WASHINGTON – On a spring day in southern Kentucky two years ago, 200 worried residents gathered in rural Somerset’s community center to hear police address the deadly opiate epidemic in the area.

Some in the room had lost loved ones to the scourge, including Wanda Absher, whose son died of a heroin overdose. They wanted to know what the authorities were doing about it.

Absher, safe schools coordinator for the Pulaski County Board of Education, helped organize the session with the help of a federal anti-substance abuse grant – the kind that President Donald Trump’s recommended budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 will likely eliminate.

“We can’t just give people Naracan and think that’s going to prevent addiction,” she said. “Drug prevention and education is the key to making an impact and getting to children earlier in age.”

Somerset schools have received roughly $500,000 in grants over the last five years to pay for workbooks and other materials teachers use in classrooms from kindergarten to grade 12 in their weekly discussions. Kindergarteners, for example, are warned not to assume tiny colorful pills are candy.

Members of Congress representing communities ravaged by opioids have been quick to condemn Trump’s budget plan to slash from $388 million to $24 million per year funding for the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, and completely do away with drug-fighting grants for community groups and law enforcement agencies.

“Congress holds the purse strings for the federal government,” said Congressman Hal Rogers, Kentucky Republican and member of the House Appropriations Committee, in a statement. “We will ensure funding is sufficient to continue combatting the deadly drug abuse epidemic in the years ahead.”

More broadly, the concern over the sharp cuts to drug assistance programs has added to the discord between the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress over the president’s spending priorities, particularly those reductions that would impact the rural areas Trump courted in his campaign.

Trump wants to shift billions in spending from domestic programs to national security and projects like his Mexican border wall to stop illegal immigration.

The president’s preliminary budget plan released in March proposed crippling the drug policy office, cutting a number of agricultural grant programs and eliminating an agency designed to create jobs in 13 Appalachian states.

Congress, though, signaled its resistance last week when it passed a short-term budget to fund the government to the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30. The approved measure didn’t just preserve funding Trump wants to cut, including the Appalachian Regional Authority. It increased it.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., in a statement Tuesday, said Congress made its feelings known it won’t go along with eliminating programs it deems important to the public interest.

“Any proposal to eliminate them without a clear understanding of how their missions will be carried forth will not be considered and are not helpful to our efforts in fighting this (drug) scourge in our nation,” she said.

In the latest dispute, the Trump administration hasn’t said why it is considering reducing anti-opioid funding; only that it wants to streamline government agencies.

White House Budget officials have declined to comment in detail, saying it is still working on the president’s budget before a final version is released later this month. But Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said last week that combatting the opioid epidemic is still a top priority for Trump.

The drug policy office is seen as playing a crucial role in combating the opiate crisis. It makes sure federal agencies are on the same page in fighting addiction, administers grants and conducts research into how best to deal with the epidemic, according to the version of its website under former President Barack Obama’s administration, a description that was removed when Trump took office.

Also on the chopping block is the Drug-Free Communities Support Program, which provided $85.9 million in grants to 698 community groups, school districts, hospitals and others for local drug prevention efforts. The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program, which distributed $250 million in grants to local law enforcement agencies in high drug areas, is also being considered for elimination.

No state is more concerned with plans to roll back federal drug assistance programs than West Virginia, where rising opioid and heroin addiction claimed 864 deaths last year, marking it as the state with the highest drug overdose death rate in the nation, according to U.S. Health and Human Services data.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., called cutting the drug policy office “criminal” in a statement. Manchin, a member of the Senate appropriations committee, vowed: “I will do everything I can to prevent this from happening.”

Rep. Evan Jenkins, a West Virginia Republican, who announced Monday he is running for Manchin’s seat in 2018, also opposed reductions in drug fighting efforts.

 “While I can appreciate the president’s desire to cut spending, the Office of National Drug Control Policy plays an important role in combating the drug crisis in West Virginia and across our nation,’ said Jenkins, a member of the House appropriations committee.

“In particular,” he added, “the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program works hand in hand with law enforcement across West Virginia to keep dangerous drugs out of our communities.”

Contact CNHI Washington reporter Kery Murakami at kmurakami@cnhi.com.