(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, alongside U.S. Representatives Chris Pappas (NH-01) and Maggie Goodlander (NH-02) are calling on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to immediately restore $80 million in federal funding that New Hampshire relies on to address public health crises, including the substance use and mental health epidemics.
The delegation wrote, in part: “During his first term, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency, stating, ‘We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic.’ It seems that is no longer a goal of the current administration. Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) terminated approximately $80 million in public health funding for New Hampshire, including programs administered by both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).”
They continued: “For New Hampshire, this harmful decision to eliminate funding weakens our state’s ability to respond to infectious disease outbreaks, cuts support services for individuals suffering from mental health crises and substance use disorders and undermines efforts to adequately care for rural and underserved populations [...] Staff across the state have already been terminated, and these terminations include our vital community health workers serving our most at-risk populations. Communities and organizations across New Hampshire, including community health centers, hospitals, mental health providers, schools and small businesses, are currently left without resources and holding the bag on already promised funding.”
They concluded: “Clawing back these funds does nothing to improve our state’s public health system. Instead, you are needlessly putting our communities’ health at risk and jeopardizing our constituents’ livelihoods and their organizations. We urge you to reinstate this vital funding immediately.”
The full text of the letter can be found here.
Senator Shaheen and the New Hampshire delegation have led efforts to address the substance use and mental health crises. Just last year, the delegation celebrated $29,890,890 in State Opioid Response (SOR) grants heading to New Hampshire to help address the substance use disorder epidemic. In recent years, Shaheen and Hassan successfully pushed HHS to maintain SOR funding levels for New Hampshire and avoid significant cliffs in funding year-over-year. Shaheen and Hassan's efforts have led to a more than tenfold increase in federal treatment and prevention funding for New Hampshire.
Shaheen has been vocal in her disapproval of the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for HHS Secretary, including delivering remarks in opposition to his nomination on the Senate floor. Shaheen also recently called on Secretary Kennedy to reverse drastic funding cuts to the Affordable Care Act Navigator program, which helps Americans access quality, affordable health insurance coverage, including for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Senator Hassan has spoken out about the dangers that Secretary Kennedy poses to the health and safety of Americans. Senator Hassan pushed Kennedy during multiple confirmation hearings and delivered remarks on the Senate floor highlighting the ways in which Kennedy’s abandonment of his prior support for reproductive freedom, lack of knowledge about the basics of the health care programs that he would oversee, and history of promoting dangerous anti-vaccine conspiracy theories put the health and safety of Americans at risk.
Congressman Pappas led 50 of his House colleagues in urging HHS Secretary Kennedy to reverse the cancellation of over $12 billion in federal grants for state health services from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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