Senate rejects adding $600M to anti-heroin legislation

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate has rejected a Democratic effort to add $600 million to a bipartisan bill targeting heroin and opioid abuse.

Supporters of the immediate funding won a majority of the Senate votes. But the 48-47 tally fell short of the 60 votes required for New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen's attempt to add the money.

Republicans opposed to the proposal said there's plenty of previously approved money in the pipeline and that additional funding can wait until this year's round of regular spending bills.

The underlying bill is a bipartisan response to an epidemic that has seen the drug overdose death rate more than double since 2000, with over 47,000 fatalities in 2014, according to the government. Over 28,000 of those deaths were from misuse of opioids and heroin.