Washington, D.C. -Today, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, announced that James Carroll, the Director of the Office of the National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), has agreed to testify at a hearing on Feb. 27, 2020. The hearing will examine the recently released 2020 National Drug Control Strategy and the Administration’s response to the ongoing drug epidemic.
Chairwoman Maloney issued a statement following the release of the 2020 National Drug Control Strategy today:
“I look forward to reviewing the 2020 Strategy and hearing directly from Director Carroll about concrete steps the Administration is taking to address the ongoing epidemic-particularly the need to expand access to evidence-based treatment. I’m encouraged by the recent decline in drug overdose deaths in 2018, but we are in the midst of the worst public health crisis in decades. This crisis claimed more than 67,000 lives in 2018 alone, so it’s clear that our work is far from over."
Background:
* For two years, the Trump Administration had no drug control strategy-even though the Administration was required by law to issue an annual strategy in both 2017 and 2018.
* On Jan. 31, 2019, the Trump Administration finally issued its first National Drug Control Strategy, but it was woefully inadequate and failed to comply with numerous provisions in the law.
* On March 7, 2019, the Committee held a hearing entitled “Trump Administration’s Response to the Drug Crisis." The hearing examined ONDCP’s coordination of national drug control efforts, including the Administration’s response to the opioid crisis and ONDCP’s implementation of the provisions of the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act that reauthorized the agency.
* On Jan. 15, 2020, Chairwoman Maloney became the lead sponsor of H.R. 2569, the Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act of 2019, a bill to expand access to substance use disorder treatment, originally introduced by the late Chairman Elijah E. Cummings.
