House Appropriations hears breakdown of roughly $69 million in substance-misuse funding, including five federal grants

Paul Daley, financial director for the Vermont Department of Health, told the Vermont House Appropriations Committee on April 22 that the committee-recommended appropriation for substance-use programs is about $69 million, and that just under $16 million of that total is expected to come from five federal grant sources.

Daley said the largest federal source is the formula grant long known as the substance abuse block grant, recently renamed the Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant (SUBG). He described SUBG as a noncompetitive formula award administered through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). “Each year, we get an award, and we have 24 months to spend that award,” Daley said, noting the current SUBG award period ends in September 2026.

He identified the other major federal streams included in the appropriation as the State Opioid Response (SOR) grant (a SAMHSA program created in 2018 and awarded annually within a multi‑year project period), a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant called Overdose Data to Action (OD2A), Medicaid administrative claiming through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid…