Iowa House lawmakers advanced a proposal to spend the state’s millions in opioid settlement funds which would require local mental health regions to submit their proposals on how to spend the funds to a new state board.
The bill, House Study Bill 331, is Iowa House lawmakers’ solution to a yearslong stalemate on how to spend the state’s opioid funds.
Currently, there is $56 million sitting unspent in the state fund, and the state is expected to receive $325 million through 2039.
The funds come from a nationwide settlement in a class action lawsuit that Iowa participated in against opioid manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacists. The settlement totaled $26 billion nationally and will be paid out over 18 years. Most states are using the funds to combat drug and opioid addiction.
Iowa Rep. Gary Mohr, R-Bettendorf, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, introduced the bill and said it calls for a “bottom up” solution to the crisis that emphasizes the knowledge that local service providers have.
“We also do not know the particular needs of Iowa communities when it comes to responding to opioid abuse,” Mohr said. “Spencer is different from Burlington. Dubuque is different from Council Bluffs, and we don’t know the differences of the uniqueness here.”
Under the bill, local mental health regions would submit requests for funding from the opioid settlement fund to an evaluation panel for approval. The panel would have jurisdiction over $9.1 million annually to distribute among the seven mental health regions in the state.
Mohr said he is looking for input on how to distribute the money among the regions and that the bill is a work in progress.
The dollars are earmarked to help local service providers facilitate crisis response, early intervention, treatment, and recovery of opioid addiction in the mental health regions.
The panel that approves the funds will be made up of the Director of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, Kelly Garcia, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, and the drug policy director of the Office of Drug Control Policy.
The bill would also appropriate $3.9 million to Iowa HHS annually for statewide initiatives and to conduct evaluations of programs approved under the bill.
The bill is markedly different from the Iowa Senate version of the bill, which involves the legislature more directly by requiring state agencies to submit proposals to the legislature annually for money from the fund.
Mohr said he wanted to receive more local input in the process.
Iowa Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, D-Waterloo, and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, said the bill is making some good steps forward after lawmakers have failed to spend any of the money from the fund for years.
“I’m happy that the House is taking the initiative to really serve Iowans in the bottom-up approach, the local approach,” Brown-Powers said. “Looking forward to some positive things this year, and it’s time for Iowans to move forward.”