Several Republican senators reacted to President Trump’s budget request Tuesday by highlighting just 0.0001 percent of its spending.
Ohio’s Rob Portman, himself a former White House budget director, and Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley were part of a group of lawmakers that praised the proposal for preserving hundreds of millions of dollars of grants in the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The money, which is budgeted inside the Executive Office of the President, would have been eliminated under a previous draft as reported by Politico in early May.
“I appreciate the fact that the White House has changed course and will support the work of the Office of National Drug Control Policy,” Portman said in a statement. “I had a productive conversation with OMB Director [Mick] Mulvaney recently about the work of the drug czar’s office, and I’m pleased the White House will support its essential programs to combat drug addiction.”
The primary grant programs of the ONDCP are for High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA), which claim the bulk of the funds, and Drug-Free Communities (DFC). The latter grants are targeted to youth. The White House had argued the spending, which totaled $345 million in the fiscal year 2017 continuing resolution, was duplicative of anti-drug efforts in other federal agencies. But a baker’s dozen of senators—including a powerful GOP trio of Portman, Grassley, and majority whip John Cornyn—wrote Mulvaney to dissuade him from the cuts. Central to their argument was combating opioid abuse: a priority to Trump, who established a presidential commission on the subject in March.
“Eliminating critical prevention and enforcement programs would endanger our efforts to confront the drug overdose epidemic that has gripped our nation,” the lawmakers wrote. More than 200 anti-drug groups rallied to their cause soon after.
The president’s budget lowers funding for the two grant programs by $3 million each: from $250 million to $247 million for HIDTA, and from $95 million to $92 million for DCP. Deep reductions to salaries and expenses for the drug policy office’s staff were also softened. A 40 percent drop from $20 million to $12 million is now a 10 percent drop to $18 million.
“I’m pleased the administration agrees that the right signal to send to the communities battling opioid addiction, methamphetamine, and other dangerous drugs is that the federal government appreciates their struggle and how they work to get the most bang for the buck out of the federal dollars sent their way,” Grassley said in a statement after the proposal was unveiled. The White House’s decision also caught the attention of West Virginia senator Shelley Moore-Capito, who was not a signatory of the letter to the OMB. But she couched her recognition among broad concerns about the administration’s aims.
“While I am pleased the administration has proposed funding to continue certain programs like those within the Office of National Drug Control Policy, I also have serious concerns about how the proposed cuts would affect West Virginians and others across the country,” she reacted on Tuesday. The budget introduces Medicaid spending reductions of more than $600 billion over the next decade, which do not account for $250 billion of projected but unrealistic savings from enacting the American Health Care Act. Portman and Capito have expressed reservations about the AHCA’s approach to Medicaid reform.
