Statement on FY27 Presidents Budget Request Coalition Letter — Protect Overdose Funding

by Libby Jones, Associate Vice President, Overdose Prevention Initiative, GHAI  

Ninety-nine signatories is a large number, but what is far more impressive is the diversity of organizations who have come together in support of protecting funding for essential mental and behavioral health programs. This coalition of organizations run substance use treatment programs, conduct community-wide surveillance, care for people living with HIV, distribute naloxone and guide people through years of recovery. When nearly 100 of them sign the same letter, that's a strong message telling Congress something to pay attention.

The FY 2026 appropriations process showed that overdose funding is still genuinely bipartisan. That matters right now, when so little else is. Congress enacted that just two months ago. The President's FY 2027 budget asks Congress to turn around and restructure much of what it just funded. The coalition letter is asking a simple question: why?

Recent overdose data gave us something the field hasn't had in a long time: actual grounds for cautious optimism. A 27% decline in overdose deaths in a single year. That is real. It happened because sustained investment built the capacity to respond. It can also stop happening if that investment gets restructured into irrelevance.

The coalition’s letter reaches Congress on the day after the release of the National Drug Control Strategy. In the Strategy, the Administration says prevention, treatment and recovery are priorities. We want that to be true. We would welcome a Drug Control Strategy that matches the declared ambitions, one with spending commitments and program structures that add up to the stated goals. What we cannot accept is a budget that proposes cutting Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) prevention office by $220 million, 92%, restructuring the CDC's injury prevention infrastructure, and reducing HHS programs connecting HIV and substance use, while calling it a prevention agenda.

This coalition is a reminder that federal appropriations determine whether a rural county can keep a treatment program funded, whether a recovery community organization can keep its doors open and whether naloxone makes its way into someone's pocket. Collective advocacy is how this field has kept these programs alive through multiple budget cycles. We'll keep doing it.