Senate

GOP senator blasts ‘drastic’ WH cuts to anti-drug office

by Rebecca Savransky - 05/06/17 9:49 AM ET

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) on Friday criticized a reported White House proposal to cut nearly the entire budget for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

“I’ve known and worked with our drug czars for more than 20 years and this agency is critical to our efforts to combat drug abuse in general, and this opioid epidemic, in particular,” Portman said in a statement.

Portman noted the ONDCP supports the Drug Free Communities Act, legislation he authored in 1997.

It has “provided more than $1 billion to community drug coalitions around the country over the last 20 years, as well as the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program, which has helped states like Ohio that are ground zero for this problem,” he said.

{mosads}”We have a heroin and prescription drug crisis in this country,” he said, “and we should be supporting efforts to reverse this tide, not proposing drastic cuts to those who serve on the front lines of this epidemic.”

Reports surfaced last week the the White House is proposing slashing funding to the the ONDCP by about 95 percent, according to a lobbyist familiar with the plan.

The agency, created in 1988, is informally known as the drug czar’s office. It is charged with advising the president on drug-related issues, coordinating efforts to reduce drug use and creating an annual national drug control strategy.

The White House in a statement called the budget process a “complex one with many moving parts.”

“It would be premature for us to comment — or anyone to report — on any aspect of this ever-changing, internal discussion before the publication of the document,” the White House said in a statement.

“The President and his cabinet are working collaboratively to create a leaner, more efficient government that does more with less of tax payers’ hard-earned dollars.”

Trump has said he is committed to combatting the national opioid addiction epidemic. In March, he signed an executive order creating a commission to combat opioid addiction, helmed by Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.).

Portman made his work to fight opioid addiction a central piece of his reelection campaign last year.

Tags Rob Portman