The White House strongly hinted Wednesday that more funding is needed to get President Obama to sign major opioid legislation being considered in Congress.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said he “cannot promise that the president would sign” legislation that doesn’t include funding to fight the opioid epidemic. Earlier on Wednesday, Democrats tried unsuccessfully to add $920 million to the opioid bill being considered by House and Senate lawmakers.
Earnest said that without the funding, the bill is doing “little more than paying lip service to the problem.”
A final bill hasn’t emerged from the conference committee of House and Senate lawmakers created to iron out differences in legislation that separately passed both chambers earlier this year.
Earnest stopped short of issuing a formal veto threat. “We’ll see what gets passed out of conference,” he said.
On Wednesday, Democrats pushed to add $920 million in funding offset from other programs to the compromise legislation. However, Republicans voted down the amendments from Democrats, saying that any discussion of more funds should be left to the appropriations process.
“This amendment is not the right way to do it,” said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., at the conference meeting.
