Congress has already authorized $6 billion to be spent on the issue through the budget deal that it approved earlier this month. It's now up to Congress to decide what types of programs it wants to spend that money on, and whether it want to boost funding further, as drug treatment advocates have urged.

Walden hopes to get a bill crafted and approved by the House by the end of May. It would still need to pass the Senate and be signed by President Trump.

The opioid epidemic has emerged as one of the few issues where there is strong potential for bipartisan agreement. However, it is far from assured that a bill authored by House Republicans will earn the support of Democrats or even all Republicans. Getting strong bipartisan backing is particularly important in the Senate, where any measure will likely need 60 votes to break a filibuster.

There may very likely be a difference of opinion about what types of programs the federal government should be focusing on. The opioid epidemic has led many Republicans to revisit rethink their emphasis on law enforcement over treatment, but most are not yet willing to abandon the war on drugs.

Indeed, a bill proposed by Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., is aimed at allowing the federal government to classify synthetic opioids as controlled substances. Liberal groups have said that that will lead to more arrests and prison sentences without addressing the underlying causes of addiction.

One bill that is sponsored by Reps. Tim Wahlberg, R-Mich., and Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., aims to prevent patients from doctor-shopping for prescription meds by making it easier for providers to access patients' drug history.

There are divisions in Congress over the responsibility the pharmaceutical industry bears for opioid addiction and what, if anything, the government should do in response. One upcoming hearing will focus on regulation of wholesale pharmaceutical distributors and whether they are doing enough to prevent their products from flowing into the black market.

Finally, Democrats have pointed to the epidemic as yet another reason that states should expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans, of course, do not concur. In some cases they argue that Medicaid has made the problem worse by providing low-income patients access to powerful pain killers.