Today, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Representatives Annie Kuster (NH-02) and Chris Pappas (NH-01) announced the award of over $26.6 million in federal funding to help combat the substance use disorder epidemic. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced the award of $22,982,608 in grants for the remainder of Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, under the State Opioid Response (SOR) grant program. This is the second allotment of $22.9 million to be made available to the state due to the New Hampshire congressional delegation’s successful negotiations of the bipartisan budget agreement in 2018. Thanks to the delegation’s efforts, New Hampshire will receive a total of nearly $35 million in SOR grants in FY 2019, more than a ten-fold increase compared to FY 2017. New Hampshire will use the SOR grant dollars to increase access to substance use disorder treatment and recovery supports, and enhance efforts to prevent substance misuse.

In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded $3,672,978 in new federal funding to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The grant comes as part of the CDC’s Overdose Data to Action program, which awards federal funding in support of helping recipients obtain high-quality, more comprehensive, and timely data on overdose morbidity and mortality and use that data to inform prevention and response efforts. Over the past two years, Congress has provided approximately $475 million per year in funding for CDC to bolster support for opioid overdose prevention and surveillance.

“Fighting this crisis will require a sustained federal response that will help states and local communities create new strategies, improve the delivery of lifesaving treatment to those suffering from substance use disorder and drive prevention efforts to lower the number of overdose deaths,” said Senator Shaheen. ‘”I’m pleased that this federal funding has been awarded to New Hampshire to help stem the tide of this epidemic. As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I will keep fighting to ensure that communities in New Hampshire get the resources they need to end this epidemic.”

“Working with our colleagues from both parties and the Trump Administration, we secured a significant increase in funding for New Hampshire over the past two years to combat the devastating fentanyl, heroin, and opioid crisis — and I’m glad to see the Administration getting the latest of that funding out the door,” said Senator Hassan. “This funding will help save lives by strengthening prevention, treatment, recovery, and law enforcement efforts, but we know that there is still far more work to do. I’ll keep working every day with our Congressional delegation to ensure that those on the front lines of this epidemic have the support and resources they need.”

“This funding will give NH DHHS deeper insight into opioid overdoses and overdose deaths in the state, aiding authorities and medical professionals in crafting better prevention, response and treatment methods,” said Congresswoman Kuster, the founding co-chair of the Bipartisan Opioid Task Force. “We’ve made important progress in combating the opioid epidemic in New Hampshire and these resources will help to bolster our response. I’ll continue my efforts to secure the funding that is needed to help fight this continuing crisis.”

“Addressing the opioid crisis in New Hampshire requires an all-hands-on-deck effort,” said Congressman Pappas. “Having access to current, high-quality data is critical to better understanding this epidemic and making decisions that impact  treatment, prevention, and care for Granite Staters. We must continue to seek out additional funding opportunities to aid in protecting public health and saving lives.”

Senator Shaheen and the New Hampshire congressional delegation have fought to ensure that Granite State communities have the resources they need to battle the substance use disorder epidemic. In 2018, Shaheen supported the passage of the SIREN Act, which provided more grants to rural emergency response providers on the front lines of the opioid crisis. Shaheen also helped negotiate the bipartisan agreement in 2018 that outlined the two years of opioid response spending – totaling $6 billion to respond to the opioid crisis. This included the set-aside funding for states with the highest mortality rates, like New Hampshire. This critical additional funding, which Shaheen helped broker, has been included by Congress over the last two fiscal years. As a result of the Delegation’s efforts, New Hampshire received a more than ten-fold increase in opioid treatment funding through the State Opioid Response grant program. Shaheen has also recently unveiled sweeping new substance use disorder legislation, the Turn the Tide Act, to help tackle the substance use epidemic and provide resources for Granite Staters struggling with substance misuse.  The Turn the Tide Act provides $63 billion in funding over ten years to deliver flexible treatment funding to providers, establish proven prevention programs and address the substantial workforce challenges in the treatment field.

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