It's Tuesday, July 12 and Day 150 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell laid down his Supreme Court blockade: No meetings, no hearings, no votes on his replacement. It's also Day 113 since President Obama named Merrick Garland to be Scalia's replacement. What's the Senate doing today instead of considering the Supreme Court nominee?
They're having another fight. Last week, the conference committee between the House and the Senate took the on big bipartisan accomplishment of the Senate, and more or less gutted it, a lot like they did with the Zika prevention funding bill. This is kind of a new trend for Republicans. If they don't like bills that have passed either the House or—more frequently the Senate—with Democratic stuff in them, they strip it out in the conference between the two bodies. In this case it's a bill to fight the opioid epidemic.
Democrats on the conference committee lost in their effort to insist that the bill include at least $920 million to help pay for additional treatment of addicts, most of whom cannot find or afford the treatment they need.
The bill would authorize the federal government to provide states with grants to fund training for first responders to treat overdoses, create alternatives to incarceration and investigate ways to combat illegal opioid distribution. The Senate version of the law originally required states receiving grants to set up prescription drug monitoring programs that doctors would have to consult when prescribing the drugs. Such mandatory programs have been found to significantly reduce opioid prescribing.
The money wasn't included, and the drug monitoring programs were made voluntary, which treatment experts say makes it pretty much worthless. As of last week, Democrats hadn't decided whether that was enough to make them block the bill. "We all know that without more funding to expand access to medication-assisted treatment, states simply won't have the resources they need to put people on the path to recovery and save lives," said Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). We'll know more after this afternoon.
So, once again Republicans are paying lip service to public health. Because, ultimately, they just don't care. And no, they are not doing anything about any court vacancies today.
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