{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=F6A98C2F-6678-4D05-845D-A3BB1F8C53BC", "Portman's Efforts to Secure More Funding to Tackle Heroin Epidemic Paying Off", "2016-12-21", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "OH", "Rob Portman", "P000449", "www.portman.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Last week, the president\u00a0signed into law\u00a0the 21st Century Cures initiative,\u00a0a $6.3 billion medical innovation package designed to accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of new cures and treatments.\u00a0Senator Portman, who is a\u00a0national\u00a0leader\u00a0in the fight against the heroin and prescription drug epidemic, worked hard to ensure that CURES included $1 billion in new funding for state grants to fight opioid abuse. The new funding in CURES is a big step forward in the fight to combat addiction, and one of many steps Portman has taken to\u00a0make\u00a0the federal government\u00a0a better partner in the fight\u00a0against this epidemic. This $1 billion in new funding will complement Portman\u2019s\u00a0bipartisan\u00a0Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act\u00a0(CARA) which authorizes $181 million annually in discretionary spending for new programs contained in the legislation. That\u2019s more than double \u2013 a 132 percent increase \u2013 the authorization level in the original Senate-passed CARA bill ($78 million).\r\nPortman has long been a leader in the fight for\u00a0more funding\u00a0to combat this crisis. In fact,\u00a0Portman secured $37 million\u00a0in the Continuing Resolution earlier this year, which served\u00a0as a down payment toward fully funding CARA and will help get the law\u2019s grant programs up and running.\u00a0\u00a0Portman has worked to fully fund CARA, but supports going further than that and has voted for emergency funding to combat this crisis.\u00a0 Over the last two years, Portman has worked with the Senate Appropriations Committee to\u00a0secure significant increases\u00a0in funding for opioid programs. In fact, for this fiscal year the House and Senate passed (and President Obama signed into law) an increase in total federal spending on opioids of 47 percent over last year ($321M vs. $220M). \u00a0And now the most recent continuing resolution puts us on track to fully fund CARA.\u00a0\r\nPortman\u2019s efforts to secure more funding to tackle the heroin epidemic are paying off. While the addiction crisis won\u2019t be solved at the federal level, the money being authorized and appropriated in Washington will play a big role in helping local, state and non-profit actors more successfully confront this epidemic. Portman will continue to make funding to combat the heroin and prescription drug epidemic a priority in the New Year.\r\n###", 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://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=F6A98C2F-6678-4D05-845D-A3BB1F8C53BC"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6985000800341368, "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"}