SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, and 35 other U.S. mayors sent a letter to congressional leaders urging them to pass President Joe Biden’s supplemental funding request, which includes critical resources to address the fentanyl and synthetic opioid crisis on Tuesday.
“President Biden’s funding request gets at the heart of what we need –more funding for treatment to help those struggling with addiction and to prevent overdoses, and support for public safety and enforcement efforts to hold those accountable who are profiting off this deadly drug. This crisis requires partnerships at all levels of government, and I’m grateful for President Biden’s call for more support,” said Mayor London Breed.
President Biden’s supplemental funding request includes the following:
- $1.5 billion in grant funding to localities through the Department of Health and Human Services State Opioid Response grant program.
- $1.2 billion to crack down on the trafficking of illicit fentanyl and halt its passage through U.S. borders with additional enforcement and investigative personnel and cutting-edge detection technology.
“President Biden’s supplemental funding request takes a much-needed dual public health and public safety approach, helping those with substance use disorder access life-saving treatment options, while also deploying more resources to stop narcotics from entering our communities and holding traffickers accountable. This is the balance we need to save American lives and keep our cities safe, and I strongly urge congressional leaders to support this additional funding,” said Mayor Bruce Harrell.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2022, 100,000 Americans died from fatal overdoses—seventy percent of those deaths involved fentanyl or other synthetic opioids.
