Hassan introduces bill meant to streamline addiction-related grant funding

U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, teaming up with her Republican colleague Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, introduced legislation Thursday to create a website and centralized application where substance abuse recovery organizations apply for federal grants.

They’re calling it the Addiction Grants Modernization Act, and the goal is to make it easier for organizations to receive money from the federal government to aid in their fight against drug addiction. The website and application aim to streamline and simplify the process instead of having myriad different applications. That way, they say, organizations will spend less time focusing on “red tape” and more on “the important work of saving lives.”

In response to the nationwide opioid crisis of the 2000s and 2010s, the U.S. government set up a slew of federal programs and funding sources to combat tragic deaths and stories of addiction. However, those programs all live in various realms of the federal government.

New Hampshire was one of the hardest hit by the opioid crisis. In 2017, 424 died as a result of opioid use, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. However, the state — alongside the rest of the country — has begun to see some relief from the crisis in recent years. From 2022 to 2024, New Hampshire saw a roughly 45% decrease in opioid-related deaths, according to the New Hampshire Drug Monitoring Initiative.

“Local leaders and advocates across New Hampshire are working every day to help Granite Staters enter and stay in recovery — and thanks to their work, we’re finally beginning to see a drop in overdose deaths in New Hampshire,” Hassan said in a statement to the Bulletin. “We cannot let up in this fight, and that means making it easier for them to get the funding and resources that they need.”