White House asks Congress for nearly $800 million to fight fentanyl crisis
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The White House on Thursday sent a $40 billion supplemental funding request to Congress, which included nearly $800 million allocated to combat the fentanyl crisis.
The funding appeal, signed by Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, also requested additional funding for Ukraine assistance, disaster relief efforts and border management.
Young specified in the letter that the resources going toward the Southwest border crisis will also contribute to reducing the “the influx of fentanyl across our borders and counter the threat fentanyl poses to our public health.”
Of the nearly $800 million requested, $350 million is planned to go to the Department of Health and Human Services for substance abuse treatment.
Roughly $323 million would be allocated to the Department of Homeland Security to subsidize fentanyl detection at the border and combat drug trafficking, while another $50 million would go to the Indian Health Service.
“This funding addresses the urgent need to expand substance use prevention and treatment services given that fentanyl-related deaths have risen dramatically over the last three years,” Young wrote in the appeal.
In February 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that more than 150 people die each day from overdoses connected to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.
That same month, President Joe Biden gave his State of the Union address, outlining a plan for the year ahead which included “disrupting the trafficking, distribution, and sale of fentanyl.”
“Two years into his administration, thanks to historic funding and bipartisan efforts, overdose death rates are flattening, access to treatment is expanding, and we are seizing historic amounts of fentanyl at our borders,” said Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
“Now is a critical inflection point. We are calling on Congress to help us continue taking aggressive action to stop drug trafficking and save lives,” he added in the statement, shared Thursday.
