Frankfort, Ky: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is continuing to build on his work to help combat the opioid and substance abuse epidemic in Kentucky and throughout the nation. Today, he announced the introduction of his bill, the CAREER Act. CAREER stands for “Comprehensive Addiction Recovery through Effective Employment and Reentry.” Senator McConnell says many Kentucky employers cite substance abuse as a major hurdle to maintaining a full workforce. One study attributed roughly 25 percent of the decline in workforce participation between 1999 and 2015 to aspects of the opioid crisis. That amounts to about one million missing workers. The Trump administration reports the epidemic cost our economy half a trillion dollars in 2015 alone.

“Stable employment is not just a path to financial security for workers and families. Earning a paycheck from a job is also a link to personal happiness and even physical health. We see first hand in Kentucky the need for the structure and support that come with a  job to help keep former addicts from falling back into the cycle of addiction. According to the CEO of a treatment facility in Louisville, stable housing and employment are vitally tied to a an individuals recovery but unfortunately in the very communities where employment could do so much, the opioid crisis is making it harder to attain.”

The CAREER Act would establish a state-based pilot program to encourage local businesses and treatment groups to form partnerships to help individuals in recovery find and maintain employment. The legislation encourages expanding transitional housing options for recovering addicts until they secure permanent arrangements. Further, it gives states more flexibility to spend federal career services and training funds to support individuals transitioning from treatment to the workforce.

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