WASHINGTON—The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the bipartisan Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act of 2023, which includes U.S. Representative Brittany Pettersen’s (CO-07) provision to bolster the Building Communities of Recovery program (BCOR). Both the broader legislation and this provision will expand access to critical resources and treatments to aid those in recovery from substance use disorders and mental health issues.
Pettersen’s provision was introduced in June alongside Congressman Zach Nunn (R-IA) as the Communities of Recovery Reauthorization Act of 2023. The funding it provides will significantly increase BCOR’s ability to fund local community organizations or centers that champion the development, enhancement, expansion, and delivery of recovery support services.
“My mom suffered from a prescription opioid addiction after a back injury that eventually led to heroin and fentanyl. After 30 years, she finally got the medical help she desperately needed—but there are far too many who aren’t as lucky,” said Pettersen. “The SUPPORT Act is life-saving, bipartisan legislation designed to equip our communities and people like my mom with the tools they need to enter recovery and build a brighter future.”
Fatal overdoses continue to rise, with more than 109,000 people in the United States dying from drug-involved overdoses in 2022 alone. BCOR is a grant program administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that provides support to nonprofit recovery community organizations or centers that:
Offer peer recovery support services designed and delivered by individuals with personal experience in addiction and recovery
Deliver recovery support services that directly assist individuals and families to recover from alcohol or drug dependency
Collaborate with current regional and local harm reduction community partner efforts that will encompass harm reduction
The SUPPORT Act includes other provisions to:
Increase loan repayment for substance use disorder workforce from $25 million to $40 million, extend training grants for mental and behavioral health education through 2028, and invest in naloxone training for first responders
Expand residential treatment programs for pregnant and postpartum women
Extend youth prevention and recovery programs through 2025
Make permanent a Medicaid State Plan Option to ease the red tape states must go through to get substance use disorder treatment covered
Schedule Xylazine as a schedule III substance, allowing law enforcement to better track and test for Xylazine
Inspired by her own mother’s struggle, this bill is just the latest in Pettersen’s ongoing efforts to address the drug epidemic in the United States. These include measures to prevent the import of illicit drugs, crack down on drug traffickers and their financing operations, and prevent overdose deaths by ensuring airplanes, law enforcement, and hospitals are able to distribute naloxone when necessary.
