February 9, 2026– After one of the longest appropriations cycles in recent memory, the FY 2026 federal budget has now been completed. Four months past due, Congress passed and the President signed legislation that will fund the federal government, including the Department of Health and Human Services.
At about this time last year, the White House issued their budget request to Congress, which called for not only the elimination of SAMHSA as an agency, but for the termination of over $800 million in grants for the SUD prevention, treatment, and recovery communities. Among these were grants for the Building Communities of Recovery, and the Peer Technical Assistance Center. Also recommended in the President’s budget were the consolidation of the SUPTR Block grant, the Mental Health Services Block Grant, and the State Opioid grant, resulting in a cut of several hundred million dollars. After a year of advocacy- in both chamber and on both sides of the aisle- we are thrilled and proud to announce that these cuts were not in the legislation that was recently signed by the president.
Of course, the story never truly ends. There is a saying in Washington D.C., “There’s always another inning!” In a matter of weeks, we expect to see the White House budget proposal for FY 2027. Based on all indications we have seen to this point, we are bracing for a situation wherein we shall have to repeat the same battles of FY 2026 all over again. “Chatter” and rumors always abound, and these all point to another White House budget that will be very austere. Nevertheless, our advocacy will continue at full strength.
The last month has, of course, been a mixed bag of news for the recovery community, especially those that rely on federal grants for funding. In late January, notices went out to over 2,000 SAMHSA grant recipients, terminating their grants immediately as the Department they no longer “aligned” with White House priorities and policies. Over $2 billion in grants for behavioral health were impacted. Thanks to the advocacy community, as well as an eager press and several allies on Capitol Hill, a pressure campaign was mounted to restore the recissions. A little over 24 hours after the notices were distributed, a second round of notices followed, canceling the recissions.
The following week, the White House issued an Executive Order establishing the “Great American Recovery Initiative.” The goal appears to be to coordinate SUD programs across the federal government via the involvement of several government officials. This role is, however, already the domain of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and seems to add more bureaucracy to the decision making progress.
Following this announcement, Secretary Kennedy unveiled the STREETS initiative, which purportedly will commit $100 million to eight communities in order to reduce SUD use and homelessness. Our top priority is to see the recovery community involved in this process, with our input and our recommendations being incorporated into the final product. We are at this point unsure as to whether this $100 million will be “new” money appropriated by Congress next year, or whether SAMHSA will re-purpose existing funds (which could cause complications, depending on where it is re-purposed from.) Of course, the document we are looking forward to most at this time is the FY 2027 budget proposal from the White House. If this document recommends the same cuts to SAMHSA as the FY 2026 document did, our advocacy will be focused on keeping recovery programs funded and unchanged from a regulatory standpoint.