Ocasio-Cortez Makes Comparison Between Trump's Opioid, Border Wall Emergency Declarations, But The Situations Aren't Similar

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) criticized President Donald Trump for not transferring money to other agencies for the opioid epidemic like he has for the border wall. But the Washington Post Fact Checker points out that the situations can't be compared. Trump wanted almost $6 billion for his wall, which Congress refused, however Congress acted to give the administration more than $6 billion for the opioid crisis, so there was little need for him to transfer funds without congressional authorization.

C-SPAN tweeted out a five-minute clip of Ocasio-Cortez questioning James W. Carroll, the White House’s director of drug policy, with this quote highlighted: “@AOC compares #OpioidCrisis to #SouthernBorder: ‘So, we’ve got two emergencies, one is treated with an actual action and the other is just to raise awareness.’" Ocasio-Cortez then retweeted it with the comment above, earning nearly 50,000 retweets and likes. (Kessler, 3/12)

In other news on the opioid crisis —

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law on Monday a bill meant to give doctors, pharmacists and the California Department of Justice more time to implement new security measures for prescriptions of controlled substances such as opioid pain medications. However, the new law known as Assembly Bill 149 adds a new requirement: that serial numbers on the prescription pads be readable as bar codes by Jan. 2, 2021. (Anderson, 3/12)

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