouth are starting to experiment with drugs and alcohol much earlier, so we need early intervention in order to prevent the development of longer-term substance use disorder as they grow up,\u201d Licensed Clinical Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor Michelle Costigan said.\n\nAccording to the Substance Use and Mental Health Service Administration, 22% of Nevadans aged twelve and older have used an illicit substance in the last month. For adults ages 18 to 25, that number jumps to more than 30 percent.\n\n\u201cWhen I first discovered alcohol, which was my drug of choice, I believed that it was going to be the solution for all that failed me because of the way it made me feel temporarily,\u201d said Stewart Powell, Program Coordinator, The Phoenix, a sober active community.\n\nHe is now recovering and helping others through their journey away from addiction and overdose. Meanwhile, a new law aims to help even more young people before they get that far.\n\n\u201cThis is an issue that\u2019s clearly bipartisan,\u201d Representative Susie Lee said. \u201cFentanyl, substance abuse does not have an R or D behind it; it affects every community across this country, and this life-saving law will now better protect our children\u2026\u201d\n\nThe TREAT Youth Act, short for Treat, Recovery, Education, Awareness, and Training for Youth, focuses on prevention, treatment, and recovery support for kids most at risk.\n\n\u201cThis is an issue that often begins in an individual\u2019s youth, and the sooner it can be addressed, the sooner the tools can be made available to individuals,\u201d Powell said.\n\nThe law provides grants to raise awareness, expand access to medication for opioid use disorder, and train educators and healthcare workers, including information about risks.\n\nThe legislation boosts national funding for youth substance abuse programs by 50 percent from $10 million to $15 million through 2030.\n\nKVVU-FOX 5: \u2018TREAT\u2019 renewal provides $15 million for Nevada youth substance abuse programs\n\nFOX5 Staff | December 8, 2025\n\nA recent study found 22% of Nevadans 12 and older had used an illicit substance within the past 30 days.\n\nAnd 32 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 24 said they\u2019d used drugs in the past month. Those statistics point to the need for youth substance abuse programs in the Silver State, and now, funding will be available for them.\n\nMonday morning, Representative Susie Lee came together with a coalition of advocates to celebrate the renewal of the \u201cTreatment, Recovery, Education, Awareness and Training Act\u201d or \u201cTREAT.\u201d\n\nThe measure provides $15 million dollars in funding over the next five years to pay for programs that help drug-dependent teens and young adults.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen far too many of our neighbors, of our children in Southern Nevada struggle with addiction and substance abuse. And it doesn\u2019t just impact their families. It\u2019s... them as individuals. It\u2019s something that impacts our families. It impacts our schools. It impacts our communities,\u201d said Rep. Lee.\n\nThe TREAT [Youth] Act expired in 2023, but Lee teamed up with GOP Representative Jen Kiggans to sponsor its renewal.\n\nPresident Donald Trump recently signed it back into law.\n\nLas Vegas Sun: Fight against fentanyl gets boost from Nevada lawmaker, Congress\n\nKyle Chouinard | December 10, 2025\n\nWhen it comes to battling the fentanyl epidemic and opioid deaths, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are finding rare common ground.\n\n\u201cEveryone hears out of Washington how divided things are back in D.C., but this is an issue that\u2019s clearly bipartisan,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev. \u201cFentanyl, substance abuse does not have an \u2018R\u2019 or \u2018D\u2019 behind it. It affects every community across this country.\u201d\n\nLee is celebrating the signing of new bipartisan legislation authorizing $64 million through 2030 to combat substance abuse among youths after the program lapsed in 2023.\n\nThe funding is part of the Treatment, Recovery, Education, Awareness and Training Youth Act, introduced by Lee, which was included in the legislation that President Donald Trump signed into law this month. It passed the House with strong bipartisan support in a 366-57 vote; a companion bill unanimously passed the U.S. Senate.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen far too many of our neighbors, of our children, in Southern Nevada struggle with addiction and substance abuse,\u201d Lee said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that impacts our families, it impacts our schools, impacts our communities.\u201d\n\nThe wide-ranging provision allocates money for everything from programs to increase awareness around the dangers of fentanyl to increasing access to opioid use disorder medications, Lee said.\n\nThe representative said it would also provide educators and social workers \u201cwith the tools they need to intervene early and save lives.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe are grateful to have the ability to provide more resources, awareness and prevention efforts for the youth here in Clark County,\u201d said Novlette Mack, a program manager for PACT Coalition, a group combating drug abuse in Southern Nevada. \u201cWe believe that early intervention is necessary for children and their caregivers to prevent problems from worsening.\u201d\n\nFrom April 2024 to April 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1,572 Nevadans died from a drug overdose. That\u2019s a 6.8% increase from the year prior, while the rest of the United States saw a 25% drop in estimated deaths, according to the CDC.\n\nNevada also has one of the highest rates of illicit drug use among children 12 to 17, according to UnitedHealth\u2019s analysis of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data, at 8.5% reporting use over a month.