Relating to the opioid settlement fund, creating the opioid settlement future fund, establishing the opioid epidemic response advisory council, making appropriations, and including effective date provisions

Interest and earnings on moneys in the opioid settlement future fund shall be credited to the fund, and moneys in the fund that remain unencumbered or unobligated at the close of a fiscal year shall not revert. Interest and earnings in the fund shall be appropriated only for purposes of abating the opioid crisis in this state, including for the funding of grants described in the bill. The bill instructs the advisory council to focus on matters relating to opioid addiction and overdoses, governmental responses to opioid addiction and overdoses, and providing metrics by which such responses can be measured. The bill provides specific membership requirements for the advisory council and requires the department of health and human services (department) to provide staffing and administrative support to the advisory council. The bill requires the advisory council to identify projects related to opioid addiction and overdoses that should be awarded grants from the opioid settlement fund and opioid settlement future fund. The legislative council shall then award grants to the projects that address the priorities identified in the bill. From among those projects awarded grants, the bill requires the advisory council to identify projects that include promising practices or theory-based activities for which the director of the department shall conduct additional research and experimental evaluation. The bill requires the chairperson of the advisory council to annually report to the general assembly regarding grants proposed by the advisory council and the advisory council and the director of the department of management to annually report to the general assembly regarding the efficacy of individual projects and the progress made with respect to the benchmarks established by the advisory council. The annual report due to be submitted by the advisory council by January 31, 2030, shall include the advisory council’s recommendations regarding the continuation of grants and appropriations from the opioid settlement fund. The bill appropriates $249,000 to the department annually from the opioid settlement fund for the provision of administrative services to the advisory council and for the administration of awarded grants. The bill also appropriates $6,834,680 to the department for the extension and expansion of an opioid addiction prevention surgery support services agreement entered into by the Iowa attorney general’s office, effective as of October 1, 2022, to provide surgery care management services for 10,000 patients to facilitate the reduction of post-surgery opioid use and to optimize therapeutic, humanistic, and economic results from surgery and surgical recovery, $150,000 to the department for providing funding to the first responder fund, and $3 million for the establishment of a youth substance use treatment and recovery campus in a central Iowa county with a population between 98,000 and 99,000 based on the 2020 federal decennial census. The bill takes effect upon enactment.