Alliance Alert: The Alliance for Rights and Recovery stands firmly with the Mental Health Liaison Group (MHLG) and our national partners in calling on Congress to protect the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and reject proposals to eliminate or dismantle this vital agency.
SAMHSA is the only federal agency solely focused on the mental health and substance use needs of Americans. For decades, it has played a crucial role in delivering lifesaving resources, funding, technical assistance, and data-driven guidance to community-based mental health and substance use programs across the country. From youth prevention and suicide prevention to peer support and opioid recovery, SAMHSA programs directly impact the lives of millions—especially those who are low-income, disabled, or in crisis.
The proposal to dissolve SAMHSA and shift its functions to a new bureaucracy under the “Administration for a Healthy America” is dangerous and deeply misguided. It would erase dedicated leadership, slow down funding and coordination, and silence the voices of people with lived experience who have helped shape SAMHSA’s recovery-centered work.
At a time when our nation is grappling with overlapping mental health, overdose, and housing crises, cutting proven programs and eliminating SAMHSA’s identity is the wrong direction. Mental health and substance use disorders deserve direct attention—not to be diluted into a larger agency with no singular focus.
We urge our members of Congress to:
- Preserve SAMHSA as a standalone federal agency,
- Reject any cuts to SAMHSA programs, block grants, or community services,
- Ensure continued investment in peer support, prevention, youth recovery, and overdose response,
- And require any structural changes be authorized by Congress—not through unilateral agency action.
The progress we’ve made in mental health and substance use recovery must not be erased. Our communities depend on it. Now is the time to protect SAMHSA—not dismantle it. See below for MHLG’s letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
