Ayotte Praises Award of CDC Grant to NH to Fight Opioid Abuse Crisis

Press Release

U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte today praised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) announcement that New Hampshire has received a grant to improve surveillance of opioid-related overdoses and deaths. The grant utilizes funds allocated under the end of year government spending bill, in which Ayotte successfully urged Senate appropriators to include significant resources to combat the opioid abuse epidemic.

"I've been pushing the administration to swiftly release funding we allocated at the end of the year to fight the heroin and prescription opioid abuse crisis, and I'm pleased that New Hampshire has been selected as a recipient of this grant," said Senator Ayotte. "This CDC grant will improve our monitoring of overdoses and deaths from heroin and other opioids, which will help inform how we should respond to this ongoing crisis."

In January 2016, Ayotte sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia M. Burwell encouraging her to swiftly release the opioid abuse funding that was allocated in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 (Public Law 114-113). Previously, in April 2015, Ayotte co-led a bipartisan letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee expressing strong support for funding programs that would address the opioid abuse crisis in a comprehensive manner. In part due to her advocacy, the end of year spending legislation included a 284 percent increase in funding for programs at the CDC and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to fight the heroin and prescription opioid abuse crisis.

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