The Trump administration has reversed cuts to grants for mental health and addiction treatment programs that were valued at nearly 2 billion dollars. Thousands of federal grants supporting the programs were suddenly terminated late Tuesday before sources confirmed that the decision was reversed.
The abrupt cancellations at the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration would have impacted 2,706 of the agency’s discretionary grants. President Trump’s political appointees moved to terminate the funding, not career officials working for SAMHSA. A termination notice sent by a top SAMHSA official said the agency was “terminating some of its awards in order to better prioritize agency resources” toward priorities “that address the rising rates of mental illness and substance abuse conditions, overdose, and suicide.”
However, according to sources familiar with the matter, many of the canceled grants already addressed those priorities. One affected grant provided 15 million dollars per year to the Opioid Response Network, a program that offers evidence-based education and training to local authorities managing various types of substance use intervention, including prevention, treatment, and recovery services. Another was a 6 million dollar grant to a program called Building Communities of Recovery, which funds community-based resources to increase the availability and quality of long-term recovery support for people with substance use disorder.
After national outrage over the initial cuts, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, stated: “After national outrage, Secretary Kennedy has bowed to public pressure and reinstated 2 billion dollars in SAMHSA grants that save lives.” The reversal came following significant public pushback against the terminations.
The latest decisions followed the Trump administration’s sweeping Medicaid cuts that impacted a broad array of public health services including some focused on mental health and addiction.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-cuts-grants-mental-health-addiction-treatment/