First, ATTACHED please find a newly published NYC EPI DATA Provisional Report looking at changes in unintentional overdose rates (in the 5 boroughs) from 2023-2024. According to the Report, overdose death rates decreased for the first time since 2018 among Black and Latino New Yorkers but remain about twice as high as the rate of overdose death among white New Yorkers.
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Yesterday, The New York Times published an article about Utah’s homelessness plan that we wanted to pass along. In Utah, Trump’s Vision for Homelessness Begins to Take Shape- State officials promise large-scale involuntary addiction and mental health treatment at Salt Lake City’s edge. Critics see “a prison, or a warehouse.”
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SNAP BENEFITS
Politico Pro, 10/29/25 – Senate Democrats are preparing to introduce their own bill to keep food aid benefits flowing for millions of Americans during the government shutdown ahead of a Nov. 1 funding cliff.
The legislation, led by Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), could draw Democratic support away from a rival bipartisan plan by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), which pushes USDA and the Treasury Department to fully fund November benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — the nation’s largest anti-hunger initiative.
Luján’s bill, on the other hand, would require the administration to fund both SNAP and a separate food aid program serving low-income women and children. It would also require that states be reimbursed for funding benefits during the shutdown.
Most of the Democratic caucus, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), have signed onto the latest legislation, though it notably has yet to pick up any Republican co-sponsors.
Their latest move comes after the Trump administration recently concluded it doesn’t have the legal authority to tap a USDA contingency fund to pay for billions of dollars worth of food aid next month. If Congress or the White House doesn’t step in with more money, SNAP benefits would lapse for the first time in modern history.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday that it would cost the department $9.2 billion to fund November SNAP benefits, administrative costs and nutrition block grants for U.S. territories — and she emphasized that USDA does not have those dollars on hand.
Democratic officials from 25 states and the District of Columbia have already challenged the administration’s decision not to tap emergency funds in court. Meanwhile, senators are focused on finding short-term solutions with the government shutdown now in its fifth week.
“Let me be clear: the Trump administration has the authority and the funds to keep SNAP running,” Luján said in a statement. “If they refuse to act, millions of Americans will go hungry. Ensuring Americans don’t go hungry should not be a partisan issue, yet the Trump administration is playing politics with people’s lives.”
Luján’s home state of New Mexico has the highest level of dependence on SNAP, with around 21 percent of its population having received benefits last year.
GOP leaders have not signaled that they’ll give any SNAP standalone funding bill a vote. Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that it’d be a “waste of time” to vote on standalone funding patches during the ongoing shutdown.
Hawley told reporters previously that it’s up to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to decide whether his bill will receive a floor vote.
“I mean, he controls the floor, obviously, and this is only going to pass with a vote,” Hawley said, adding that the Senate won’t be able to unanimously pass the legislation due to individual concerns with the bill.
ADVOCACY REQUEST FROM THE COALITION ON HUMAN NEEDS: ACT TODAY!
We must demand that the Trump administration use contingency funds required by law to provide SNAP benefits when funds have run out, and add other available funds to ensure all November SNAP benefits are distributed.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)―the agency responsible for SNAP―has at least $5 billion in contingency reserves it is required to use to help feed people1, but last Friday the Trump administration released a memo stating its refusal to release them.2
The administration has not only the legal authority, but the obligation to release the reserve money to fund SNAP in November. After the USDA released its memo, David A. Super, a law professor and federal funding expert at Georgetown University, called the memo “absurd” and said:3
“Both the first Trump administration and this administration, as recently as the end of September, said these funds were available in the case of lapses in appropriations. This is blatantly lawless.”
The $5+ billion required for use to prevent loss of SNAP assistance is not enough to cover the $8 billion in total SNAP benefit costs in November. But the administration has other sources of funding it can tap to make up the difference, just as it used such funds to ensure adequate Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition benefits earlier this month. Failure to use the contingency funds is lawless―failure to use any of the available funds is cruel.
The administration’s refusal to act will have catastrophic consequences, as food banks in some areas are already seeing their shelves empty before all those in need can get help. Most states are not able to step in to provide aid, and the Trump administration has already announced it will not reimburse any states that do so. The Governors of Louisiana and Virginia have declared a state of emergency due to the lack of SNAP funds.4,5
One in eight people in this country relies on SNAP for food assistance each month. We can’t allow this administration to keep letting them down.
During the 2013 and 2018-2019 government shutdowns, Democratic and Republican administrations―including Donald Trump’s first administration―found ways to ensure SNAP was funded, whether by using contingency funds and other sources, which shows the administration can fund SNAP if it wants to.6
This is a matter of deliberately choosing not to fund a critical program to win a political game of chess. Families were already facing cuts or losing their benefits completely, thanks to the Big Ugly Bill signed in July, which cut SNAP by $187 billion over a decade―the largest SNAP cut in the program’s history.7
The Trump administration can fix this and begin rolling out benefits for November; they need pressure to do what is right. We’re keeping up the pressure on Congress to weigh in8 and some are speaking out9, but we need to make sure the administration hears directly from local communities about the urgency to act.
Thank you for all you do,
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CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH
Here’s useful information on a recent legal settlement stemming from a class action lawsuit brought by numerous children’s rights law firms that sued NYS on behalf of 4 NYS youth that could not obtain HCBS services.
New York State is now required to engage in a public process by which it must create a plan to comply with and implement the terms of the agreement. This is likely to result in higher rates for certain services for children, youth and families, and possibly other structural reforms to the children’s mental health system of care.
