Bipartisan Group of Governors Calls for More Action to Combat Opioid Crisis

Democratic and Republican governors are calling on the federal government to do more to combat the opioid crisis, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Last week governors from both parties testified before the Senate Health Committee about opioid addiction in their states. A number of governors also met with White House officials about the issue.

“Every single governor has it at the top of his or her list, even more than Congress because they’re seeing it,” Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who chairs the Senate Health Committee, told the newspaper.

“This is the top issue for governors, and 33 are Republican,” said Robert Blendon, a health policy professor at Harvard University. “The heat [Trump] is taking is from Republican governors. They’re saying, ‘We don’t want to run in 2018 not having done a lot to open up treatment programs.’”