{"id":104175,"date":"2018-06-27T07:58:04","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T12:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=104175"},"modified":"2018-06-27T07:58:04","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T12:58:04","slug":"congress-oks-browns-grandparents-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2018\/06\/27\/congress-oks-browns-grandparents-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress OKs Brown&#8217;s grandparents bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. &#8212;\u00a0U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown\u2019s\u00a0bipartisan bill to support grandparents now raising children in light of the opioid epidemic\u00a0is headed to President Trump\u2019s desk to be signed into law. Congress passed the final version of the bill last week. The\u00a0Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Act\u00a0is also sponsored by U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_88103\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-88103\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-88103\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Sherrod-Brown-headshot-5-2017.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"257\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-88103\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Sherrod Brown<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAmong the victims of the opioid epidemic are the kids whose parents are struggling with addiction or whose parents have been taken far too soon by this public health crisis,\u201d\u00a0said Brown (D-Ohio).\u00a0\u201cWe need to learn more about the challenges facing grandparents and other relatives in Ohio who have stepped up as caregivers, so we can support them as they raise these children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grandparents are stepping up into a parenting role increasingly as parents overdose or enter recovery for addiction. In response to this trend, the\u00a0Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Act\u00a0would establish a federal task force to support grandparents raising grandchildren to identify, coordinate, and share information and resources to help grandparents and other relatives who are stepping up to raise children meet the needs of kids in their care while maintaining their own health and well-being.<\/p>\n<p>The formation of this task force complements the March spending bill that was signed into law, which includes funding to ramp up response to the opioid epidemic. The package includes $65 million to fund opioid detection devices and equipment called for in Brown\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brown.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press\/release\/president-signs-browns-bipartisan-bill-to-keep-fentanyl-out-of-ohio-into-law\">INTERDICT Act<\/a>, which President Trump signed into law earlier this year. The devices will help Customs and Border Agents detect and stop dangerous drugs like fentanyl before they enter the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Brown also worked to ensure that Ohio will be among the first in line to receive the\u00a0opioid funding\u00a0included in the agreement. Brown originally announced $6 billion in opioid funding as part of the long-term spending agreement\u00a0Congress reached earlier this year. The spending package Congress passed allocates the first $3 billion of that money will be spent. At Brown\u2019s urging, the package specifically prioritizes the hardest-hit states, like Ohio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Submitted information WASHINGTON, D.C. &#8212;\u00a0U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown\u2019s\u00a0bipartisan bill to support grandparents now raising children in light of the opioid epidemic\u00a0is headed to President Trump\u2019s desk to be signed into law. Congress passed the final version of the bill last week. The\u00a0Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Act\u00a0is also sponsored by U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania) and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 22:37:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}