Federal health officials are scrambling to come up with a plan after Trump said he'll declare a national emergency over the opioid crisis

Getty Images/Pool

President Donald Trump

• President Donald Trump promised a disaster declaration next week for the nationwide opioid crises.
• Department of Health and Human Services officials were unprepared for the announcement.

President Donald Trump shocked federal officials on Monday when he said the administration would be presenting a disaster declaration for the nationwide opioid crisis, according to a report from Politico.

"That is a very, very big statement," Trump said in a press conference this week. "We're going to be doing it in the next week."

But officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, which is now absent a confirmed secretary after the resignation of Tom Price last month, were blindsided by Trump's statement and are now hastily trying to prepare a plan.

"They are not ready for this," a public health advocate told Politico after talking to Health and Human Services officials who are working on the effort.

A senior administration official told Politico that "legal and budgetary" obstacles are what is holding back a formal disaster declaration.

"Everyone wants opioids to be a priority, but there's a lot of resistance to calling it an emergency," the official said.

Federal officials told Politico that there's no consensus on how to implement an emergency declaration for a drug epidemic. A senior official at the Food and Drug Administration described the efforts as "such a mess."

New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat whose state has been ravaged by the opioid epidemic, called Trump's lack of response to the issue "completely disorganized."

"No matter how many times [Trump] promises action 'next week,' the fact is he has no plan to combat the opioid crisis," Hassan wrote on Twitter on Friday.