New Hampshire’s congressional delegation described President Donald Trump’s move to declare the nation’s drug crisis a public health emergency as a “positive step,” but said additional resources are still urgently needed.
Calling it the “worst drug crisis in American history,” the Republican president made his declaration at a White House event that included Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan and GOP Gov. Chris Sununu.
“This epidemic is a national health emergency,” Trump said. “Nobody has seen anything like what is going on now. As Americans, we cannot allow this to continue. It is time to liberate our communities from this scourge of drug addiction.”
The president said he wanted Americans to know that “the federal government is aggressively fighting the opioid epidemic on all fronts.”
The public health emergency lasts 90 days, but can be renewed. It will urge public health agencies to redirect their existing resources to the drug crisis, cut bureaucratic delays in hiring key personnel, and allow the Department of Health and Human Services to waive regulations and give states more flexibility in how they use federal funds.
Sununu said he’s “hopeful that today’s announcement will also signal an ease in regulations so that New Hampshire has the flexibility needed to innovate.”
But the declaration doesn’t include any extra federal money that many states say is essential to battle the epidemic. And it doesn’t include some of the top priorities described by state and local officials, such as easier access to the emergency overdose treatment naloxone, commonly known as Narcan.
The president’s move is also smaller in scope that what his own opioid commission, headed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, had recommended. And it falls short of what the president said last week, and in August, when he declared that “we’re going to make it a national emergency.”
Shaheen said she was encouraged by Trump’s declaration and hoped that “we can work together to ensure that it includes a comprehensive plan and adequate resources to make it a success.”
“Though today’s announcement was a positive step, we need this declaration to be backed up by significant resources for those working tirelessly on the front lines,” New Hampshire’s senior senator added.
Shaheen also highlighted the dozens of campaign stops in the Granite State made by presidential candidate Trump during the 2016 campaign, in which he vowed to take action to end the epidemic if elected to the White House.
“President Trump promised significant support to end this epidemic, and we’re still waiting for meaningful follow through,” she added.
Hassan offered a similar message.
“While declaring the opioid crisis a public health emergency is a positive step forward in our efforts to combat this epidemic, additional resources are still urgently needed. It is now time for the President to put his words into action, starting with supporting our call for additional funding to those on the front lines in New Hampshire and across the United States who are combating this devastating crisis,” Hassan said.
And Hassan, who teamed up with Shaheen on Wednesday to urge the president to lower costs for opioid overdose reversal drugs, stressed that Trump “should also use the public health emergency to immediately direct Health and Human Services to negotiate lower prices for naloxone.”
Rep. Annie Kuster, who represents the state’s 2nd Congressional District, called Trump’s declaration “a welcome step, one that I’ve been urging for months.”
But Kuster, a co-founder and ranking Democrat of the nearly 90-member strong House Bipartisan Heroin Taskforce, added that the “administration should commit to working with Congress to appropriate funding so that we can get the resources necessary to those on the front lines of this epidemic.”
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, the Democrat who represents New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, gave the president tepid praise.
“While declaring the opioid epidemic a public health crisis is a much smaller step than the national emergency declaration that President Trump promised, it is better than inaction,” Shea-Porter said.
“The Trump Administration needs to begin actively working with Congress to make a serious down payment on treatment and recovery facilities,” she added. “The Administration must also make sure New Hampshire starts getting our fair share of funding given the severity of this crisis in our state.”
New Hampshire ranks second in the country, behind West Virginia, in the number of opioid-related deaths per capita. And the Granite State ranks first in the nation for fentanyl-related deaths relative to its population.
The complaint that the state doesn’t receive its fair share of federal funding was echoed by Sununu.
“Those impacted the most, like New Hampshire, are on the front lines of this crisis and assistance should be proportionate to the size of our problem and not based on our population,” he said.
And he also called for bipartisanship in Washington to tackle the crisis, saying “I hope Congress will follow the President’s ‘call to action’ and respond in kind by working through the barriers that prevent the fast and efficient flow of funds to communities that need the most help.”
But Sununu, New Hampshire’s first Republican governor in a dozen years, complimented Trump, saying “The President has been focused on addressing the opioid issue since taking office and today’s declaration further underscores his recognition of the severity of this issue.”
Trump referenced the Granite State in his comments, spotlighting Manchester’s ‘Safe Stations’ program and the city’s fire Chief Dan Goonan, who was at the White House event.
“We are inspired by the stories of everyday heroes who pull their communities from the depths of despair through leadership and through love. Fire Chief Dan Goonan of New Hampshire, great state, runs a program, Safe Station, which allows drug-dependent residents to seek help at fire stations at any time,” the president said.