Well, well, well, would you lookie here. The Department of Health and Human Services appears to have realized that slashing $2 billion in mental health and substance abuse treatment out of the blue might not be met with warm fuzzy feelings. So now, they have reinstated the funds, all within about 24 hours.
On Tuesday, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration—or SAMHSA, a division of HHS, canceled roughly 2,000 grants totalling close to $2 billion, leading to grant recipients making tough decisions to cut staff and cancel trainings. Fast-forward to the next day, and the money was back after public outcry.
Well, not that those who were affected learned it was back. Although The New York Times, NPR, and The Washington Post all reported on the restoration of funding on Wednesday night, no one from the Trump administration bothered to reach out to the actual recipients and let them know about their change of fortune.
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This behavior is rich coming from an agency headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a man who speaks often about his recovery from his longtime heroin addiction. Since taking the helm at Health and Human Services, he has talked about how we need to be able to do “practical things” to help people with substance use disorders, such as providing suboxone and methadone and treatment facilities.
Of course, he has also proposed that having parents eat more meals with their kids minus cell phones will somehow fix substance use and mental health issues…
And who could forget his idea that we should have “healing farms” where people with mental health and substance use disorders would be sent for involuntary servitude and denied access to any mental health or anti-addiction medication?
Also, no phones. Also, a “healthy” diet, which for Kennedy means something like a ton of red meat and beef tallow. Also, you have to stay for three or four years.
But we digress. SAMHSA funding is back … for now. Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut made a statement calling this out, saying Kennedy “must be cautious when making decisions that will impact Americans’ health. I hope this reversal serves as a lesson learned.”
Narrator voice: It will not.
All of this brings to mind the firing and rehiring churn of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s heyday, where multibillionaire Elon Musk’s tween bigots were given free reign to fire whoever they felt like, only to then turn around and try to rehire thousands they had fired. So efficient!
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In all seriousness, this highlights the problem of letting the executive branch—especially one headed by a toddler/madman—make all funding decisions based on vibes and personal animus. Funding and jobs get slashed, but then restored when there is enough public outcry or when a judge reinstates them. There’s no predictability in government spending, hiring, or resources, because now Trump and his weird and dangerous minions get to decide how we allocate everything.
There’s a reason the power of the purse was given to Congress. It is a responsive body, but not a swift one. It is too big and too divided to quickly yank or restore money based on a whim. But until Congress decides to do its job, this is how Americans live now.
