Advocates attended a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday that covered, in part, the Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act (CARA), which would expand addition and prevention treatment.

The consensus in the room was for more funding and stronger measures to fight opioid addiction, as well as greater access to addiction treatment and stricter rules for painkiller prescribing.

In 2014, more than 47,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kana Enomoto, Acting Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), said many Americans are not receiving treatment for addiction.

“We are facing a treatment gap of unacceptable proportions,” she said at the hearing. “As a nation, we will not stem the rising tide of this public health crisis if only two out of 10 people with an opioid use disorder get the treatment they need.”

CADCA and its coalitions have been strong supporters of CARA. Read more about CARA here.