Murray, former HELP Committee Chair, negotiated and passed landmark opioid legislation in 2018; This year Murray secured $4.6 billion in federal funding to support substance use disorder treatment and recovery programs
ICYMI: Senator Murray Introduces Bipartisan Legislation to Reauthorize Important Substance Use Disorder Prevention Programs for Pregnant and Postpartum Women
Senator Murray: “This crisis doesn’t just affect individuals, it hurts entire communities—and entire families, right down to newborns who were exposed to opioids in the womb.”
***PHOTOS AND B-ROLL from visit HERE***
Spokane, WA – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), visited Maddie’s Place, a non-profit recovery nursery for babies experiencing withdrawal due to prenatal substance exposure. Maddie’s Place provides holistic, multi-disciplinary medical and non-medical care for infants with prenatal substance exposure and their mothers—bringing babies safely through their withdrawal, facilitating early bonding, mitigating the long-term effects suffered by children with in-utero substance exposure, and offering support to mothers struggling with substance use. Maddie’s Place is one of only four transitional care nurseries in the country.
During the visit, Senator Murray toured the nurseries and private recovery rooms at Maddie’s Place and heard from both staff and mothers living there with their babies about the support and resources Maddie’s Place offers to mothers and babies, and the successes of this model of care. After the tour, Senator Murray held a roundtable discussion with Maddie’s Place staff, nurses, and parents at the facility to hear more about the organization and discuss the importance of federal funding for substance use disorder treatment and how Senator Murray can support the work happening at Maddie’s Place at the federal level. Murray was joined for the discussion by Shaun Cross, President/CEO of Maddie’s Place; Dr. Randi Edwards, Medical Director; Tricia Hughes, Founder and Clinical Coordinator; Kim Dunham, Director of Family Advocacy; as well as Washington State Representative Marcus Riccelli (LD-3).
“Maddie’s Place is meeting a really important need in Spokane—when I first heard about what they were doing here to support babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, and their mothers, I knew I had to visit and see it firsthand,” said Senator Murray. “The opioid crisis has been devastating for our state—and even as overdose deaths decreased nationally last year, Washington state saw a 25 percent increase. This crisis doesn’t just affect individuals, it hurts entire communities—and entire families, right down to newborns who were exposed to opioids in the womb. I’ve been focused on supporting those on the front lines of the opioid crisis for a long time, from passing major investments through my role on the Appropriations Committee to negotiating bipartisan bills that improve treatment, prevention, and recovery support. Helping babies facing neonatal abstinence syndrome is crucial to this work—they are the youngest victims of the opioid epidemic and I am determined to make sure we don’t overlook their needs as we build on our work to tackle this crisis.”
“We’re incredibly honored to host Senator Patty Murray for a tour and roundtable at Maddie’s Place. Senator Murray’s visit aligns with her historic passion for infants, young children and families. The Senator’s visit will focus attention on the plight of the thousands of infants who are born dependent on drugs and their parents who are trying to rebuild their lives,” said Shaun Cross, President and CEO of Maddie’s Place. “The current fentanyl crisis requires Federal resources and Senator Murray’s visit is an important step toward assisting these babies and their moms and dads.”
As Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Murray has made securing additional federal resources to help combat the opioid crisis a top priority, and in spending bills she negotiated and got signed into law in March, Murray was able to secure $4.6 billion to support substance use disorder treatment and recovery programs, despite tough budget caps. This came alongside millions in Congressionally Directed Spending for community-level substance use disorder treatment programs and care clinics across Washington state.
In previous government funding legislation signed into law in December 2022, Senator Murray secured the inclusion of a mental health and substance use disorder package she negotiated to bolster states’ response efforts to address the opioid epidemic and increase access to substance use disorder treatment and naloxone for overdose reversal, among other things. Also in that legislation, Murray secured an additional $345 million—for a total of $5 billion—to address the opioid epidemic. In the annual funding bill before that, Murray secured a $300 million boost for the Department of Health and Human Services’ work to address substance use disorders, by funding State Opioid Response Grants, overdose prevention work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among many other things.
Murray has a long bipartisan record on this issue—most notably, the top Democrat on the HELP Committee in the 115th Congress, Murray negotiated and got passed into law landmark legislation to tackle the opioid crisis—the SUPPORT Act. Senator Murray is currently working with HELP Chair Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to reauthorize the SUPPORT Act, and she is leading the push to reauthorize key prenatal and postnatal health initiatives she helped establish in the original legislation.
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