NYAPRS Note: The just released Congressional budget proposal includes an increase of $4.65 billion to addressing the opioid epidemic across the federal government that includes $500 million for NIH to research opioid addiction, alternative pain management methods and treatment and $1 billion more to fund the creation of a new state opioid response grant. Lawmakers allocated $1.5 billion for mental health programs at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and they are increasing the division’s funding for opioid programs by $185 million.
Hear more about these initiatives directly from new Assistant HHS Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz and former advisor to the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment Tom Coderre at NYAPRS’ upcoming Executive Seminar. See program and registration details at 2018 Executive Seminar Brochure and https://rms.nyaprs.org/event/?page=CiviCRM&q=civicrm/event/register&reset=1&id=26
Lawmakers Release Huge Budget; Big Military, Domestic Boosts
federalnewsradio.com March 22, 2018
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional leaders finalized a sweeping $1.3 trillion budget bill Wednesday that substantially boosts military and domestic spending but leaves behind young immigrant “Dreamers,” deprives President Donald Trump some of his border wall money and takes only incremental steps to address gun violence….
Leaders still hoped to start voting as soon as Thursday. A stopgap measure may be needed to ensure federal offices aren’t hit with a partial shutdown at midnight Friday when funding for the government expires.
….On guns, leaders agreed to tuck in bipartisan provisions to bolster school safety funds and improve compliance with the criminal background check system for firearm purchases. The bill states that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can do research on gun violence, though not advocacy, an idea Democrats pushed.
But there was no resolution for Dreamers, the young immigrants who have been living in the United States illegally since childhood, but whose deportation protections are being challenged in court after Trump tried to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
Democrats temporarily shut down the government earlier this year as they fought for that protection. But the issue only rose to a discussion item when Trump made a late-hour push for a deal in exchange for $25 billion in border wall funds.
Instead, Trump is now poised to win $1.6 billion for barriers along the border, but none of it for the new prototypes he recently visited in California. Less than half the nearly 95 miles of border construction, including levees along the Rio Grande in Texas, would be for new barriers, with the rest for repair of existing segments.
…The core purpose of the bill is to increase spending for military and domestic programs that have been sharply squeezed under a 2011 agreement that was supposed to cap spending. It gives Trump a huge budget increase for the military, while Democrats scored wins on infrastructure and other domestic programs that they failed to get under President Barack Obama.
….Both parties touted $4.6 billion in total funding to fight the nation’s opioid addiction epidemic, a $3 billion increase. More than $2 billion would go to strengthen school safety through grants for training, security measures and treatment for the mentally ill. Medical research at the National Institutes of Health, a longstanding bipartisan priority, would receive a record $3 billion increase to $37 billion. Funding was also included for election security ahead of the 2018 midterms.
Child care and development block grants would receive a huge $2.4 billion increase to $5.2 billion. And an Obama-era transportation grant program known as TIGER would see its budget tripled to $1.5 billion. Head Start for preschoolers would get a $610 million boost, while an additional $2.4 billion would go for child care grants.
Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Alan Fram and Matthew Daly contributed.