Foster Statement on Declaration of Opioid Crisis as a Public Health Emergency

WASHINGTON, DC - I applaud President Trump's decision to declare what too many communities in Illinois and across American already know – the opioid crisis is a public health emergency. But if President Trump is serious about helping the individuals and their families who suffer from opioid dependence, he needs to commit the financial resources that communities need to fight it. He also needs to strengthen the Affordable Care Act and oppose Republican budget cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, which are crucial to providing treatment options to individuals who struggle with opioid dependency.

The Trump Administration should also fund scientific research that has helped us understand the science of addiction and develop new lifesaving treatments instead of cutting it from budget proposals. The National Institutes of Health conducts research critical to this crisis, and the President's FY2018 budget would cut funding to NIH by over 20 percent. Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois has also performed groundbreaking research on G coupled protein receptors to understand the brain's response to drugs, and the Trump budget proposed major cuts to the Department of Energy that funds Argonne.