State addiction safety-net at risk after abrupt federal grant termination; DAODAS urges state funding

Sarah Goldsby, a representative of the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, told the Senate Finance Committee Health and Human Services Subcommittee on March 27 that federal supplemental block-grant funds that had been supporting the state’s public addiction service system were abruptly terminated by the federal government this week, leaving DAODAS unable to draw down reimbursements for services already provided.

Goldsby said the federal Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services block grant and its recent congressional supplements had added more than $42,000,000 to DAODAS between fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2024, and that the sudden action by the federal agency removed about $600,000 from DAODAS’s operating budget and roughly $4,600,000 that had been obligated to service providers for the fiscal year. “We attempted this week to draw down federal reimbursement for the funds that we've already spent … and our reimbursement request to the…