Pallone & Conyers: Trump’s Opioid Announcement Is Meaningless without Additional Funding

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 26, 2017



Washington, D.C. – Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Judiciary Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI) today released the following statement in response to President Trump’s declaration that our nation’s opioid crisis is a public health emergency:

“President Trump’s announcement today falls far short of the recommendations of his own commission, and is essentially meaningless because it does not provide any new funding to fight an epidemic that is killing 91 Americans every day. The opioid crisis continues to grow, cutting lives short, tearing families apart and leaving people in communities all around our nation with few places to turn as they struggle to find treatment.

“Despite his previous claims that the opioid crisis is a ‘national emergency,’ the President’s announcement today does not unleash the financial resources necessary to end this epidemic. Instead it simply allows the federal agencies to shift already limited resources away from other public health programs. This is not the way to fight an epidemic of this magnitude.”