The Trump administration has slashed federal grants that support mental health and addiction care, a move that public health experts say threatens to undercut a system that has expanded in recent years to confront the nation’s drug epidemic.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, sent hundreds of letters late Tuesday to nonprofits informing them their grants had been cut because their programs “no longer effectuates” the agency’s priorities.
The extent of the cuts remains unclear, but they appeared to broadly target more than 2,000 SAMHSA discretionary grants totaling nearly $2 billion, said Jonah Cunningham, president and CEO of the National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors. The programs address addiction and mental health treatment, homelessness, suicide prevention and workforce development, among other social and economic challenges.
Nonprofits across red and blue states received the letters, which did not explain how their programs went against the administration’s priorities, Cunningham said.
“We are witnessing the complete dismantling of the recovery infrastructure we have built over time,” said Ryan Hampton, founder of Las Vegas-based Mobilize Recovery, an addiction advocacy organization that lost a grant worth nearly $500,000 for training, education and technical support. “The Trump administration is going to have blood on its hands.”
At Detroit Recovery Project, administrators will have to immediately lay off 35 peer support specialists and therapists after losing grants of $4.1 million, said CEO Andre Johnson. The employees run therapy sessions, help people released from jail rebuild their lives, conduct HIV testing and pass out health supplies.
“More people are going to relapse,” said Johnson, whose organization was featured in The Washington Post over the summer for a story about potential federal budget cuts.
The United States is grappling with a drug crisis that is still killing tens of thousands each year, even after overdose deaths dropped dramatically since mid-2023. New federal data released Wednesdayshows the decline continued in 2025, but more slowly. Although reasons for the declines are complex, public health advocates have credited billions in state and federal funds used to bolster treatment and flood communities with lifesaving overdose reversal medications.
The Trump administration has prioritized a law enforcement approach while prohibiting certain funding for organizations that work to reduce the harms of drugs.
SAMHSA, the small federal agency that distributes billions in public health grants, has not been spared drastic staff and budget cuts imposed across government by the Trump administration. Hundreds of staff members have left or been cut.
Last fall, many of the same discretionary grant programs had been on the chopping block as part of President Donald Trump’s proposed budget but remained intact when Congress later passed a funding bill. The Trump administration said at the time the programs are inefficient, duplicate other federal initiatives or “are too small to have a national impact.”
SAMHSA, the Department of Health and Human Services which oversees it and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Democrats and public health leaders immediately condemned the abrupt cuts.
“Kneecapping and defunding the fight against the opioid and mental health epidemics will not ‘Make America Healthy Again,’ it will put American lives on the line,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) said in a statement, referring to Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s slogan for their health agenda.
Rep. Paul Tonko (D-New York) said “anyone who cares about addressing addiction and mental health in their communities should be decrying this heartless action.”
The cuts also affect red states reeling from opioid and other health crises the Trump administration has vowed to address.
SAMHSA cut a three-year $1.5 million grant to Utah Recovers, which pays for peer support specialists assigned to help participants in drug, mental health and veterans courts, the organization said. The grant funds six positions attached to Salt Lake City courts, which offer an alternative to the criminal justice system by connecting offenders to treatment rather than incarceration, said Evan Done, the organization’s director of advocacy and public policy.
“This is a significant hit to our budget. We’re scrambling to find alternative sources of funding,” Done said.
He noted that the termination letter he received said administration officials want “innovative programs and interventions” to address rising rates of mental illness and addiction, suicide and overdose.
“We’re still aligned with what they claim they want to do to help the American public,” Done said.
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