GOP senators want $1.4 billion to fight opioid crisis

Sen. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsGOP: ‘It’s not going to stop us’ from passing tax bill Collins: ‘I have confidence in our health care system’ Senate Dems push Trump to keep Trump in office MORE (R-Maine) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann MurkowskiGOP: Trump administration may have been complicit in opioid epidemic, McCain says MORE (Alaska) have introduced a bipartisan bill to provide $1 billion to help fund treatment centers and other overdose prevention efforts for those at high risk of dying from opioids.

The bill would provide $750 million in federal funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other federal agencies that are leading efforts to fight the opioid crisis.

The funds would be allocated through the Centers of Disease Control Emergency Management, Health, and Emergency Services (CDC-HES) Emergency Management and Emergency Response Fund, which would provide up to $750,000 annually to those agencies for three years.

The House passed a bill to authorize $3.6 billion in emergency spending in the fiscal year that begins Sept. 30.

Republicans have said the funding is needed to help treat opioid-addicted Americans who are suffering from the deadly drug.

In December, President Trump told Congress he had directed the CDC to establish a task force to help combat the crisis.

“The president directed the Centers to create a taskforce on the opioid epidemic to develop strategies to combat the epidemic,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

“We also announced today that the Centers would begin implementing the President’s new ‘One More Chance’ strategy to address this epidemic by leveraging the $1 trillion in CDC funding.”