New Hampshire's Democratic senators want $25 billion to be spent over two years to stave off tens of thousands of overdoses from heroin and prescription painkillers.
The pair, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, say they would like to see the funding included in a spending deal being worked out between Congress and the White House. Shaheen told reporters that they are working to bring along support from other Democrats but had not talked to the White House about their proposal. She noted that negotiations on the bill had been occurring behind the scenes. The $25 billion is one of the first formal proposals to be released.
Congress has until Jan. 19 to pass a spending deal, though lawmakers may for the third time pass a short-term deal to keep the government fully functional until they can arrive at an agreement. Most of the delay is hinging on immigration issues, particularly the debate over how to address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, that allows young people who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children to stay, as well as President Trump's demand for border wall funding.
The Trump administration has declared the opioid crisis a "public health emergency" but has not put funding behind it. A proposal would come at a later date, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in December, but Congress would need to appropriate the funds.
The call for greater funding comes as drug overdoses have contributed to a decreased life expectancy in the U.S. Opioid overdoses, in particular, killed 42,249 people in 2016, according to mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public health experts, as well as first-line responders, have warned that several approaches will be needed to reverse the tide of deaths and have observed that people who have addictions tend not to be connected to treatment.
Shaheen and Hassan hope that their proposal for funding opioid treatment and prevention will be accepted in the larger funding package.
"This is a national public health emergency, and we still don't see a robust federal response," Shaheen said at a press conference Tuesday.
The amount is much higher than the $1 billion allocated by Congress in 2016 under the 21st Century Cures Act.
One of the Republican plans to repeal and replace Obamacare would have provided $45 billion toward the opioid epidemic over a decade. Shaheen pointed to the previous proposal, but added that hers included the assumption that Obamacare would remain in place. She pointed in particular to the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, which offers no-cost coverage in most states to people who make less than about $16,000 a year and pays for some costs associated with treatment.
Hassan called the $25 billion a "down payment."
"It will take years for us to turn the tide and beat this epidemic," she said.
