Senator challenges administration official on proposed mental‑health and substance‑abuse funding changes
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Summary
A senator said press reports showed plans to slash $2,000,000,000 from substance‑abuse and mental‑health funding and alleged the new budget would eliminate an existing program and merge it into a reorganized agency with a further $5,000,000,000 reduction; an administration official described a proposed block‑grant approach and departmental reorganization.
A senator confronted an administration official during a committee exchange about proposed changes to federal mental‑health and substance‑abuse funding, citing press reports of steep cuts and asking how the budget would help amid an opioid crisis.
The senator said "the Trump administration is planning to slash $2,000,000,000 from substance abuse prevention and mental health according to press reports," and asserted the newest budget "would eliminate the substance abuse and mental health program entirely and merge it into a new agency, which you combine with a $5,000,000,000 cut." The senator said they and others had objected and demanded to know what the budget would do to help with the opioid crisis.
The administration official described the proposal as an "aggressive" block‑grant approach to mental health and drug abuse and said departmental reorganizations were intended to make the department work better and "actually lead to better care." The official added that the administration wants "less funding to go through nonprofits" as part of programmatic reviews.
The senator said nonprofits on the front lines oppose the proposal. The exchange recorded contesting claims about proposed cuts and reorganization but did not resolve the specific dollar figures or record a binding decision; the hearing moved on after the senator closed the questioning period.
Next procedural steps were not recorded in the exchange.
