Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan’s (MA-03) bipartisan legislation to help address the root causes of the addiction crisis passed the House of Representatives. First introduced by Trahan in 2019, the Medication Access and Training Expansion (MATE) Act would standardize substance use disorder training to ensure that all prescribers of addictive medications possess baseline knowledge in evidence-based addiction prevention and treatments.

“Far too many families here in Massachusetts and across our nation have an empty seat at the dinner table because a loved one’s substance use disorder went undiagnosed or untreated. I introduced the MATE Act so we could make a dent in the addiction crisis, and I couldn’t be more thrilled that this bipartisan legislation has finally cleared the full House,” said Congresswoman Trahan, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee. “Addressing the addiction crisis remains a top priority of mine, and I look forward to working with our Senate partners to get this critical legislation across the finish line.”

Once law, the MATE Act will:

• Create a one-time, non-repetitive requirement for all DEA controlled substance prescribers (Schedule II, III, IV or V) to complete training on treating and managing patients with opioid and other substance use disorders, unless the prescriber is otherwise qualified.
• Allow accredited medical schools and residency programs, physician assistant schools, and schools of advanced practice nursing to fulfill the training requirement through a comprehensive curriculum that meets the standards laid out in statute, without having to coordinate the development of their education with an outside medical society or state licensing body.
• Normalize addiction medicine education across certain professional schools and phase out the need for these future practitioners to take a separate, federally mandated addiction course.
• Authorize the federal government to appropriate grants to schools and medical programs to develop the curricula used to train prescribers on how to best identify and treat SUDs.

The MATE Act was passed as part of a larger mental health package, H.R. 7666, the Restoring Hope For Mental Health and Well-Being Act of 2022. Trahan’s bipartisan legislation is cosponsored by Representatives David Trone (D-MD-06), Buddy Carter (R-GA-01), Annie Kuster (D-NH-02), and David P. McKinley (R-WV-01).

The MATE Act is also supported by the American Society of Addiction Medicine, National Council for Behavioral Health, The Kennedy Forum, National Safety Council, Partnership for Drug-Free Kids + Center on Addiction, Shatterproof, SMART Recovery, Faces and Voices of Recovery, Young People in Recovery, CADA of Northwest Louisiana, Connecticut Certification Board, National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers, and American College of Medical Toxicology.

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