DRUGS/HHS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump overrode his own advisers when he promised to deliver an emergency declaration next week to combat the nation’s worsening opioid crisis…
Blindsided officials are now scrambling to develop such a plan, but it is unclear when it will be announced, how or if it will be done, and whether the administration has the permanent leadership to execute it, said two administration officials.
‘They are not ready for this,’ a public health advocate said of an emergency declaration after talking to Health and Human Services officials enlisted in the effort.
Trump’s off-script statement stunned top agency officials, who said there is no consensus on how to implement an emergency declaration for the drug epidemic, according to interviews with officials from the White House, a half dozen federal agencies, state health directors and lobbyists…
Members of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, budget director Mick Mulvaney and former HHS Secretary Tom Price opposed the plan for months because of the multibillion-dollar price tag, legal issues and questions about how it would be implemented, according to White House officials. Price argued that the government could respond efficiently without taking such a step.”
-Brianna Ehley, Josh Dawsey, and Sarah Karlin-Smith, “Blindsided Trump officials scrambling to develop opioid plan,” Politico, Oct. 20, 2017 05:06am