releases: https://bilirakis.house.gov/media/press-releases/four-more-bilirakis-measures-pass-house
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://bilirakis.house.gov/media/press-releases/four-more-bilirakis-measures-pass-house | Four More Bilirakis Measures Pass the House | 2023-12-13 | 2023 | 2023-12 | Republican | House | FL | Gus M. Bilirakis | B001257 | bilirakis.house.gov | bilirakis | https://bilirakis.house.gov/media/press-releases | scraper | Washington, DC: This week, the House passed the Support for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act, which includes a variety of provisions to improve mental health and substance abuse treatment options throughout the country. This package includes four measures authored by Congressman Gus Bilirakis. These four provisions are designed to improve public health outcomes,advance critical research, and ensure vulnerable children have access to mental health services. The Combating Illicit Xylazine Act will help stop the illicit use of the highly dangerous sedative causing fatal overdoses nationwide, xylazine. This animal drug tranquilizer, safe for use in large animals by veterinarians, has never been approved for human use and has shown to produce horrific side effects when laced into fentanyl. The Bilirakis co-authored legislation will permanently place xylazine into Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, providing law enforcement with key tools they need to track and prosecute traffickers of this drug. “My goal is to save lives and to make sure law enforcement has the tools its needs to respond appropriately to those who are making these deadly concoctions killing so many of our neighbors. At the same time, we must ensure that those veterinarians who are using xylazine for legitimate purposes have the ability to continue doing so. Our legislation strikes that right balance,” said Congressman Gus Bilirakis. The FIND Fentanyl Act would reauthorize a pilot program to fund state and local agencies to improve coordination between public health laboratories and law enforcement entities for the purposes of detecting and stopping fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. “To better curb the fentanyl crisis we are seeing in our communities, we must coordinate our efforts between medical experts and law enforcement, and this pilot program will go a long way to ensure we detect fentanyl and remove from our streets,” said Bilirakis. The SWIFT Detection Act would update our methods to track fentanyl and other illicit controlled substances by authorizing the CDC to provide grants to conduct wastewater surveillance and other innovative projects. Wastewater surveillance has been proven to track and identify contaminants and better understand public health trends broadly, while fully preserving the privacy rights of individuals and communities. “We need to use every tool at our disposal to help combat the opioid epidemic and save lives. This non-invasive screening of wastewater will allow local public health officials the chance to make data-informed decisions and enable better targeting of prevention and treatment services,” Bilirakis noted. | 1 | 2026-03-30T01:40:41Z | 2026-04-08T01:14:16Z |