\n\nMichelle Costigan, who joined Lee for the news conference, manages a sober living community center operated by the Phoenix, a national nonprofit. But when she was working as a clinician, she said it was not uncommon to hear people report first using drugs in \u201cearly adolescence.\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve witnessed firsthand the difficulties that our community members face in not only getting into treatment, but also accessing the wraparound support and ongoing care they need to sustain long-term recovery,\u201d Costigan said.\n\nShe said the program \u201chas the potential\u201d to improve access to resources, calling it an \u201cimportant step forward\u201d in addressing the country\u2019s opioid crisis.\n\nStewart Powell, a program coordinator with the Phoenix, said he was in recovery from substance use disorder, which started in his youth. Powell also found the legislation encouraging.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t make a habit of dwelling on my past, but I can\u2019t help but wonder that if in my youth, my journey would have been different if I had awareness and access to the types of resources that are enabled by the legislation,\u201d he said.\n\nLee said losing key pieces of federal support means a reduction in services.\n\nThe new law also gradually increases the program\u2019s funding from $10 million for the 2026 financial year to $15 million by the fiscal year 2030.\n\nHow much of the new funding will reach Clark County and for what purposes is still up in the air. The Department of Health and Human Services will soon release a request for grant applications, and Lee was sure she would write a letter of support for local organizations.\n\nIt\u2019s much needed in her home state.\n\nThe National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 22% of Nevadans ages 12 and older used an illicit substance in the past month \u2014 a rate that jumps to 31.9% among those ages 18-25.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m so grateful that this lifesaving law will now better protect our children and train health care providers and educators on best practices for helping youth suffering from addiction,\u201d Lee said in a statement announcing the legislation being signed into law.\n\nHoodline: Fentanyl Surge Spurs $15M Lifeline For Nevada Youth\n\nOlivia Rivera | December 9, 2025\n\nNevada will receive funding from the reauthorized TREAT Youth Act, a federal program aimed at helping young people with drug issues. The program will provide grants and training to schools, health clinics, and community groups, and expand access to medications for treating opioid use disorder among youth.\n\nHealth officials and recovery advocates in Nevada say the money will matter most if it reaches kids early, when use is still \u201ctrying it out\u201d rather than full-blown addiction. The law arrives on the heels of a year of troubling local data on substance use among adolescents and young adults.\n\nThe measure was folded into the federal SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization and became law in early December, reauthorizing the Preventing Youth Overdose program through fiscal year 2030, according to Congress.gov. The legislation sets up a step-up in federal support for the youth program, with funding starting at $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2026 and rising to $15,000,000 by fiscal year 2030, as outlined in H.R.3689. In a statement to KLAS 8 News Now, Rep. Susie Lee said fentanyl and substance abuse \u201caffect every community\u201d and that the law will \u201cbetter protect children.\u201d\n\nNevada is not riding the national wave of declining overdose deaths. Provisional federal data show the state saw a small uptick in overdose fatalities even as the overall U.S. total dropped, a pattern experts partially attribute to fentanyl contamination in the illegal drug supply, as reported by Nevada Independent.\n\nFederal behavioral health surveys also flag elevated substance use among Nevada\u2019s youth and young adults. The Behavioral Health Barometer for Nevada reports that roughly 22 percent of residents age 12 and older said they had used illicit drugs recently, with people ages 18 to 25 reporting rates above 30 percent, as per SAMHSA.\n\nThe reauthorization opens up grant opportunities for schools, health systems and community organizations to run awareness campaigns, train teachers and clinicians, and expand access to medications for opioid use disorder for adolescents and young adults. Implementation and grants will run through HHS and SAMHSA, and local public health officials say coordination across agencies will be key if the dollars are going to reach youth before serious harm occurs, a point raised by Southern Nevada Health District leaders and reported by The Nevada Independent. Community hubs such as The Phoenix, located at 3638 E. Sunset Road, #110 in Las Vegas, say they plan to pursue funding and grow their programs if federal and state resources make that possible.\n\nThe Preventing Youth Overdose: Treatment, Recovery, Education, Awareness and Training program was last authorized under the 2018 Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act. This legislation represented the largest ever investment in overdose prevention programs by funding efforts to improve care, including efforts to reduce barriers to all levels of the care continuum and allocate resources to states and providers for the purposes of preventing and treating substance use disorder.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "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://susielee.house.gov/media/press-releases/icymi-issue-thats-clearly-bipartisan-congresswoman-lee-joins-local-nonprofits"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5277517959475517, "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"}