Federal Budget Update

July 12, 2021

Today, the House Labor-HHS Subcommittee on Appropriations released its FY2022 spending bill. The bill will be reviewed and voted on by the subcommittee today and by the full committee in a hearing on Thursday (7/15 at 10 am ET). Currently, only high-level data and numbers on some of the largest line items in the HHS and SAMHSA budgets have been released. We expect more information in the coming days on specific line item funding levels and greater details on any new programs proposed by the committee.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) – The bill funds SAMHSA at $9.16 billion – an increase of $3.14 billion above the FY 2021 enacted level. SAMHSA funding includes:

  • Mental Health: $3.16 billion, an increase of $1.36 billion over the FY 2021 enacted level, including an $825 million increase to the Mental Health Block Grant (MHBG), making investments across the behavioral health continuum to support prevention, screening, treatment, and other services.
    • Increases the mental health crisis systems set-aside in the MHBG to 10 percent.
    • Creates a new 10 percent set-aside within the MHBG to support prevention and early intervention.
  • Mental health resources for children and youth: $155 million for Project AWARE, an increase of $48.5 million above the FY 2021 enacted level; $100 million for the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative, an increase of $28 million above the FY 2021 enacted level; $25 million for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, an increase of $17 million above the FY 2021 enacted level; and $150 million for the Children’s Mental Health program, an increase of $25 million over the FY 2021 enacted level.
  • Suicide prevention: $26.2 million for the Zero Suicide program, an increase of $5 million above the FY 2021 enacted level; and $113.6 million for the Suicide Lifeline, an increase of $89.6 million above the FY 2021 enacted level to support the implementation of the Lifeline’s new 988 number.
  • Creates a new Mental Health Crisis Response Partnership Pilot Program, which will provide $100 million to help communities create mobile crisis response teams.
  • Substance use treatment: $5.5 billion, an increase of $1.6 billion above the FY 2021 enacted level, including continued funding for opioid prevention and treatment, recovery, and tribal-focused treatment efforts. This includes $2.8 billion, an increase of $1 billion over the FY 2021 enacted level, for the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SABG); $2 billion for State Opioid Response Grants, an increase of $500 million over the FY 2021 enacted level; and $136.5 million, an increase of $56.5 million, for Medication Assisted Treatment.
    • Creates a new 10 percent set-aside within the SABG to support recovery services.
  • Substance abuse prevention: $243.5 million, an increase of $35 million above the FY 2021 enacted level.

Please let us know if you have any questions.