Cummings Applauds Obama Administration for Awarding Millions in Federal Grants to Fund Heroin Response Strategy
August 17, 2015
Press Release
Washington, D.C. (August 17, 2015)— Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) applauded the Obama Administration for awarding $2.5 million in federal grants to fund the Heroin Response Strategy, an unprecedented partnership between five High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTAs)—Washington/Baltimore, New York/New Jersey, Appalachia, New England, and Philadelphia/Camden. The Strategy will span 15 states and the District of Columbia, and will enhance efforts to address the severe heroin threat these communities are facing. Specifically, it will foster collaboration to enhance public health-public safety partnerships, to bolster criminal intelligence gathering and law enforcement operations, and to mobilize rapid public health responses like naloxone distribution and expanding access to resources. The Washington-Baltimore HIDTA will also receive nearly $250,000 to fund prosecutors whose efforts will focus on bringing to justice those organizations supplying heroin and fentanyl to Baltimore.
“I applaud the Obama Administration for recognizing the great work being accomplished through these HIDTAs, and for providing them with the resources needed to battle this deadly epidemic. The size and reach of this collaboration is remarkable, and I look forward to its success,” said Congressman Cummings. “I am continually impressed with the ongoing hard work of our Washington/Baltimore HIDTA, and I am pleased that the Administration is helping ensure our region has the resources it needs.
“It is only when we all work together, at the local, state, and federal levels, that we can begin to eradicate problems like heroin use and drug trafficking from our communities. In Baltimore and around this country, these HIDTA efforts give us hope that we can reclaim our cities, bring safety and security to our streets, and dream of brighter futures for our children.”
Historically, the Washington/Baltimore region has been plagued with drug trafficking. By 1998, heroin use had overtaken cocaine use in the region, and in 2000, the Drug Enforcement Administration found that Baltimore had the highest per capita rates for heroin use in the entire country.
Congress created the HIDTA program in 1988 to promote coordination between federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies operating in areas determined to be critical drug trafficking regions of the United States. The Washington/Baltimore area was designated as a HIDTA in 1994. Law enforcement organizations working within HIDTAs assess drug trafficking issues and design specific initiatives to decrease the production, transportation, distribution, and chronic use of drugs and money laundering. Over just the last three years, the work of the Washington/Baltimore HIDTA has led to thousands of drug seizures, fugitive captures, and firearms taken off the streets.
Congressman Cummings, whose congressional district includes much of Baltimore, is one of the strongest supporters of the HIDTA program in Congress. He spoke at the National Conference of HIDTA officials and employees in February of this year, highlighting the importance of the Washington/Baltimore HIDTA’s work in Baltimore to combat the heroin epidemic. In March, Cummings co-led 70 of his House colleagues in a bipartisan letter to the House Appropriations Committee requesting $250 million in funding for HIDTA for FY 2016—a level of funding which was included in the House Appropriations bill.
In addition to ensuring that the HIDTA program is fully-funded, since last fall, Cummings has been investigating the increasingly high prices states like Maryland are being charged for the critical opioid overdose drug naloxone.
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