{"slug":"trump-opioid-crisis-declaration-no-funding","title":"Opioid Crisis: Declared Emergency Without Funding, Commission Recommendations Ignored","date":"2017-10-26","lastUpdated":"2018-03-26","description":"In October 2017, Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency — but did not unlock the emergency funding mechanisms that the declaration was supposed to trigger. The President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, chaired by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, had issued 56 recommendations including declaring a national emergency; Trump chose a lesser designation that avoided new federal spending. More than 70,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2017 alone. The administration's response was widely criticized as inadequate.","summary":"The Christie Commission had explicitly recommended declaring a national emergency under the Stafford Act or the Public Health Service Act, which would have freed up billions in emergency funding and allowed waiver of normal bureaucratic requirements. Trump instead declared a 'public health emergency' under a different statute (the Public Health Service Act § 319), which allowed no new money unless Congress appropriated it. Congress had not appropriated it. The declaration was described by public health experts as largely symbolic. Drug overdose deaths continued to rise throughout Trump's term.","category":"rule-of-law","severity":"critical","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/us/politics/trump-opioid-emergency.html","title":"Trump Declares Opioid Crisis a 'Public Health Emergency'","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-opioid-commission-recommends-declaring-national-emergency/2017/11/01/4bfbfe0e-bf4e-11e7-8444-a0d4f04b89eb_story.html","title":"Christie Commission: Declare national emergency on opioids","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/trump-opioid-emergency-declaration-no-funding","title":"Trump's opioid emergency carries no new money","publisher":"The Associated Press"},{"url":"https://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/opioid-crisis/index.html","title":"Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General's Report on Opioids","publisher":"U.S. Surgeon General"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["opioid","public-health","first-term","emergency","deaths","Christie"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2017-07-31","title":"Christie Commission calls for national emergency declaration","summary":"The President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis releases its interim report, explicitly calling on Trump to declare a national emergency under the Stafford Act to unlock emergency federal funding."},{"date":"2017-10-26","title":"Trump declares public health emergency — no new money","summary":"Trump declares the opioid crisis a public health emergency under PHSA Section 319. Public health experts note the declaration unlocks no new funding; Congress had not appropriated emergency funds for opioid response."},{"date":"2017-11-01","title":"Christie Commission final report — 56 recommendations","summary":"The Christie Commission issues its full final report with 56 recommendations, most of which are not acted upon. The commission noted that current treatment capacity serves only one in ten people with opioid use disorder who need treatment."},{"date":"2018-03-26","title":"Trump proposes death penalty for drug dealers","summary":"Trump releases a plan that includes seeking the death penalty for major drug traffickers — a proposal experts say has no evidence base for effectiveness and that is not implemented."}],"location":{"name":"Washington, D.C.","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"reported","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"70,000+ Americans who died of drug overdoses in 2017; millions of Americans with opioid use disorder who lacked access to treatment; communities devastated by the epidemic","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"President; chose symbolic emergency declaration over substantive one; failed to act on commission recommendations","institution":"White House"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2018-03-26","summary":"Updated with death penalty proposal."}]}}