Biden asks for $8 million for opioid treatment, prevention in Iowa

DES MOINES — Iowa would receive $8 million to fund opioid addiction treatment services in the funding package President Joe Biden has requested from Congress, White House officials announced Wednesday.

The funding, in the form of State Opioid Response grants, is a small piece of the $106 billion package Biden has requested. The package includes aid to Ukraine and Israel as well as funding for border security and drug addiction treatment.

The opioid treatment funding, totaling $1.5 billion nationally, would allow states to expand access to treatment and recovery support services, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Rahul Gupta said in a news conference Wednesday.

“States have purchased nearly 9 million overdose reversal medication kits and helped reverse more than 500,000 overdoses,” Gupta said of previous rounds of opioid response funding. “That's more than half million overdoses. And these are just not funding amounts. These are lives — lives saved.”

Iowa has received three rounds of State Opioid Response grants since 2018, according to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.

Most recently, Iowa received around $18 million to fund opioid responses between 2022 and 2024, according to state data. Iowa Health and Human Services expects the program will serve at least 11,000 people in prevention and harm reduction, as well as another 1,100 in treatment and recovery.

The White House funding request also includes building new inspection machines at ports of entry at the southern border to scan for drugs being smuggled into the U.S.

“This funding is going to mean more people scanned, and more dangerous and deadly drugs, like fentanyl, getting seized at our borders, before it can ever reach our communities or the hands of our loved ones," Gupta said.

Iowa’s Republican congressional delegation, as well as Gov. Kim Reynolds, have been critical of Biden’s border policies, often pointing to the high volume of fentanyl, a potent opioid, that is smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico.

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Reynolds, who recently deployed dozens of Iowa National Guard troops and law enforcement officials to the border in Texas, said in a news conference last week the border has seen an “influx of drugs and other dangerous threats” because of Biden’s policies.

Reynolds said Biden’s border funding ask was coming too late.

“I think it’s taken a long time to get there, I think he’s starting to see what’s happening,” she said. “You now have Democratic governors that are stepping up, that are seeing the results of the chaos that’s happening.”

Grassley a ‘yes’

Biden’s funding request, which ties border security to support for Israel and Ukraine, will be a hard sell in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Many Republicans have opposed new aid for Ukraine’s war against Russia.

Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has brought forward a bill to separate Israel funding from the rest of the package, and offset the $14.3 billion aid by cutting IRS funding that was passed in the Inflation Reduction Act last year.

In the Senate, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have both supported combining the funding.

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Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said he’d support the funding for Ukraine and Israel whether it is combined or separated. He said he would vote for the House bill if it comes up in the Senate.

“I get the impression that (Johnson) feels that he can't get the two linked together through the House, and he wants to move quickly on Israel,” Grassley said. “And he wants to do it this week. And he wants to offset it, so it’s revenue neutral.”

A spokesperson for Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst said the senator would advocate for foreign aid to focus on military funding.

“Biden’s supplemental package, as written, is going nowhere, but as the Senate discusses potential supplemental funding, Sen. Ernst will continue to advocate that any foreign aid should focus on weapons, not welfare," the spokesperson said.