DPA + LAC Federal Funding Cuts – Methods

The data in this project were gathered from a variety of sources, including news reporting, information made public by the federal government, and unofficial reporting led by current and former members of the government. The research team focused on finding concrete information related to staffing, departmental, and budgetary cuts to four federal agencies focused on substance use disorder treatment. This included both realized cuts and proposed cuts demonstrated by the 2026 budget proposal.

Below is a list of resources that were helpful for gathering this data.

• Staffing 
  • The New York Times Federal Work Force Cuts tracker (last updated May 12, 2025): https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/28/us/politics/trump-doge-federal-job-cuts.html
  • Reuters, US CDC restores jobs for 450 laid-off employees (last updated June 11, 2025): https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/us-cdc-restores-jobs-450-laid-off-employees-2025-06-11/
  • CNN, Tracking Trump’s overhaul of the federal workforce (last updated July 14, 2025): https://www.cnn.com/politics/tracking-federal-workforce-firings-dg
  •  Through a former SAMHSA employee, a LAC staff member was able to receive this reporting document created by former SAMHSA staff about changes to the agency.

• Departments and Budgetary
  • The Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System was a helpful resource for gathering data about grant expenditures.
    • This spreadsheet included detailed information about grants that had been terminated from HHS agencies: https://taggs.hhs.gov/Content/Data/HHS_Grants_Terminated.pdf
    • This website also showed historical data about federal spending for specific grant programs. For example: https://taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/CFDADetail?arg_CFDA_NUM=93276
  • To demonstrate how much funding the administration proposes cutting, our team examined specific line items or programs in the 2026 budget documents and compared these to previous years’ funding levels.
    • The 2026 HHS Budget-in-Brief: https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy2026/index.html
    • The 2026 President’s Discretionary Budget request: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf
    • The 2026 budget appendix: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/appendix_fy2026.pdf

Here are explanations for a few specific numbers reported in this tracker.

• Total federal cuts that have been made to treatment, overdose prevention, and other health services as of June 25, 2025: $345 million 
  • This overall number was calculated by adding up all terminated grants related to drugs, drug use, addiction, and overdose from this database of terminated SAMHSA grants. ($257 million, source)
  • We then added this number to the known DOJ cuts to mental health and substance use disorders. ($88 million, source)

• Total anticipated funding cuts to CDC, SAMHSA, NIH, and DOJ in 2026: $25.6 billion 
  • This overall number was calculated by adding up the proposed funding reductions to each of these agencies, as demonstrated by the 2026 budget and comparisons to 2025 levels.
    • $3.6 billion from CDC (source)
    • $1 billion from SAMHSA (source)
    • $18 billion from NIH (source)
    • $3 billion from DOJ (source)
      • The elimination of 40 grant programs that were historically funded at over $1 billion was calculated from the Trump Administration’s discretionary budget request. The budget request calls for reducing “duplicative and unnecessary state and local grant programs” (source) to the grant programs on listed on page 626-627 (source).

• National Center for Injury Prevention and Control: $200 million cut in funding in 2026, moved out of CDC
  • The 2026 CDC budget eliminates the Injury Prevention Center, while the HHS budget calls for $550 million in funding for this center. The Center would be moved from the CDC to the newly-formed Administration for a Healthy America.
  • The funding would cut over $200 million from current funding levels, which was calculated by subtracting $550 million from approximately $761 million, which was the Center’s FY 2025 budget.

• Reductions to SAMHSA block grants in 2026: $465 million less 
  • The administration proposes consolidating three block grants into a “Behavioral Health Innovation Block Grant,” which would be funded at a total of $4.126 billion.
  • The $465 million decrease was calculated by subtracting the 2025 appropriated amounts for each of the three individual grants.
    • $4.5906 billion (formerly the Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, Recovery Support Services Block Grant + Community Mental Health Services Block Grant + State Opioid Response Block Grant) – $4.126 billion (Behavioral Health Innovation Block Grant) = $0.465 billion 
• Total federal cuts that have been made to drug research funded by NIH: nearly $588 million  
  • This overall number was calculated by adding up all terminated grants related to drug use, substance use disorders, and overdose from this database of terminated NIH research grants ($588 million, source)
  • To come to this estimate, we identified $1.139 billion in cancelled drug-related grants (we identified grants with NIH spending categories such as ‘drug abuse,’ ‘substance misuse,’ ‘substance use prevention,’ ‘methamphetamine,’ and a dozen other related categories). The majority of these grants had been approved for funding years ago, with an estimated $551 million in funds that had already been disbursed by the time that funding was cancelled. This means most grants were terminated before they were able to complete their studies, analyze their findings, and disseminate the results. However, this list also includes grants that had been recently approved but never received funding.
• Consolidating three NIH institutes into one and cutting them by $1.86 billion 
  • National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH) would be combined into the National Institute of Behavioral Health, which would be funded at $ 2.678 billion in 2026 (Office of Management and Budget, Technical Supplement to the 2026 Budget, Appendix, p. 350).
  • The $1.86 billion was calculated by looking at the difference between the National Institute of Behavioral Health’s total funding and 2024 actual funding levels for the three composite institutes (Office of Management and Budget, Technical Supplement to the 2026 Budget, Appendix, p. 350).
    • 2024 budget of NIMH: $2.278 billion
    • 2024 budget of NIDA: $1.663 billion
    • 2024 budget of NIAAA: $597 million
    • 2024 Total budgets for these institutes: $4.538 billion