This week, Congressman Dave Joyce (OH-14) applauded the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announcement that Ohio will receive a $29.1 million State Opioid Response (SOR) grant to support the state’s efforts to combat the opioid epidemic. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Dave helped secure $1.5 billion for SOR grants in Fiscal Year 2019.

“The unfortunate truth is that Ohio is one of the states hit the hardest by the opioid epidemic,” said Dave. “I applaud the Department of Health and Human Services for providing the Buckeye State with this much-needed funding and will continue my work as a member of the House Appropriations Committee to ensure that our communities have the resources and tools they need to stop this crisis in its tracks.”

This grant is part of a second installment of SOR grants totaling $487 million in awards to states and territories across the United States. State allocations for SOR grants are calculated by a formula based on the state’s proportion of people with abuse or dependence on opioids and the state’s proportion of drug overdose deaths. The goal of these grants is to increase access to life-saving treatment and reduce opioid overdose-related deaths through the provision of prevention, treatment and recovery activities for opioid use disorder.

With 130 Americans dying every day from an opioid overdose, Dave has made finding solutions to the opioid epidemic a top priority of his in Congress. Most recently, Dave introduced the Comprehensive Opioid Program Extension (COPE) Act of 2019, which supports our local communities as they carry out their life-saving work at the front lines of this epidemic by increasing authorized resources available to the Department of Justice’s comprehensive opioid abuse reduction activities. Organizations that have endorsed this important legislation include but are not limited to: Cleveland Clinic, National Sheriffs’ Association, Addiction Policy Forum, University Hospitals, MetroHealth, Fraternal Order of Police and the Northeast Ohio Hospital Opioid Consortium.

To learn more about Dave’s bill to fight the opioid crisis, click here.