US House Panel Advances Bill To Track Marijuana And Fentanyl Testing In Emergency Rooms

A House committee has advanced legislation requiring federal health officials to study how often hospital emergency rooms test patients for fentanyl, marijuana and other drugs during suspected overdoses. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health approved the bill last month. It comes from Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and is named "Tyler's Law" after Tyler Shamash, a 19-year-old who died in 2018 from fentanyl ingestion after emergency room staff failed to test him for the drug when he was brought in for a suspected overdose. The measure, H.R. 2004, centers on fentanyl but also directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to complete, within a year of enactment, a study on how frequently emergency departments test overdose patients for fentanyl alongside other substances including amphetamines, phencyclidine, cocaine, opiates and marijuana. The study must also examine testing costs, potential benefits and risks, and effects on patients, including confidentiality, privacy protections and the patient-physician relationship. Within six months of finishing that study, the bill—which has 60 House cosponsors—requires HHS to issue guidance addressing whether emergency departments should make fentanyl testing routine for overdose patients, how hospitals can ensure clinicians know which substances their standard drug tests screen for, and how administering fentanyl tests in emergency rooms might affect future overdose risk and overall health outcomes. The House committee approved the bill without amendment via voice vote. A companion bill in the Senate, S. 921 from Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN), cleared the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in January—but only after lawmakers stripped language referencing marijuana and drugs other than fentanyl. The Senate version also gives HHS three years to complete its hospital testing study, compared to one year under the House bill. Separately, in April, Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE) introduced the Marijuana Impact on Medicaid Act of 2026, which would direct HHS to compile data on federal and state Medicaid spending tied to marijuana-related inpatient, outpatient and emergency room care. The bill's language resembles two earlier amendments Budd proposed on marijuana-related hospitalization costs that were never considered on the Senate floor.