Welcome to the third week of this four week stretch. This week, the House will continue to vote on a number of proposals to address the opioid crisis. Last week the House passed over 30 bills on opioids, most of which were non-controversial and reached bipartisan support. However, the bills considered this week are expected to have spending tied to it and could be more controversial.

On the Senate side, CREATES and the Preventing Drug Diversion Act of2018 moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. This advancement puts both pieces in play to be tied to opioids come July. We could likely see the House combine all passed opioid bills into a package and send it to the Senate. The Senate could then add CREATES and the Preventing Drug Diversion Act of 2018, and potentially measures addressing the doughnut hole to the final opioid package. And this could all get done before August. We watch for signals this week to predict how it all plays out.