A Senate panel on Tuesday approved a health funding bill that would increase spending to address opioid abuse by 93 percent, according to STAT.
The 2017 funding bill, proposed by Senators Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), would increase funding to combat the national opioid epidemic from $126 million in 2016 to $261 million, and begin in the fiscal year that begins in October.
The proposal would allot $28 million more to the CDC's prescription overdose program and $49 million more to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's treatment and prevention programs, according to the report.
The continued increase in spending would follow a 300 percent rise in funding for treatment and prevention of opioid abuse in 2016 from the year prior. The bill will now appear before the full Senate Appropriations Committee, which is expected to approve it on Thursday, according to the report.