Shaheen Welcomes President’s Budget Proposal to Provide Additional Funding to Address Heroin and Opioid Crisis

**Announcement follows Shaheen’s letter to the White House calling for increased resources in the FY2017 budget to respond to the crisis**

**Shaheen continues to push for a vote on her $600 million emergency funding bill to address heroin crisis** 

(Washington, DC) – Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) welcomed the announcement by the White House that President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2017 Budget will include $1.1 billion in new funding to address the heroin and opioid abuse epidemic that is ravaging New Hampshire and much of the country. The announcement follows Shaheen’s call to the Obama administration to commit additional budgetary resources to support substance abuse prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery.

“The federal government needs to be doing much more to stem the tide of this pandemic, and I’m pleased that the President’s budget will reflect this urgency,” said Shaheen. “Our first responders and treatment providers are barely able to keep up. These resources can’t come soon enough. It’s critical that Congress work in a bipartisan way to get both emergency and long-term funding to the frontlines.”   

Shaheen will also continue to build Congressional support and push for a vote in the Senate on her emergency funding legislation that would provide $600 million to address the heroin and opioid abuse epidemic. Shaheen’s legislation would provide supplemental appropriations to programs at the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services. Last week, Shaheen testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on her legislation and the importance of allocating additional federal resources to support public health and law enforcement.

Details of President Obama’s proposal can be found here.