The Overdose RADAR Act (S. 690) is a broad-federal package aimed at tightening the data, policy, and on-the-ground tools used to combat the fentanyl and opioid overdose crisis. Key elements include: expanding and standardizing data collection on overdoses (including postmortem toxicology and nationwide data sharing), elevating the Office of National Drug Control Policy to cabinet-level status and boosting interagency coordination, strengthening and adding new grant programs for states and localities to address opioid and stimulant misuse, launching a three-year wastewater surveillance pilot to detect illicit substances like fentanyl in communities, broadening the permissible uses of overdose-prevention funds (including administration of emergency overdose treatments), extending grants to schools to stock and administer emergency overdose drugs, and adding fentanyl test strips to the list of tools allowed under the Controlled Substances Act. The bill also requires clearer guidance on how overdose deaths should be recorded when they are not self-induced and includes provisions intended to reduce duplication across federal drug-control programs. Overall, the bill seeks to improve data quality, standardization, and funding for prevention and response, while expanding practical tools—such as school-based overdose medications and at-home or community testing strips—to curb overdose deaths. It also introduces policy shifts on data classification and interagency coordination that could affect how overdose cases are reported and managed across states.
Key Points
- 1Data and surveillance enhancements (Sec. 2)
- 2- Allows grants to states/localities to improve data on opioid-related overdoses, including postmortem toxicology, cross-system data linkage, electronic death reporting, and comprehensive fatal/nonfatal overdose data.
- 3National drug policy reform and coordination (Sec. 3)
- 4- Seeks to make the ONDCP a cabinet-level position and directs it to reduce grant-duplication, standardize data submissions (in coordination with health statistics and forensic labs), and issue guidance to classify certain non-self-induced overdoses as homicides when warranted; strengthens interagency coordination and changes certain procedural rules.
- 5State Opioid Response grants enhancements (Sec. 4)
- 6- Adds a requirement to assess challenges in addressing opioid and stimulant misuse, and adds “best practices” guidance to improve grant effectiveness.
- 7Wastewater surveillance pilot (Sec. 5)
- 8- A 3-year CDC-led, DOJ-partnered pilot to fund wastewater analysis in communities to detect the prevalence of illicit substances (e.g., fentanyl, xylazine).
- 9Grants for reducing opioid overdose deaths (Sec. 6)
- 10- Expands fund uses to cover administration of overdose interventions (not just prescribing) and broadens appropriations language to cover related sections.
- 11Grants for reducing overdose deaths in schools (Sec. 7)
- 12- Creates a new program (section 544A) to fund schools to administer emergency overdose drugs/devices, with requirements for trained personnel, accessible stock, on-site presence during hours, and state-level civil liability protections certifed by the state attorney general.
- 13Fentanyl test strips added to enforcement toolkit (Sec. 8)
- 14- Expands the Controlled Substances Act to explicitly include fentanyl test strips as an allowed item.