{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-help-committee-passes-paul-amendment-permanently-increase-opioid-treatment-access-cap/", "HELP Committee Passes Paul Amendment to Permanently Increase Opioid Treatment Access Cap", "2018-04-24", "2018", "2018-04", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\n\nApril 24, 2018\n\nContact: Press@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee passed U.S. Senator Rand Paul\u2019s amendment to S. 2680, the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018, to permanently increase the cap on the number of patients to whom a doctor can prescribe medication to treat opioid addiction. Dr. Paul introduced this amendment as part of his continuing efforts to improve the federal government\u2019s response to the growing opioid crisis and expand access to treatment, which have also included serving as the lead Republican sponsor of the TREAT Act.\n\n\u201cWe have made considerable progress to ensure that more Americans struggling with opioid abuse can receive treatment, and I applaud the HELP Committee for taking action today to help us gain more ground. I look forward to the full Senate following its lead,\u201d said Dr. Paul.\n\nIn 2016, a final regulation was issued allowing physicians to treat up to 275 patients with buprenorphine, a key component in Suboxone, raising the cap from the previous limit of 100 patients. Dr. Paul\u2019s amendment would codify the increased, 275-patient cap.\n\nThe Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), passed in 2016, included several principles from the TREAT Act, including allowing nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) to prescribe buprenorphine to treat patients with opioid addiction for the first time.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T22:54:51Z"]], "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://www.paul.senate.gov/news-help-committee-passes-paul-amendment-permanently-increase-opioid-treatment-access-cap/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8857822977006435, "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"}