WASHINGTON – As the United States battles a mental health and substance use disorder crisis, the Trump administration has canceled roughly $11.4 billion in COVID-era funding for addiction treatment, mental health services, and other public health programs.
According to Reuters, the grants were being used to track, prevent and control infectious diseases, including measles and bird flu, as well as track mental health services and fund addiction treatment.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told NPR that the cuts were justified, stating, “The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.” The administration says it is shifting focus to what it calls America’s “chronic disease epidemic.”
At the same time, Trump has implemented new tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico, claiming they are necessary to combat fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration. “More Americans are dying from fentanyl overdoses each year than the number of American lives lost in the entirety of the Vietnam War,” the White House stated in a fact sheet.
While Trump said fentanyl smuggling remains a top priority for his administration—leading to an extension of a national emergency declaration—he has also made moves that contradict his stance. His administration has slashed funding for federal addiction researchers and pardoned a tech mogul convicted of operating a “dark web” platform used for drug trafficking.
In addition, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is being merged into a newly created entity, the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA), as part of a broad HHS restructuring. The overhaul is expected to result in the elimination of 20,000 federal jobs.
According to the 2023 U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 48.5 million people—16.7% of those aged 12 and older—had a substance use disorder in the past year. Meanwhile, an estimated 58.7 million adults (22.8% of the population) experienced a mental illness in 2023, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
