Warren Questions Trump Administration on Ongoing Failures to Address Opioid Crisis
President Trump's Emergency Declaration Set to Expire for the Third Time; Administration Undermining Programs Critical to Fight Epidemic
Washington, DC - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.) questioned President Donald Trump on his "pathetic"
response to address the opioid crisis. Eight months after President Trump
declared the epidemic a "Nationwide Public Health Emergency," Senator
Warren wrote that the Trump Administration has "failed to take the actions
needed to meaningfully address this crisis ... (and has) continued to
substitute empty words and broken promises for real action and bold
ideas."
In her nine-page letter, Senator Warren criticized the budget, staffing,
implementation, and policy failures that have prevented the Trump
Administration from meeting the President's promise to "liberate our
communities from this scourge of drug addiction."
She asked President Trump for a list of all actions his Administration has
taken in response to the declaration of and extension of his emergency
declaration, whether he will extend the emergency declaration, and if so what
new steps his Administration will take as a result. Senator Warren also asked
for a status update on the implementation of the fifty-six recommendations made
by the President's Commission on Combatting Drug Addiction and the Opioid
Crisis and called for a prompt response to her other requests for information
on the qualifications of key personnel occupying leadership positions related
to the opioid crisis.
It has been eight months since the President's Commission on Combating Drug
Addiction and the Opioid Crisis issued its final report with fifty-six
recommendations, and the vast majority of them have yet to be
implemented. Experts and observers have noted that "nothing is
actually being done," and that the Commission has been "ignored entirely,"
and concluded that Administration efforts have been "ambiguous
promises" that are "falling far short of what is needed" and are
"not ... addressing the epidemic with the urgency it demands."
President Trump declared the crisis a public health emergency almost nine
months ago but has neither pursued a substantial commitment of federal money
nor put in place a clear strategy to combat the epidemic. There is also little
indication that the Administration has experienced personnel in place to
coordinate a clear strategy on the epidemic. President Trump assigned Kellyanne
Conway to "coordinate and lead" the White House opioid response
despite her lack of experience in public health or addiction policy. In
February, President Trump nominated James Carroll who also appears to have no
experience in public or behavioral health policy, to run the Office of National
Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Senator Warren has not received answers to her
questions about these individuals' qualifications. The Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) is now being run by its third acting head, and it took President Trump
eighteen months to nominate a permanent head of the agency.
President Trump and his Administration also continue to undermine the nation's
most valuable addiction-fighting programs like the Affordable Care Act and
Medicaid, and have proposed slashing the ONDCP budget by ninety-five percent,
cutting more than half of the funding for health workforce programs under HRSA,
slashing the Prevention and Public Health Fund, and cutting almost one-third of
funding for SAMHSA's Mental Health Programs of Regional and National
Significance grants.
Senator Warren requested that President Trump answer her questions by no later
than July 23, 2018.
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