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“Did the declaration of a public health emergency for opioids make any additional funding available to expand treatment for individuals for overdose to provide services for people in recovery?” she asked.
But Ocasio-Cortez is making a highly misleading comparison. Here’s what’s going on.
Earlier this year, Trump demanded $5.7 billion to fund his proposed border wall. Congress refused to do so, even after Trump engineered a lengthy government shutdown. So he declared a national emergency and said he would transfer funds from other agency accounts. Ultimately, the courts will sort out whether he has the power to override the congressional control of the purse.
In the case of the opioid crisis, Trump in August 2017 acted on the recommendations of a task force on the crisis and “instructed his administration to use all appropriate emergency and other authorities to respond to the crisis caused by the opioid epidemic,” the White House said. In October 2017, acting health and human services secretary Eric D. Hargan said that, at Trump’s instruction, he had declared a “nationwide public health emergency.” The declaration has been renewed five times.
Such declarations allow the HHS secretary to take a variety of steps, including using money appropriated for the Public Health Emergency Fund.
After the declaration, Congress appropriated more than $6 billion to combat the opioid crisis, including $4.4 billion in the fiscal 2019 spending bill. The bill included $1.5 billion in state response grants, $500 million for research, $475.6 million for prescription drug overdose prevention, $120 million for rural communities and $89 million for medication-assisted treatment for addiction; it also gave the director of the National Institutes of Health the ability to transfer funds “specifically appropriated for opioid addiction, opioid alternatives, pain management, and addiction treatment.”
But Ocasio-Cortez is making a highly misleading comparison. Here’s what’s going on.
Earlier this year, Trump demanded $5.7 billion to fund his proposed border wall. Congress refused to do so, even after Trump engineered a lengthy government shutdown. So he declared a national emergency and said he would transfer funds from other agency accounts. Ultimately, the courts will sort out whether he has the power to override the congressional control of the purse.
In the case of the opioid crisis, Trump in August 2017 acted on the recommendations of a task force on the crisis and “instructed his administration to use all appropriate emergency and other authorities to respond to the crisis caused by the opioid epidemic,” the White House said. In October 2017, acting health and human services secretary Eric D. Hargan said that, at Trump’s instruction, he had declared a “nationwide public health emergency.” The declaration has been renewed five times.
Such declarations allow the HHS secretary to take a variety of steps, including using money appropriated for the Public Health Emergency Fund.
After the declaration, Congress appropriated more than $6 billion to combat the opioid crisis, including $4.4 billion in the fiscal 2019 spending bill. The bill included $1.5 billion in state response grants, $500 million for research, $475.6 million for prescription drug overdose prevention, $120 million for rural communities and $89 million for medication-assisted treatment for addiction; it also gave the director of the National Institutes of Health the ability to transfer funds “specifically appropriated for opioid addiction, opioid alternatives, pain management, and addiction treatment.”
I see the fine hand of Nancy Pelosi in this.
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