Wyden, Colleagues Demand Trump Administration Reverse Decision to Block Funding for Fentanyl Detection Strips

Wyden, Colleagues Demand Trump Administration Reverse Decision to Block Funding for Fentanyl Detection Strips

Letter follows HHS guidance blocking use of federal funds for harm reduction tools

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today led 10 of his Senate colleagues in calling on the Trump administration to reverse new guidance issued this week that ends the ability of federal grant recipients under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to use federal funding for test strips that detect fentanyl and other illicit drugs and help reduce overdoses and drug-related deaths.

"Your actions will directly undermine the work of law enforcement and put lives at risk," the senators wrote in their letter to Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. "Doing away with this mainstay of overdose prevention runs directly counter to this administration's own promises to crack down on the addiction epidemic in the United States. We demand that you reinstate this funding before American lives are lost as a direct result."

Because of the efficacy of fentanyl test strips, many state and county health authorities and law enforcement entities nationwide rely on them for counter-fentanyl strategies. In addition to fentanyl test strips, the Trump administration also ended funding for test strips that detect xylazine and medetomidine, both powerful veterinary sedatives, which are increasingly found in illicit fentanyl and contributing to overdose deaths.

In their letter, the senators further noted that less than five months ago, Donald Trump signed the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act into law with strong bipartisan support in the House and Senate, which expressly provides that federal grant funding be used for harm-reduction tools like test strips.

Joining Wyden in sending the letter were Senators Chris Coons, D-Del., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Ed Markey, D-Mass., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Tina Smith, D-Minn.

The letter can be found here.