GOP's Budget Proposal Threatens Opioid Crisis Battle

The Republican Study Committee, which represents 100% of House Republican leadership and about 80% of their members, released a budget that would severely cut critical funding for states to respond to the overdose epidemic.

More Americans between the ages of 18 and 49 die from opioid overdoses than any other cause. President Biden believes we should come together as Americans to do everything we can to fight the opioid crisis that is devastating millions of families in every state and community across the country. That's why the President has made beating the opioid epidemic a key priority in his Unity Agenda for the Nation and has called on Republicans and Democrats to work together to crack down on fentanyl trafficking and expand access to life-saving treatment for addiction.

Under President Biden's leadership, the Biden-Harris Administration has invested more funding and broken more barriers to treatment than any previous administration. That includes signing the bipartisan law that expanded the number of health care providers who can prescribe life-saving treatment for opioid use disorder by more than 1.8 million. And it includes fighting for the toughest, fairest bipartisan border security legislation in modern history to help strengthen our ability to stop fentanyl trafficking at the border.

In contrast, about 80% of House Republicans recently proposed a budget that would cut critical investments in families and communities by over 30 percent. That would include slashing funding for State Opioid Response Grants - the primary way the federal government helps states and territories fight the opioid epidemic. At a time when more than 27 million Americans had a drug use disorder in 2022, and when we are losing one American to drug overdose every five minutes, House Republicans are proposing to rip away life-saving treatment for opioid use disorder. These cuts are on top of the $4.5 trillion they want to cut from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, which would throw millions off their coverage and cut services for many more, including people who depend on these programs for mental health and substance use disorder care.

The State Opioid Response grant program provides critical funding for states and territories to increase access to medications for the treatment of opioid use disorder, and strengthen prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery support services for substance use disorder. Through this program, states have been able to provide treatment services to over 1.2 million people across the country since 2018. States have also been able to purchase approximately 10 million overdose reversal medication kits and reverse more than 550,000 overdoses using these grant funds.

But under House Republicans' latest budget proposal, nearly 39,000 fewer Americans across the country would be served by this critical program:

This analysis assumes an across-the-board reduction of roughly 31% compared to the currently enacted FY 2024 levels for non-defense discretionary (NDD) accounts. This aligns with the Republican Study Committee Budget, which would cut NDD base funding to $534 billion in FY 2025, a roughly 31% reduction from the funding provided in the enacted FY 2024 bills.