Politics
House Passes Bill Requiring Feds To Track Testing For Marijuana And Other Drugs In Hospital Emergency Rooms
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to study how prevalent drug testing for marijuana, fentanyl and other drugs is in hospital emergency departments.
The legislation from Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) was approved in a voice vote on the floor on Tuesday. The measure was considered under a procedure known as suspension of the rules, which does not allow for amendments and requires a two-thirds supermajority for passage.
The Senate approved similar legislation with differing provisions earlier this year, and now the two versions must be reconciled before potentially being sent to President Donald Trump.
The bill is known as “Tyler’s Law,” after Tyler Shamash, a 19-year-old who died following a fentanyl ingestion in 2018 and was not tested for the drug when brought to the hospital for a suspected overdose.
While the legislation, H.R. 2004, is largely focused on fentanyl, it says that within a year of passage the HHS secretary would need to complete a study to determine “how frequently hospital emergency departments test for fentanyl (in addition to testing for other substances such as amphetamines, phencyclidine, cocaine, opiates, and marijuana) when a patient is experiencing an overdose.”
The study would also need to look at costs associated with fentanyl testing, the potential benefits and risks of such testing and how it may impact patients’ experiences—including with respect to confidentiality and privacy protections and the patient-physician relationship.
The bill, which has 65 House cosponsors, says that within six months of completing the study, HHS would also need to issue guidance covering:
“(1) Whether hospital emergency departments should implement fentanyl testing as a routine procedure for patients experiencing an overdose.
(2) How hospitals can ensure that clinicians in their hospital emergency departments are aware of which substances are being tested for in their routinely-administered drug tests, regardless of whether those tests screen for fentanyl.
(3) How the administration of fentanyl testing in hospital emergency departments may affect the future risk of overdose and general health outcomes.”
“I am so pleased that Tyler’s Law passed the House,” Lieu said in a press release after the floor vote. “No family should have to endure the devastating loss that Tyler’s family experienced, especially when a simple fentanyl test could save a life.”
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Companion legislation from Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) was approved by the Senate in March—but not before being amended to remove the language that specifically lists marijuana and other drugs besides fentanyl. Instead, it directs HHS to study “how frequently hospital emergency departments test for fentanyl or fentanyl-related substances when a patient is experiencing an overdose, and test for other controlled substances related to such an overdose.”
Unlike the House bill, the HHS secretary would have three years to complete the study on hospital drug testing under the amended Senate proposal.
In April, a pair of Republican senators filed a separate bill that would require the federal government to track the cost of hospitalization due to marijuana use.
The Marijuana Impact on Medicaid Act of 2026 from Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE) would require the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to compile data on “Federal and State expenditures under the Medicaid program…that are attributable to costs incurred for providing medical assistance for inpatient hospital services, outpatient hospital services, and for services received at a hospital emergency room…related to marijuana use.”
The bill’s language is similar to two amendments Budd previously filed on the cannabis and hospitalization issue that didn’t end up being considered on the Senate floor.
