Policy & Advocacy Initiatives & Updates

At Faces & Voices, we proudly lead the charge in building a recovery-ready nation that benefits everyone. Our policy agenda creates comprehensive recovery support services and ensures that people with lived experience are at the forefront of every decision that impacts them.

A Moonshot Goal

End the Overdose Crisis, Rebuild Lives and Communities

We urge national leaders to pursue an ambitious goal: end the overdose crisis and rebuild American lives, families, and communities. This means pairing urgent, life-saving interventions with long-term strategies that strengthen the foundations of recovery—stable housing, meaningful work, strong families, and accountable, effective services. Every federal policy, program, and action should help reduce preventable deaths and give people a real path to long-term stability and independence.

US Capital in Washington,DC.
We Recover - We Vote Round button/pin with F&V logo

2025 Policy Asks from Faces & Voices of Recovery

Recovery should be more than a policy goal—it must be a bold, visible, and overarching national commitment. We call on the federal government to make recovery a central pillar of national health and social policy, guiding every funding decision and system reform across agencies.

1.1 – Prioritize recovery as a guiding focus across federal health, housing, workforce, education, and justice policy.
1.2 – Ensure people with a range of personal experience—including addiction, mental illness, recovery, homelessness, justice system involvement, and family impact—are meaningfully involved in the design, implementation, and oversight of federal programs, from grantmaking and advisory boards to regulatory reform and system planning.

It’s time to treat recovery not as an afterthought or a line item—but as a national imperative to save lives and rebuild communities.

We’ve made significant progress addressing the overdose epidemic and building recovery infrastructure—now we must protect those investments and strengthen what works.

Proposals to eliminate discretionary grants would dismantle much of the recovery infrastructure that communities rely on. These flexible funding streams support innovation, technical assistance, and capacity-building.

If Congress cuts discretionary grants and Medicaid, federal block grants will be expected to fill the gap—but they haven’t kept pace with inflation or the scale of need.

2.1 – Invest in overdose prevention, recovery community organizations, peer services, temporary recovery housing, pathways to permanent housing options and employment, parenting and family support, deflection from the criminal justice system, and re-entry programs.

2.2 – Maintain and scale up substance use, mental health, and State Opioid Response block grant funding and protect the discretionary grants that make recovery possible on the ground.

2.3 – Establish a 10% recovery support set-aside within the Substance Use Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Block Grant.

2.4 – Incentivize public-private partnerships to grow recovery-ready workplaces and build community-based networks that can deliver help where it’s needed most.

Too many Americans still face barriers when trying to access the help they need. It’s time to modernize. We need a system that delivers high-quality, coordinated services—and eliminates the fragmentation that makes recovery so hard to navigate.

A modern recovery system must protect individual liberty by safeguarding rights under federal law, ensuring access to effective, voluntary care, and avoiding costly mandates like widespread involuntary commitment or over-criminalization, which have failed to improve outcomes.

3.1 – Invest in infrastructure, technology, research, and service quality so people can quickly connect to treatment, jobs, housing, childcare, health care, legal services, and recovery supports.

3.2 – Establish national accreditation and certification standards for recovery support services to ensure quality and accountability.
Strengthen local, state, and national recovery networks to ensure accessible, coordinated services.

3.3 – A smarter, more responsive system will deliver real help, when and where it’s needed. These investments will also generate measurable returns.

Success should be defined by how people live—not just how many lives are lost.

4.1 – Develop recovery-focused metrics to track wellness, stability, and thriving.

4.2 – Ensure measures are informed by people with personal experience of addiction, recovery, and system navigation.

4.3 – Use these measures to guide federal investments.

4.4 – Preserve, strengthen, and expand national data systems that monitor substance use, recovery, and service access—ensuring stable funding and adequate staffing to maintain a clear picture of what’s working and where help is needed.

Federal funding reform must be grounded in outcomes that reflect real recovery—not just cost savings.

While Medicaid reform may be on the table, proposals that impose rigid work requirements, block grants, or coverage restrictions risk destabilizing the backbone of recovery support in every state. Medicaid ensures access to timely, cost-effective treatment for millions of Americans, supports recovery-focused workforce participation, and reduces long-term system costs. Undermining it would disrupt the very progress recovery investments are meant to secure.

5.1 – Avoid blunt cuts that jeopardize long-term progress.

5.2 – Incentivize outcome-based models that reduce future system costs.

5.3 – Engage employers and private partners in sustainable recovery strategies.

5.4. Reinvest savings into front-line services and recovery infrastructure.

Young people impacted by substance use disorder face unique challenges—and have been overlooked for too long. A generation has been deeply affected by substance use and the overdose epidemic, and it’s time for a coordinated national response to meet the moment.

6.1 – Develop a National Youth Recovery Strategy to meet the unique needs of adolescents and young adults affected by substance use.

6.2 – Expand programs that work, including recovery high schools, collegiate recovery programs, peer support, and leadership development opportunities.

6.3 – Ensure strong national standards for youth treatment, transitions following treatment, and digital wellness.

6.4 – Engage young people in shaping the programs and policies that serve them—from treatment to education, leadership, and technology.

It’s time to match the scale of the crisis with the scale of our commitment—so that every American has the chance to recover, rebuild, and restore hope.

Our Updates

Public Policy Updates

We’re committed to paving the way for equitable recovery opportunities by advocating for policies and resources that support those affected by addiction.

Legislation

we support

01

Re-entry Act of 2025 (H.R.2586)

This bipartisan legislation would allow Medicaid to reimburse for medical services provided to incarcerated individuals during the 30-day period prior to the individual’s release. This bill would restore access to healthcare– including life-saving addiction and mental health treatment– to Medicaid beneficiaries, reducing recidivism and preventing overdose deaths.

Read About Re-entry Act of 2025

02

RESTORE Act of 2023 (H.R.3479/ S.1753)

This Act, in the 2023 Farm Bill, proposes to end the lifetime ban on SNAP for people convicted of a drug felony, fostering an environment conducive to recovery.
Read about Restore Act of 2023

03

Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program Reauthorization Act of 2023 (H.R.3355)

This bill reauthorizes through FY2028 and modifies the Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program. The program provides student loan repayment awards to eligible individuals who provide treatment and recovery support services to patients with a substance use disorder at an approved facility.

Read about SuD Loan

04

Fiscal Year 2025 Appropriations within SAMHSA

In Fiscal Year 2025, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is requested $8.1 billion in appropriations. The proposed budget was intended to support various initiatives focused on improving mental health, preventing substance use and overdose, and addressing the ongoing mental health crisis and overdose epidemic

Read about Appropriations

05

H.R. 2483, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act of 2025

This bill reauthorizes key public health programs focused on prevention, treatment, and recovery for patients with substance use disorder that were established in the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act, which was signed into law in 2018.

Read About the Support Act 

06

Funding for the Second Chance Act in the FY26 CJS Appropriations Bill

In Fiscal Year 2025, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is requested $8.1 billion in appropriations. The proposed budget was intended to support various initiatives focused on improving mental health, preventing substance use and overdose, and addressing the ongoing mental health crisis and overdose epidemic

Read About the Second Chance Act Funding 

Be Informed

Latest News

Faces & Voices of Recovery is the nation’s leading advocate for addiction recovery, providing resources, thought leadership, and commentary to support recovery efforts. Through our monthly newsletter, Public Policy updates, and other communications, we share news, research, and innovations affecting the recovery community.

Together, our voices can shape policy and change lives.