Senate approves bipartisan bill bolstering antidrug efforts

WASHINGTON — Responding to an urgent drug crisis that has contributed to more American deaths than car crashes, the Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a broad drug treatment and prevention bill, the largest of its kind since a law in 2008 that mandated insurance coverage for addiction treatment.

The bill — which passed 94-1 — is a boon for Republican senators in swing states, which have been hit particularly hard by the drug crisis.

While meaningful bipartisan legislation in the Senate is rare these days, Republicans and Democrats have found common ground over the last year on criminal justice and mental health issues.

The epidemic “is probably one of the most pressing public health issues facing American families across the country,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, one of dozens of senators who came to the Senate floor to praise the bill, which was sponsored by Portman and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.

An epidemic of abuse of prescription painkillers and heroin — often abused when the prescription drugs run out — has swept the United States, with overdose deaths quadrupling since the late 1990s.