Rep. David Trone says he learned this during visits to that part of his district.
Washington DC (KM). The opioid crisis is the number-one issue on the minds of residents in western Maryland, according to 6th District Representative David Trone (D), whose been visiting the region since he was elected in 2018. “I think it’s the most important priority for America,” he says.
Trone is the chairman of the bipartisan Freshmen Working Group on Addiction, which is composed of several freshmen Congress members who are working together to find solutions to this problem. “We’ll put together a lot of solutions and ideas we want get passed that will really help people with overdoses and deaths throughout the district,” he says.
Working group members will meet on a regular basis to hear from the experts and stakeholders, make site visits to institutions focusing on research and treatment, and promote legislation to tackle this epidemic, according a statement form Trone’s Congressional office.
There’s also a personal reason Trone says he’s taking up this issue. He says he had a 24-year-old nephew who died from an overdose in 2016. “No family should have to wrestle with this kind of grief, yet over 70,000 people died of drug overdoses last year,” Trone says in the statement from his office.
In an interview with WFMD News, Trone also said he’s working on an education initiative. After his election, he was assigned to the House Education and Labor Committee. “We just passed a 100-billion-dollar bill for education infrastructure,” he said. “We’re not only not investing in our roads and bridges, but our school infrastructure,” he says.”We don’t invest in our kids and our children, and we’re making a terrible mistake.”
“This bill will create almost two-million jobs, and it’s a big deal,” says Trone.
In other news, Trone said he plans to open a district office in Frederick on the Golden Mile. “In the past, it was always said folks in Frederick can drive to Gaithersburg in Montgomery County,” he said. “We feel like we need to be right there so we can answer the questions, help with VA concerns, Visa problems, Social Security problems. You can’t take care of the constituents if you aren’t where the constituents are.”
Trone says a lease has been signed for office space, and the local center should be opening very soon.
By Kevin McManus