WATCH: Rep. Dean asks RFK Jr. why Trump made cuts to overdose prevention

Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., asked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., why the Trump administration has proposed shuttering the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration when the nation saw a record-breaking decline in overdose deaths in 2024, and yet hundreds of people continue to die each day.

Dean called overdoses “a public health epidemic in this country,” and asked, “Why would we, when we’re finally seeing some success, bury that success?”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released preliminary data Wednesday that showed overdose deaths declined 27 percent last year, compared to a year earlier. That amounted to an estimated 30,000 lives saved in one year — the largest drop in overdose fatalities on record.

“Since late 2023, overdose deaths have steadily declined each month—a strong sign that public health interventions are making a difference and having a meaningful impact,” according to a statement issued by the CDC.

Testifying before the House Appropriations Committee, Kennedy said SAMHSA would be shifted into the new Administration for Healthy Americans, in an overhaul of several health-related agencies.

Dean also pointed out that Kennedy’s office had “eliminated the training for” naloxone, a life-saving antidote that reverses overdose.

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