TRENTON, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie outlined in an interim opioid commission report to President Donald Trump that the “first and most urgent” recommendation was to declare a national emergency, but the effort has been delayed by legal and administrative questions.
Christie, a Republican who chairs Trump’s anti-opioid panel, downplayed the White House’s delay in implementing the commission’s signature recommendation on Monday during a Trenton news conference on the issue and after a roundtable discussion on the crisis with pharmaceutical executives.
Christie said that the president reiterated his commitment to the idea of a national emergency declaration but attributed the delay to staff efforts to get the declaration “right” and to its “unprecedented” nature.
