President Donald Trump is set to announce his plan for fighting the opioid crisis when he visits New Hampshire on Monday.
But the president is not expected to address calls by the state’s all-Democratic congressional delegation and Republican governor to change the federal funding formula to prioritize grants to states like New Hampshire that are hardest-hit by drug epidemic.
The president is scheduled to make his announcement during an afternoon event at Manchester Community College. Trump will then make a stop at the Manchester Central Fire Station to get an up-close look at Safe Station, the program originated in Manchester that opens up the city’s 10 fire stations as intake centers for people seeking help battling drug and alcohol addiction – without the threat of arrest.
This will be the first trip by Trump to New Hampshire since the night before the 2016 presidential election.
Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway said the plan encompasses education and prevention, law enforcement, and treatment and recovery efforts.
“The president’s opioid initiative will reduce drug demand through education, awareness, and preventing overprescription; cut off the flow of illicit drugs across our borders and within our communities; and save lives now by expanding opportunities for proven treatment for opioids and other drug addictions,” Conway said during a conference call with reporters on Sunday evening.
A critical piece of the plan will be reducing the overprescription of opioids.
“Specifically, the plan will cut nationwide opioid prescription fills by one-third within years and increase the use of best practices for prescribing opioids in all federal health care programs including Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, VA, DOD, VA Choice Program, and others,” said Andrew Bremberg, an assistant to the president who serves as director of the Domestic Policy Council.
White House officials said Trump will also unveil plans to crack down on international and domestic drug supply chains.
Part of that effort includes toughening sentencing for drug traffickers, especially those peddling fentanyl, which is estimated to be at least 50 times stronger than heroin.
“The president will call on Congress to pass legislation that reduces the threshold amount of drugs needed to invoke mandatory minimum sentences for drug traffickers who knowingly distribute certain illicit opioids including fentanyl that is lethal in trace amounts,” Bremberg said.
“Additionally, the Department of Justice will seek the death penalty against drug traffickers when it’s appropriate under current law,” he added.
But White House officials deferred to the justice department for specifics on seeking the death penalty.
When it comes to treatment and recovery, Bremberg said, adjusting Medicaid rules will be part of the plan.
“President Trump will call on Congress to change the decades-old law that prohibits Medicaid from reimbursing residential treatment at certain facilities with more than six beds,” Bremberg said.
White House officials also said the president will announce beefing up support for drug courts – which have increased in number throughout New Hampshire and give high-risk, nonviolent offenders who are battling addiction a chance to avoid incarceration while they receive treatment and counseling.
The congressional delegation and Gov. Chris Sununu may be disappointed that there will be no announcement by the president on changing the federal funding formula.
Shaheen and Hassan co-sponsored a bill last November – known as the Targeted Opioid Formula Act – which would prioritize grants from Washington to states hit hardest by the heroin and opioid epidemic.
Sununu – the state’s first Republican governor in a dozen years – has also repeatedly urged the White House to change the current funding formula, which was drawn up under the Obama administration.
“Gov. Sununu hopes the president will acknowledge that states impacted the most by the opioid crisis should receive assistance proportionate to the size of the problem, enabling New Hampshire to tackle this crisis head-on,” Sununu spokesman Ben Vihstadt said Friday.
White House officials on Sunday said such changes would be considered in the future, but they did not indicate that the president would announce any changes during his visit to New Hampshire.
Sununu is scheduled to greet the president as he arrives at Manchester’s airport. The governor will attend the event at Manchester Community College, but it’s not clear if he’ll speak at that event, or even stand on stage with Trump.
Peter Evers, head of the largest provider of mental health services in central New Hampshire, said he hopes Trump doesn’t “make proclamations about solving the epidemic” without including new funding.
The Riverbend Mental Health CEO said New Hampshire needs “funding to get people treatment and recovery services that help people get sober.”
Evers – who’s also vice president of behavioral health at Concord Hospital – said if he could address the president, he’d ask for “coverage for vulnerable populations. Insurance coverage that gives people treatment.”
Trump’s visit to Safe Station is expected to once again put a spotlight on the program, to which he gave a shout-out last autumn during an event at the White House, Manchester fire Chief Dan Goonan standing behind him.
The program has become a first step toward recovery for thousands dealing with substance abuse. And it’s been copied by some cities in New Hampshire and across the country.
Serenity Place, an addiction treatment center in Manchester that took in 1,800 people through the Safe Station program, shut its doors after being overwhelmed and underfunded.
Evers pointed out that programs like Safe Station are bound to fail without funding.
“The Safe Station idea really contributed to the collapse of Serenity Place because there was no secure funding that was made available by the federal or the state government,” Evers said.
“I think there’s a big delta between what people have been willing to fund and pay for and the language that comes out of our politicians’ mouths which is, ‘We care about this disease.’ It doesn’t match up,” Evers said.
In his dozens of campaign stops in New Hampshire during the 2016 primaries and the general election, Trump often vowed to take action to help Granite Staters deal with the state’s drug crisis. The state has been hard-hit by the crisis and currently ranks third in the country, behind West Virginia and Ohio, in opioid-related deaths per capita, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At a large outdoor rally in Portsmouth just three weeks before Election Day in 2016, Trump vowed to help people living with addiction find treatment.
“We will not only stop the drugs from pouring in, but we will help all of those people so seriously addicted, Trump said. “We’ll get them assistance, we’ll make sure that they have the top treatment and get better. We’ve got to get them better.”
Trump has faced criticism for not following through on his pledge. The president’s declaration last autumn that the opioid epidemic was a national public health emergency included no extra federal money that many states say is essential in battling the epidemic. The president’s move was also smaller in scope than what his own opioid commission had recommended. And it fell short of what he had previously said when he declared he was “going to make it a national emergency.”
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen told the Monitor last week that “the Trump administration’s response to the opioid epidemic has been woefully lacking. Meanwhile, this epidemic continues to devastate families and communities all across our state.”
“I’ve been urging President Trump to follow through on his promise to New Hampshire, and I hope that during his visit here we’ll finally hear a detailed commitment to provide real resources, particularly for prevention, treatment and recovery,” the state’s senior senator added.
U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan was also critical of the administration’s efforts to date.
“While the White House often pays lip service to this crisis, so far we have not seen those words backed up by real action. I want to see a commitment from the president to implementing the recommendations of his own opioid commission,” Hassan said.
Congresswoman Annie Kuster, who represents the state’s 2nd District, noted that the president has repeatedly pledged to battle the drug crisis, but “unfortunately, his actions have fallen short of his words.”
Kuster, a co-founder and co-chair of the Bipartisan Heroin Task Force, said she remains “encouraged that the president heeded the bipartisan call to declare the opioid epidemic a public health emergency. But he needs to show leadership and work with Congress to replenish the public health emergency fund to make that declaration truly effective.”
While the White House said it invited all four Democrats in New Hampshire’s congressional delegation to attend the event at Manchester Community College, none will be there in person.
With both the House and the Senate in session on Monday afternoon and evening, Shaheen, Hassan, Kuster and Rep. Carol Shea-Porter will be in Washington.
The president’s trip to New Hampshire comes the same week that Congress is expected to authorize $6 billion in federal funding to help the states fight the opioid epidemic. That would be a sixfold increase over current federal funding.
The money was included in a massive budget deal passed by Congress last month to avert a federal government shutdown. Congress is expected to vote in the next few days on the official $1 trillion spending bill, which would keep the government afloat at least through the end of September.