michael bottecelli, the director of national control policy came to congress a few years ago and thanked congress for including funding in the spending bill saying we appreciate that congress provided more than $400 million in the fiscal 2016 appropriations act, specifically to address the opioid epidemic, an increase of more than $100 million from the previous year. botticelli went on to say there's clear evidence that a comprehensive response like that of cara is tremendously important. he said that the provisions in cara are critically important to make headway in terms of this epidemic. let's now -- let's not allow this issue to get tangled up in politics. it's really too important to each of our states. let's do our part today to help those in recovery take their lives back. let's help keep families together and kids safer, to help prevent more americans from suffering at the hands of addiction. let's put politics aside and continue to work to pass the comprehensive addiction and recovery act which would be an important step forward in the fight against our national opioid and heroi