SEN MAGGIE HASSAN: Trump could be surrendering one of our strongest weapons in the fight against fentanyl

PROGRAMMING ALERT: Watch Sen. Maggie Hassan discuss this topic and more on "America's Newsroom" on Monday, April 14.

The Trump administration recently released an intelligence report declaring that illicit fentanyl ranks among the top threats to our security. I agree. And that’s why I’m alarmed that the Trump administration is poised to ignore its own report and surrender one of our strongest weapons in the fight against fentanyl: Medicaid.

My home state of New Hampshire and communities all across our country have been hit hard by the fentanyl crisis. Despite my many strong disagreements with President Trump, we were able to come together during his first term on a bipartisan basis to go after fentanyl traffickers. We developed a multipronged strategy which included strengthening border security to choke off the flow of drugs, giving local law enforcement the tools that they need to protect our communities, and making it easier for more people who struggle with addiction to get treatment.

That last part is especially important because the more people who get into and stay in recovery, the lower the demand is for fentanyl. What many people may not realize is that every day people nationwide get access to addiction treatment thanks to Medicaid coverage, especially coverage offered under what is known as Medicaid Expansion. Prior to Medicaid Expansion, many people who suffered from addiction couldn’t get health insurance, let alone coverage for addiction treatment.  But today they can.  Yet President Trump and congressional Republicans plan to slash Medicaid – and gut Medicaid Expansion – in order to pay for tax giveaways to billionaires and corporate special interests. This will make it harder for people to get treatment and move into treatment and will only strengthen the power of the drug cartels.

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When I served as governor of New Hampshire, law enforcement officers were key supporters in our effort to strengthen Medicaid, because they knew first-hand that getting people into recovery – often thanks to medication-assisted treatment for addiction, the gold standard of care – was a key way to cut off the demand for deadly drugs.

One of my roles in the Senate is serving as the ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee, which recently published a new report detailing the importance of Medicaid in the fight against addiction and fentanyl. Our analysis finds that roughly one million people nationwide receive medication-assisted treatment for addiction through Medicaid. And this treatment is working: the most recent data available shows an approximately 25 percent drop in overdose deaths nationwide in 2024 compared to 2023, the largest drop in years. We are finally identifying the most effective tactics in the fight against fentanyl and, at long last, seeing a glimmer of light in this dreadfully dark tunnel.

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But President Trump and his allies in Congress are poised to undo that progress by passing a budget that would pay for more tax giveaways for billionaires by gutting Medicaid. This plan would effectively end Medicaid as we know it and make health care unaffordable for millions of Americans. And it would leave many people who struggle with addiction unable to get the help that they need. In the end, the loss of this indispensable tool in the fight against fentanyl will make law enforcement’s job even harder, turn back the bipartisan progress that we have made, and cause more of our fellow Americans to fall into a spiral of addiction and despair.

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Fighting fentanyl shouldn’t be a partisan issue. The fentanyl crisis has hit red and blue states alike and devastated families of every political stripe. The most important job of government is keeping people safe – that’s why I’m always willing to work across party lines and stand up to anyone, no matter their party, in order to keep Granite Staters and Americans safe. I have taken on extreme voices in both parties to strengthen law enforcement, and as governor I helped hire more police officers to keep our communities safe. I also have supported bipartisan efforts to secure our border, efforts informed by my travels to our northern and southern borders and my conversations with border patrol and law enforcement officers on the ground.

Some of my Republican colleagues have expressed concerns about the efforts by the President and Republican Congressional Leadership to decimate Medicaid, and I know that many Americans who support the President, including those in New Hampshire, share these concerns and want the President to reverse course. There can be no surrender in the fight against fentanyl – not when tens of thousands of our fellow Americans are still dying from overdoses each year, not in a country as great as ours, not ever. Now is the time to put politics aside, listen to law enforcement officers and the administration’s own intelligence report, and come together to defend Medicaid so that we can protect our kids, prevent fentanyl trafficking, and get more Americans with addiction on the road to recovery.

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