President Joe Biden will take new action against America’s two biggest killers — fentanyl and cancer — during his State of the Union address, White House aides told reporters Tuesday morning.
During a speech Tuesday afternoon, Biden will ask Congress to permanently list fentanyl as a Schedule I drug, the same level as heroin and LSD, aides said. He will also ask lawmakers to reauthorize two pieces of legislation that fund cancer care.
Both measures are part of what the Biden administration calls its “unity agenda,” a series of popular and bipartisan goals that Biden first laid out in last year’s State of the Union. Another high on the agenda is helping veterans and dealing with the mental health crisis.
White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said the administration has made progress on all of these goals over the past year: passing the PACT Act to help veterans with bike burns, removing barriers to accessing the anti-overdose drug narcan, providing funding for cancer research and increasing . Mental health funding for children is part of a bipartisan deal to combat gun violence.
“What you’re going to hear the president talk about in the State of the Union tonight is his desire to keep moving forward in that work … .
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The administration unveiled proposals on Monday to increase taxes on stock buybacks and install a minimum tax on billionaires — two proposals that have little chance of winning among the GOP.
The move to permanently list fentanyl as a Schedule I drug is likely to draw pushback from doctors, progressives and at least some members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Schedule I drugs are defined as having no legitimate medical use, while fentanyl has long been used as an anesthetic and pain reliever.
Progressives and members of the CBC have supported moving the drug to the Schedule I amount doubled down in the same “War on Drugs” policy that they have long derided as a failure.
“It is important to protect Americans from the threat of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances,” said Rahul Gupta, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
More than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, the most recent year for which complete data is available, according to the Centers for Disease Control. This will increase by 15% in 2020, with deaths from fentanyl causing the surge.
Cancer remains the second leading cause of death for Americans, after heart disease. Biden made reducing cancer deaths a personal mission after the death of his son Beau from brain cancer, and he will ask Congress to reauthorize the National Cancer Act — which first created the National Cancer Institute 50 years ago — and continue to fund the Advanced Research Projects Agency. for Health, or ARPA-H.
The government is also planning more action to encourage people to quit smoking, which remains a major cause of cancer.
Aides are also making plans for the rest of Biden’s agenda.
His new budget would triple the number of low-income veterans eligible for housing assistance, administration officials said, noting an 11% drop in the number of homeless veterans between 2020 and 2022.
The Education Department plans to announce $280 million in funding to help “high-needs” school districts hire mental health professionals, one of the steps the administration is taking to improve teen mental health, a White House aide said.