Statement by White House ONDCP Director on the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget

President Biden calling for critical funding to implement National Drug Control Strategy, crack down on illicit drug trafficking, and save lives

Washington, D.C. – The Biden-Harris Administration today released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2025. Over the past three years, at President Biden’s direction, the Administration has made historic investments and taken unprecedented action to address the nation’s overdose epidemic and save lives. As President Biden underscored in his State of the Union Address, beating the overdose epidemic is a key priority of his Unity Agenda for the Nation. Today’s Budget calls for $44.5 billion for National Drug Control Program Agencies to continue building on this progress.

“While we have been able to take historic action over the past three years, and make significant progress, we must not abandon the approach that is necessary to save American lives,” said White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Dr. Rahul Gupta. “This unprecedented epidemic calls for funding levels to match the challenges we face today. We need Congress to act with a sense of urgency in order to continue making progress. Congress can – and must – come together to provide this essential funding to crack down on fentanyl trafficking and expand access to lifesaving treatment. The American people deserve no less. Lives are on the line.”

To accelerate the fight against the opioid and overdose epidemic, the Budget will:

• Expand Access to Treatment for Substance Use Disorder and Invest in Overdose Prevention. The Administration has made historic progress in expanding access to treatment for opioid use disorder, including by enacting a bipartisan provision to expand the number of medical providers who can initiate treatment for opioid use disorder from 129,000 to nearly 2 million. The Budget increases funding for the State Opioid Response grant program, which has provided treatment services to over 1.2 million people and enabled States to reverse more than 600,000 overdoses with nearly 10 million purchased overdose reversal medication kits. The Budget also invests $713 million toward opioid use disorder prevention and treatment programs for veterans, as well as provides funding for a new technical assistance center to strengthen health providers’ understanding and treatment of women’s mental health and substance use.

• Combat Narcotics Trafficking Networks. The Budget provides $3.3 billion to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to combat drug trafficking, including $1.2 billion to combat opioid trafficking, save lives, and make our communities safer. The Budget invests an additional $18 million in Domestic Counter-Fentanyl Threat Targeting Teams at the Drug Enforcement Administration to enhance America’s fight against the transnational criminal networks pushing deadly illicit fentanyl in America’s communities. These interdisciplinary teams of special agents, intelligence analysts, and data experts will map criminal organizations and build cases that lead to the dismantlement of entire drug trafficking networks and the deprivation of hundreds of millions of dollars to the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels. In addition, the Budget provides $494 million in grants supporting efforts to address substance use, including $190 million for the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program, $95 million to support Drug Courts, and $51 million for anti-drug task forces.

• Disrupt the International Synthetic Drug Trade. The Budget includes $169 million to the Department of State for countering fentanyl and other synthetic drug production and trafficking. These resources would counter the worldwide flow of fentanyl and other synthetics that endanger public safety and health, and contribute to tens of thousands of drug-overdose deaths in the United States annually.

• Reiterate the Administration’s Request for Immediate Funding to Counter Fentanyl at the Border. The Budget includes, and therefore reiterates the need for the Administration’s October 2023 supplemental request.  The supplemental request includes investments to build longer-term capacity to counter fentanyl, totaling $1.2 billion for the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice. This amount includes $239 million to hire 1,000 additional CBP Officers to stop fentanyl and other contraband from entering the U.S., $100 million for Homeland Security Investigations to investigate and disrupt transnational criminal organizations and drug traffickers, and $849 million for cutting-edge detection technology at ports of entry.

• Launch the Violent Crime Reduction and Prevention Fund. The Budget builds upon President Biden’s Safer America Plan by investing an additional $247.1 million in FY 2025, a total of $1.2 billion of drug funding over five years to launch a new Violent Crime Reduction and Prevention Fund. The initiative will provide federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement the dedicated, seasoned, and full support they need to focus on violent crime, including hiring new Federal law enforcement agents, prosecutors, and forensic specialists to address violent crime, expand Federal operations to combat illicit fentanyl and apprehend dangerous fugitives. The fund will also support the hiring of 4,700 detectives at the state and local level to solve homicides, non-fatal shootings, and other violent crimes to drive down the high rate of unsolved violent crimes and the lengthy delays that undermine public trust and public safety. For FY 2025, this initiative includes $120.5 million for the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Program to hire additional detectives and personnel, $39.5 million to hire additional Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, and $39.4 million to hire additional U.S. Attorneys. The initiative also proposes $10.5 million in funding to expand the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Operation Overdrive, which uses a data-driven, intelligence-led approach to identify and dismantle violent drug trafficking networks, to 50 more cities that are experiencing high rates of gun violence and fentanyl overdoses for 45-day operations. 

• Increase Access to Treatment in Carceral Settings. It is estimated that in 2021, between 19,700 and 27,000 individuals released from carceral settings died from an opioid overdose. The consistent delivery of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) while incarcerated and then immediately upon release could prevent upwards of 11,600 to 15,900 of these overdose deaths per year based on mathematical modeling. The Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) FY 2025 Drug Control Budget is $4.1 billion. As part of the BOP’s support for implementing the First Step Act, the funding supports further expansion of MOUD for treating individuals in BOP’s custody with an opioid use disorder. Currently nearly 4,000 patients are receiving treatment for opioid use disorders at BOP facilities and they estimate as much as ten percent of the current population may benefit from these services in the future.

• Strengthen Addiction Treatment. Data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) suggests that the vast majority of persons who use drugs and may benefit from drug treatment, are not receiving it due to little perceived need or the lack of readily available services. To address the Administration’s goals of expanding quality treatment, reducing stigmatization, ensuring dedicated interventions for people returning to their community post-incarceration, and building a trained addiction workforce, the FY 2025 Budget will provide $21.8 billion for treatment. 

• Expand Evidence-Based Harm Reduction. Evidence-based harm reduction interventions, such as opioid overdose reversal medications like naloxone, are vital to the Administration’s work saving lives. In support of President Biden’s Unity Agenda, the FY 2025 Drug Control Budget will provide $459 million for harm reduction.

Read President Biden’s FY 2025 Budget HERE.             

Read the Biden-Harris Administration’s FY 2025 Drug Control Budget HERE.

Read ONDCP’s FY 2025 Congressional Budget Submission HERE.

Read the fact sheet on the President’s Budget Advances President Biden’s Unity Agenda HERE.

Read the fact sheet on the President’s Budget Secures Our Border, Combats Fentanyl Trafficking, and Calls on Congress to Enact Critical Immigration Reform HERE.

Read the fact sheet on the President’s Budget President’s Budget Tackles Crime, Keeps Americans Safe at Home HERE.

Read the fact sheet on the President’s Budget Protects and Increases Access to Quality, Affordable Healthcare HERE.

Read the fact sheet on the President’s Budget Creates Opportunity, Advances Equity HERE.

Read the fact sheet on the President’s Budget Delivers on His Commitment to Tribal Nations and Native Communities HERE.

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