Committee votes to table federal funds for substance abuse treatment and prevention

Lawmakers on a key committee tabled $6.3 million in federal funding for substance abuse prevention and treatment efforts Friday, after Republicans said they wanted more information to make sure the spending was justified. 

Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee members voted to hold off on greenlighting the money, which is meant to help early intervention, treatment, and recovery efforts for people with a substance use disorder in the state. 

The money is part of the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant, administered to all 50 states by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, according to a formula. 

New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services had applied for the money last year, making the case for using it to combat misuse of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, prescription drugs, heroin, and methamphetamine. 

But Republicans on Friday objected to approving the money, arguing they needed to see evidence that substance abuse treatment is delivering results.

During the hearing, Sen. Bob Giuda argued that the state should not spend money on programs that see people returning to substance use treatment centers, and pressed the DHHS to provide evidence that the substance use treatment programs worked. 

“We keep spending millions and millions and millions of dollars on a program that is ultimately becoming a support structure,” the Warren Republican said in an interview afterward. “I want to know: What is the success rate?”

Another Republican committee member, Rep. Jess Edwards of Auburn, argued the Department of Health and Human Services’ request for approval of the funding had been too vaguely written to win his approval. And he expressed concern that the federally funded program could require state funding down the line if grant funding in Washington went away.

Some Democrats on the committee blasted the hold up, and the discussion that prompted it. 

“I was particularly concerned with some of the comments that inferred that people that overdose a second or third time or fall off their program are somehow to blame, and that they make bad choices, and we shouldn’t be helping them anymore,” said Sen. Donna Soucy, a Manchester Democrat, after the meeting. 

“I think we all know substance use disorder is a disease. If somebody gets a recurrence of cancer, we don’t stop their health insurance and tell them they’ve made bad choices. Substance use disorder is much the same,” she said. 

Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, a Manchester Democrat, voted against tabling the funds. But another Democrat, Rep. Peter Leishman of Peterborough, voted with Republicans to hold up the funding.

The tabling means the money cannot move ahead to the Executive Council for approval. Lawmakers on the Fiscal Committee can take it up at their next meeting, scheduled for September. 

Edwards and two other Republicans also attempted to table $3,070,000 in federal money meant for critical access hospitals, suggesting that the money should not be sent to hospitals that have implemented COVID-19 vaccine mandates for their employees. Milford Sen. Gary Daniels and Farmington Rep. Joe Pitre joined Edwards, but the motion failed.

Giuda and Senate President Chuck Morse said that rather than hold up the money the Legislature needed to consider passing legislation in the future to restrict hospitals from requiring vaccines for employees. “I think we need to have a frank discussion,” Morse said.

The New Hampshire Hospital Association strongly opposed that suggestion. In a statement, the group argued that “requiring vaccines of our workforce is absolutely the right thing to do to protect the health and safety of our patients, our workforce, and our communities.”