Rolling Stone. By Matt Laslo

...The group – nearly a quarter of the U.S. House of Representatives – is made up of rural and urban lawmakers, from the far right to the progressive left. They’ve laid out an ambitious agenda for this year that’s focused on getting a package of eight new bills passed and signed into law by President Trump...

The wide-ranging focus of this legislative package is because some lawmakers on the panel come from law enforcement backgrounds while others come from the medical community. For others, the crisis is becoming increasingly personal.

“I just buried a friend of mine in the past month. It touches each and every one of us and we can’t ignore it,” Representative Donald Norcross (D-NJ), a co-chair of the task force, told reporters when the group rolled out its agenda this month. The eight new bills are being added to the nine bipartisan bills the group endorsed last year. One of those bills seeks to increase training for doctors who reportedly only receive about four hours of opioid training during their four years in medical school. “This isn’t about shoving mandates,” Norcross says. “It’s about bringing those medical schools together and having that discussion that addresses the educational issue.” 

Click here to read the full article.