9th District Congressman Bill Keating will introduce legislation to repeal the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016.
Keating, a member of both the Congressional Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery Caucus and the Bipartisan Heroin Task Force, says that Act has made it harder for law enforcement to crack down on unsafe practices in the pharmaceutical industry.
He adds that recent reports show the law severely impeded the DEA’s ability to suspend opioid distributions when the agency detected suspeicious activity, allowing an oversupply of opioids in the marketplace.
“We are in the throes of an epidemic, and we need every tool available at our disposal,” said Congressman Keating. “We cannot be making it unnecessarily harder for our law enforcement agencies to do their job.”
The House is not currently in session so Keating will introduce his legislation at the next opportunity.