Back in August, President Trump declared a national public health emergency in response to the opioid crisis. However, Trump didn’t go much further than that, which left people wondering what the administration’s plan was for combating opioid addiction. The declaration never happened, though, and the issue fell off the White House agenda because of a number of different scandals and literal and figurative disasters, but that didn’t stop Trump from abruptly announcing this week that there was a plan ready to announce. The only problem? He didn’t tell anyone else about it.
Like a lot of initiatives and the administration in general, it sounds like no one was prepared for this announcement. Via Politico:
Blindsided officials are now scrambling to develop such a plan, but it is unclear when it will be announced, how or if it will be done, and whether the administration has the permanent leadership to execute it, said two administration officials.
“They are not ready for this,” a public health advocate said of an emergency declaration after talking to Health and Human Services officials enlisted in the effort.
Trump’s off-script statement stunned top agency officials, who said there is no consensus on how to implement an emergency declaration for the drug epidemic, according to interviews with officials from the White House, a half dozen federal agencies, state health directors and lobbyists.
According to Politico, budget director Mick Mulvaney and now-former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price balked at declaring a national emergency because of the billion-dollar price tag that any such plan would entail. Eventually, President Trump lost interest until Chris Christie reminded him that he had promised to fight opioids.
However, there has been no advanced coordination, so no one at the FDA or Health and Human Services, for example, seems to know who is taking charge if an emergency declaration is made and whether other agencies have even formulated plans.
As the White House has been slow to act, several states have issued their own emergency declarations in order to divert resources to better help their opioid-stricken communities, such as by increasing access to naloxone, a drug that reverses overdose symptoms.
(Via Politico)