ICYMI: Senator Murray Meets with Mayors of Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Vancouver to Discuss Fentanyl Crisis, Solutions
***PHOTOS AND B-ROLL of today’s event HERE***
***AUDIO from roundtable HERE***
Everett, WA – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, hosted a roundtable at the Everett Fire Station with local officials to discuss federal investments to combat the opioid epidemic in communities like Everett and across the country. Murray was joined by Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin, Sergeant David Sinex of the Everett Police Department, Everett Fire Department Assistant Chief Paul Gagnon, and other local stakeholders—including from the Everett Drug Crisis Task Force. Last week, Senator Murray discussed the opioid epidemic devastating communities across Washington state with the mayors of Seattle, Everett, Tacoma, and Vancouver.
As Senator Murray fights to protect and strengthen national investments to tackle the opioid epidemic, she is also fighting to secure $4.5 million in Fiscal Year 2024 Congressionally Directed Spending for the City of Everett to develop an alternative response team that responds to individuals experiencing behavioral and mental health crises with community resources and services.
“This is an issue that communities across our entire state are struggling with—so it’s important for me to hear directly from people on the ground about what you are seeing and how I can work in the Senate to get you the federal resources you need,” said Senator Murray. “I’ve worked across the aisle to get more resources and tools to our communities so they can invest in the programs they are seeing do the most good, but I know full well that Congress needs to be doing a lot more.
“I was frustrated to see Republicans scrap major bipartisan investments we negotiated to stop the flow of fentanyl at the request of Donald Trump,” continued Senator Murray. “As we negotiate our final funding bills for this year, I have made it clear that shortchanging our response to the opioid epidemic is not an option. Still, we are working under really difficult fiscal constraints, but I will continue to fight for major federal investments to strengthen our response to this crisis from every angle: treatment, prevention, stopping fentanyl from getting to our communities in the first place, and more.”
“The fentanyl crisis continues to have negative impacts our community, including our first responders,” said City of Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin. “Addressing the prevalence of these deadly drugs and the effects of use, including overdoses, puts serious strain on our emergency response resources. I want to thank Senator Murray for listening to our challenges and advocating to get cities the resources we need to help those who are struggling and keep our communities safe.”
“The firefighters, paramedics, and social workers at Everett Fire are at the forefront of the fentanyl crisis every day. They witness firsthand the devastating impact of the crisis on our community as they respond to overdose emergencies daily. It is not uncommon for them to respond to multiple overdose incidents in different parts of the city, making their job even more challenging. We appreciate Senator Murray’s support and advocacy in helping our city obtain the necessary resources to combat this crisis,” said Assistant Fire Chief Paul Gagnon and the Everett Fire Department.
As Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Murray has made addressing the opioid epidemic and the fentanyl crisis a priority in the annual government funding bills. Senator Murray secured a $125 million boost for substance use disorder treatment and prevention in the draft Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations legislation that passed through Committee in July, as well as additional funding to support NIH research into opioid misuse, improve the detection and seizure of fentanyl and other narcotics at ports of entry, and disrupt transnational criminal organizations and stop fentanyl and other illicit drugs at their source. Senator Murray is currently negotiating final funding bills for Fiscal Year 2024 with the House.
Senator Murray led passage earlier this month of the Senate’s national security supplemental package, which included the FEND Off Fentanyl Act—legislation to help U.S. government agencies more effectively disrupt illicit opioid supply chains and penalize those facilitating the trafficking of fentanyl.
In the last major government funding legislation, signed into law in December 2022, Senator Murray secured the inclusion of a mental health and substance use disorder package she negotiated to bolster states’ response efforts to address the opioid epidemic and increase access to substance use disorder treatment and naloxone for overdose reversal, among other things. Also in that legislation, Murray secured an additional $345 million—for a total of $5 billion—to address the opioid epidemic. In the annual funding bill before that, Murray secured a $300 million boost for the Department of Health and Human Services’ work to address substance use disorders, by funding State Opioid Response Grants, overdose prevention work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among many other things.
As the top Democrat on the Senate HELP Committee in the 115th Congress, Senator Murray negotiated and passed into law the largest-ever federal legislation to tackle the opioid epidemic—the SUPPORT Act. Senator Murray is working to reauthorize that bipartisan legislation now.
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