Senators Hassan, Murkowski Urge Trump Administration to Expand Access to Gold Standard Opioid Addiction Treatment

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are urging the Trump Administration to prioritize expanding access to medication-assisted treatment - the gold standard for treating opioid addiction - as part of its new initiative on addiction recovery.

"Medication is the clinical gold-standard for treating opioid addiction," wrote the Senators. "We ask that you work with us to make sure that clinicians can readily provide this treatment, to ensure that patients can access and afford these medications, and to do all that we can to reduce the pervasive stigma surrounding addiction treatment."

Senator Hassan continues to work to combat the fentanyl crisis and expand access to evidence-based addiction treatment. Senator Hassan helped introduce the Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act, bipartisan legislation to improve access to medication-assisted treatment by allowing more addiction specialists to prescribe methadone. In 2022, Senator Hassan successfully passed into law her bipartisan Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act to increase the number of medical professionals authorized to prescribe medication-assisted treatment. Last year, Senator Hassan launched an investigation into whether patients at for-profit methadone clinics encounter unnecessary barriers when seeking lifesaving methadone treatment for opioid addiction.

Read the letter the Senators sent to President Trump here or below.

Dear President Trump,

We appreciate your initiative in issuing an Executive Order on addiction recovery and establishing the "White House Great American Recovery Initiative," addressing an issue that profoundly affects individuals, families, and communities across the nation. We share your sense of urgency in strengthening addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery services. Over the years, we have worked with you to expand access to these critical services in communities across the country, including through passage of the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act of 2025. While we have made important progress in combatting the fentanyl crisis, tens of thousands of Americans continue to die from overdoses each year. As part of your new initiative, we urge you to work with us to expand access to medication-assisted treatment.

Medication is the clinical gold-standard for treating opioid addiction. Medications such as buprenorphine and methadone reduce an individual's craving for opioids and help them enter long-term recovery. Although access to medication-assisted treatment has improved, some patients still face barriers including high costs, inconsistent coverage, and stigma. Any comprehensive effort to improve addiction treatment must include steps to address these barriers.

Three years ago, we passed a law to enable more than 1 million additional clinicians to prescribe medication-assisted treatment. While we have seen a reduction in overdose deaths in recent years, there is still more work to do. We ask that you work with us to make sure that clinicians can readily provide this treatment, to ensure that patients can access and afford these medications, and to do all that we can to reduce the pervasive stigma surrounding addiction treatment.

We appreciate your attention to the fentanyl crisis and look forward to working together to improve the federal government's response.

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