Embedded in the Trump administration’s Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again — amid a series of steep cuts to non-Defense programs — are two proposals for increased funding to fight the opioid epidemic. The first increase falls under the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services, an agency facing a proposed 17.9 percent funding decrease, one of the sharpest overall. Despite cuts to duplicative or limited impact programs in HHS, the blueprint specifically allocates a half a billion dollar funding increase to expand opioid misuse prevention efforts and increase access to treatment and recovery services. The opioid epidemic, which took more than 33,000 lives in calendar year 2015, the budget notes, has a devastating effect on America’s families and communities. Trump budget seeks to fight opioid addiction | Washington Examiner