You can review the agreement and read about the case here: https://www.childrensrights.org/notice
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NYS Senator Gillibrand is one of the 15 federal lawmakers that signed on to this letter:
Padilla, Wyden Lead Colleagues in Slamming RFK Jr. for Purging Staff on Frontlines of Opioid Crisis
Letter follows mass layoffs from Trump Administration during ongoing Republican government shutdown
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), co-founder of the bipartisan Senate Mental Health Caucus, and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) led 15 Democratic Senate colleagues in slamming Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for firing federal employees at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) working on the frontlines of America’s opioid crisis. HHS has now terminated more than 100 SAMHSA employees since the start of the Trump Administration, reducing their staff to less than 50 percent capacity.
SAMHSA provides key addiction and mental health treatment services with a focus on rural and underserved areas and is responsible for programs like the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The Trump Administration’s layoffs of vital SAMHSA staff earlier this month as part of another government-wide reduction in force will lead to more Americans falling into addiction because they will be unable to access the agency’s critical addiction prevention and treatment services.
“Without cause, HHS terminated 125 employees, further decimating the agency that is a critical first responder on the frontlines of our nation’s ongoing substance use and mental health crises,” wrote the Senators. “… The firing of key staff at this agency threatens to undermine years of hard-won progress on the opioid crisis, and could not come at a worse time. Right now, communities across the country — in both red and blue states — continue to face record overdose deaths and escalating rates of mental health conditions and substance use disorder.”
“Your decision sends the wrong message to public health professionals — and to the families counting on them. It contradicts the administration’s own stated goals to tackle the fentanyl crisis, expand mental health services, and end the opioid epidemic. Terminating staff risks derailing the progress made by a workforce whose experience is irreplaceable,” continued the Senators.
Padilla and Wyden warned that these terminations will lead to more opioid-related deaths and illicit drugs flowing into communities across the United States. Kennedy’s decision to purge public health professionals not only derails progress made by a workforce with specialized experience, but it also contradicts the Administration’s pledge to tackle the fentanyl crisis, expand mental health services, and end the opioid epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 73,000 people died from overdosing from April 2024 to April 2025.
In addition to Padilla and Wyden, the letter to HHS was also signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.).
As co-chair of the bipartisan Senate Mental Health Caucus, Senator Padilla previously condemned the Trump Administration’s proposed dissolution of SAMHSA as part of HHS’ restructuring plan and the White House Office of Management and Budget’s HHS budget proposal. Earlier this year, Padilla led 12 Democratic Senators in warning HHS Secretary Kennedy that additional staffing cuts at SAMHSA would have disastrous ramifications for millions of Americans struggling with mental and behavioral health challenges.
Full text of the letter is available here and below:
Dear Secretary Kennedy:
We are deeply alarmed by the recent firings at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), an agency under your jurisdiction at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Without cause, HHS terminated 125 employees, further decimating the agency that is a critical first responder on the frontlines of our nation’s ongoing substance use and mental health crises. The firings that took place on October 10, 2025, were on top of the hundreds of people HHS fired in April, leaving SAMHSA at about half the staff it had in January. The firing of key staff at this agency threatens to undermine years of hard-won progress on the opioid crisis, and could not come at a worse time.
Right now, communities across the country – in both red and blue states – continue to face record overdose deaths and escalating rates of mental health conditions and substance use disorder. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 73,690 overdose deaths from April 2024 to April 2025. The opioid epidemic remains an ongoing public health emergency in the United States. In addition, youth suicide rates have risen by over 60% to all-time highs, and one in five Americans live with a mental health condition. Now more than ever, the federal government must be strengthening all efforts to respond to these dual crises, in addition to cracking down on the influx of illicit fentanyl into our country.
It is important to highlight that SAMHSA’s programs not only save lives, they save money. Mental illness and substance use already cost the U.S. economy more than $1 trillion each year in lost productivity, health care spending, and premature deaths. Terminating the experts at SAMHSA who coordinate our national response will deepen both the human and economic toll and ensure devastating impacts from increasing supplies of illicit drugs flowing into communities across the country.
For years, SAMHSA has been a cornerstone of America’s public health response; implementing evidence-based solutions, expanding access to key services in rural and underserved areas, and launching critical tools like 9-8-8, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. These efforts enjoy broad bipartisan support, delivering real results on a crisis that transcends party lines.
Your decision sends the wrong message to public health professionals—and to the families counting on them. It contradicts the administration’s own stated goals to tackle the fentanyl crisis, expand mental health services, and end the opioid epidemic. Terminating staff risks derailing the progress made by a workforce whose experience is irreplaceable.
We have seen your agency course-correct before, reversing similar mass terminations at the CDC. That same logic must apply here. The administration should be bolstering SAMHSA’s mission, not undercutting it.
The public expects a health department that’s focused on solutions, not politics. I urge you to reverse these terminations immediately and reaffirm your department’s commitment to the people on the ground doing the hard work to keep Americans safe and healthy.
Sincerely,
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MEDICAID MANAGED CARE CARVE OUT: NEW RESOURCES
Linked below is a new report from The People’s Action Institute (funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) analyzing Medicaid Managed Care and Private Insurance claims denials in NYS. The Report focuses on Prior Authorization practices and claims denial rates for a whole host of healthcare services. So while the data focuses on all kinds of care, see page 28: Patients with diagnoses relating to substance use disorder in Medicaid Managed Care plans (in New York) are having their external appeals (of the denials they received) overturned a whopping 64% of the time, which is 24% higher than the average overturn rate in Medicaid Managed Care.
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