Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act

The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) was signed into law by President Obama on July 22, 2016. The bill was introduced by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Jim Sensenbrenner as the first major federal addiction act in 40 years.

Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act

Other short titles	Jason Simcakoski Memorial and Promise Act
Long title	An Act to authorize the Attorney General and Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to address the prescription opioid and heroin use crises, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	CARA
Nicknames	Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016
Enacted by	the 114th United States Congress
Effective	July 22, 2016
Citations
Public law	114-198
Statutes at Large	130 Stat. 695
Codification
Titles amended	42 U.S.C.: Public Health and Social Welfare 21 U.S.C.: Food and Drugs
U.S.C. sections amended	42 U.S.C. §§ 10513, 10803, 1320a-7k, 1320a-7m, 1320d-2, 1395b-3, 1395ddd, 1395iii, 1395w-10, 1395w-101, 1395w-104, 1395w-152, 1395x, 1396, 1396a, 1396r, 1396w, 1397bb, 243, 280g-3, 290bb, 290bb-1, 290dd, 3711, 3793, 3797aa, 3797s, 5101, 5104, 5106a 21 U.S.C. §§ 1521, 1903, 301, 321, 355, 355-1, 802, 812, 823, 829
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 524 by Sheldon Whitehouse (D–RI) on February 12, 2015 Committee consideration by Senate Judiciary Passed the Senate on March 10, 2016 (94-1 Roll call vote 34, via Senate.gov) Passed the House on May 13, 2016 (400-5 Roll call vote 193, via Clerk.House.gov) Reported by the joint conference committee on July 6, 2016; agreed to by the House on July 8, 2016 (407-5 Roll call vote 399, via Clerk.House.gov) and by the Senate on July 13, 2016 (92-2 Roll call vote 129, via Senate.gov) Signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 22, 2016

CARA authorizes over $181 million to respond to the epidemic of opioid use disorder and is intended to greatly increase both prevention programs and the availability of treatment programs. While this bill authorized prevention and treatment programs, funding for its provisions had to come through Congress's appropriations process.

In May 2017, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced grants totaling $2.6 million for recovery community organizations to build addiction recovery networks and engage in public education as authorized under CARA.