Biden-Harris Administration Calls for Historic Levels of Funding to Prevent and Treat Addiction and Overdose
Largest funding increases are for treatment and prevention services
Washington, D.C. — The Biden-Harris Administration today submitted to Congress the President’s Budget for fiscal year (FY) 2022. As the Administration continues to make progress defeating the COVID-19 pandemic and getting our economy back on track, the Budget makes historic investments to address the overdose epidemic. There were almost 92,000 overdose deaths reported for the 12-month period ending in October 2020 according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provisional data.
“The President’s Budget increases funding for preventing and treating substance use disorders, at a time when we must urgently implement evidence-based policy priorities and deploy historic amounts of resources to curb the overdose epidemic,” said Regina LaBelle, Acting Director of National Drug Control Policy. “This Budget shows the Biden-Harris Administration’s firm commitment to ensuring that the Federal government promotes evidence-based public health and public safety approaches, while also addressing the racial inequities in our Nation’s drug policies, from treatment to enforcement.”
The President’s FY2022 $41.0 billion investment for national drug program agencies is a $669.9 million increase over the FY 2021 enacted level. The largest increases in funding are for critical public health interventions like treatment and prevention services. With these increases, the Budget devotes a historically high 57.3 percent of national drug program resources to demand reduction programs, a category that includes activities like evidence-based treatment, harm reduction, prevention, and recovery services.
The Administration’s major investment of $10.7 billion in the Department of Health and Human Services includes funding to expand access to substance use prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery support services; as well as funding to bolster the Nation’s behavioral health infrastructure. Notably, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) FY22 request includes $3.5 billion for the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant, which for the first time includes a 10% set aside for recovery services. At the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), $705.0 million in funding is requested in FY 2022 to support the substance use disorder responses in community health centers and in rural America.
The Administration is also making critical investments to reduce the supply of illicit substances in the United States. This includes increases for efforts to interdict illicit drugs and disrupt international drug trafficking networks, and for domestic law enforcement efforts to enhance cooperation between Federal, State, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies. The Budget also includes funding increases for the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s Drug Free Communities Support (DFC) program and High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program, which strengthens collaboration between Federal, State, local, and Tribal law enforcement and public health officials.
The President’s FY 2022 Budget builds on his American Rescue Plan, which has already appropriated nearly $4 billion to enable the Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Health Resources and Services Administration to expand access to vital mental health and substance use disorder services, including $30 million dedicated to enhancing harm reduction interventions like syringe services programs.
The Budget supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s Drug Policy Priorities for Year One:
- expanding access to evidence-based treatment;
- advancing racial equity issues in our approach to drug policy;
- enhancing evidence-based harm reduction efforts;
- supporting evidence-based prevention efforts to reduce youth substance use;
- reducing the supply of illicit substances;
- advancing recovery-ready workplaces and expanding the addiction workforce; and
- expanding access to recovery support services.
The Budget includes the two historic plans the President has already put forward — the Americans Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan — and reinvests in education, research, public health, and other foundations of our country’s strength. Enacting the Budget policies into law this year would strengthen our Nation’s economy and lay the foundation for shared prosperity, while also improving our Nation’s long-term fiscal health.
To read the FY 2022 Drug Control Budget Highlights in full, please click HERE.
For more about the Biden-Harris Administration’s comprehensive approach to the overdose and addiction crisis, please click HERE.
For more information on the President’s FY 2022 Budget, please visit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/.
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