During Overdose Awareness Month, it’s important to remember and honor those we’ve lost, reflect on the progress that we’ve made, and recommit to our efforts to save lives. While overdose deaths have decreased recently, last year, more than 80,000 people died from overdoses and over 48 million people had substance use disorder (SUD).
Now is a time to double down on the efforts to address our overdose and addiction crises. In order to prevent a backslide on progress made, evidence-based prevention, harm reduction, and treatment programs need continued federal support.
Congress, the branch of the federal government that controls funding, is currently working on a budget for fiscal year 2026, which begins October 1. In this budget, Congress will decide how much money agencies and programs throughout the federal government will receive, including those focused on preventing and treating substance use, addiction, and related harms at agencies including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), etc.
The President’s proposed budget, a suggested budget that outlines the administration’s priorities, included a number of cuts and changes to federal funding for SUD, including:
- cutting more than $30 billion from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS);
- combining SAMHSA with other agencies into the new Administration for a Healthy America;
- reducing the amount of funding for mental health and SUD services;
- eliminating many SAMHSA programs (e.g., Strategic Prevention Framework; Sober Truth on Prevention Underage Drinking; Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment; naloxone programs; treatment for pregnant/postpartum women, families, and homeless individuals; recovery services; etc.);
- consolidating and reducing funding for the largest substance use grants (Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Support Services Block Grant, State Opioid Response grants);
- reducing funding for addiction and other research at NIH and consolidating the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) with other institutes focused on behavioral health;
- eliminating the Tobacco Program at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA);
- and slashing CDC funding and programs for overdose prevention.
The Senate Appropriations Committee recently advanced a budget bill that rejected many of these proposals and would instead maintain critical funding for programs that address the addiction crisis. It would provide an additional $446 million in funding for HHS. Most of the increase would go to NIH, which would retain all 27 institutes and centers (including NIDA). It would maintain SAMHSA funding at $7.4 billion (and maintain it as a separate agency), and it would maintain or increase funding for programs the White House proposed to cut. It would also maintain CDC funding, as well as funding for the Office on Smoking and Health and the Opioid Overdose Prevention and Surveillance Program.
Amid the cuts to Medicaid, which is the largest payer of substance use treatment services, and other cuts to federal grants and funding, providing adequate funding to these programs and agencies that support efforts to prevent and treat substance use in the yearly funding bill is crucial.
Send a letter to your members of Congress urging them to fully fund programs and agencies that help address the addiction crisis, which continues to affect millions of Americans.