Addressing Addiction Through The Great American Recovery Initiative

The White House Fact Sheet:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-launches-the-great-american-recovery-initiative-to-address-the-addiction-crisis/

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Launches the Great American Recovery Initiative to Address the Addiction Crisis
The White House
January 29, 2026

LAUNCHING THE GREAT AMERICAN RECOVERY INITIATIVE: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order creating the White House Great American Recovery Initiative to coordinate a national response to the disease of addiction across government, healthcare, faith communities, and the private sector in order to save lives, restore families, strengthen our communities, and build the Great American Recovery.

The Order establishes the Initiative, co-chaired by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Senior Advisor for Addiction Recovery.

• Additional members of the Initiative include an executive director, cabinet secretaries, and senior administration leaders, some with deeply personal ties to the addiction crisis who are committed to ensuring Americans get the help they need.

The Order directs the Initiative to:

• Recommend all necessary steps to coordinate the Federal Government’s response to the addiction crisis, including by better aligning relevant Federal programs, setting clear objectives, and providing data-driven updates to the public on progress towards meeting these objectives;
• Take appropriate actions to increase awareness of the disease of addiction, help Americans receive the treatment they need, and foster a culture that celebrates recovery;
• Advise agencies on how to implement programs that integrate prevention, early intervention, treatment, recovery support, and re-entry;
• Advise agencies on directing appropriate grants to support addiction recovery, with a focus on prevention, treatment, and long-term resilience; and
• Consult with States, tribal nations, local jurisdictions, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, the private sector, and philanthropic entities on the best strategies to ensure more Americans receive the treatment they need and celebrate individuals going through the recovery process.

MAKING PROGRESS ON THE DISEASE OF ADDICTION: The disease of addiction, also known as substance use disorder, is a crisis that touches families in every community in our Nation.

• Addiction is a chronic, treatable disease with relapse rates similar to other chronic diseases.
• 48.4 million Americans, or 16.8% of our Nation’s population, suffer from addiction, yet very few who need treatment receive it or believe they need it.
• Among the 40.7 million adults with a substance use disorder in 2024 who did not receive treatment, 95.6% (or 38.1 million people) did not perceive they needed it.
• Addiction contributes to declining workforce participation, increased healthcare costs, homelessness, family instability, and lost productivity that together cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars each year.
• The framework for addiction treatment should parallel that of other chronic diseases – utilizing evidence-based care, scientific advancement, continuous support, and community connection.

DELIVERING ON PROMISES TO ADDRESS THE ADDICTION CRISIS: President Trump is committed to ending the addiction crisis and ensuring every American can access the help they need.

• He signed the SUPPORT Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act of 2025, strengthening Federal programs that address substance use disorders, overdoses, and mental health.
• He has taken aggressive action to stop the flow of deadly drugs into the United States, determined to save lives from the devastation caused by illicit narcotics crossing the border.
• He signed into law the HALT Fentanyl Act to permanently place Fentanyl-related substances into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
• His Administration is working to prevent drug use before it starts, strengthen treatment that leads to long-term recovery, and advance research and data to support effective drug control strategies.
• These efforts build on historic actions from President Trump’s first term, when he:
• Declared the opioid crisis a nationwide public health emergency.
• Signed the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, the largest-ever legislative effort to address a drug crisis in our Nation’s history.
• Launched the Initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse and Reduce Drug Supply and Demand in order to confront the many causes fueling the drug crisis.
• Signed the CRIB Act, allowing Medicaid to help mothers and their babies who are born physically dependent on opioids by covering their care in residential pediatric recovery facilities.
• Distributed $1 billion in grants for addiction prevention and treatment.
• Announced a Safer Prescriber Plan to decrease the number of opioid prescriptions filled.
• Expanded access to medication-assisted treatment and life-saving Naloxone.
• Launched FindTreatment.gov, a tool to find help for substance abuse.
• Approved 29 state Medicaid demonstrations to improve access to opioid use disorder treatment, including new flexibility to cover inpatient and residential treatment.

The $ 100 million HHS pilot program:

https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/secretary-kennedy-announces-100-million-investment-great-american-recovery.html

Secretary Kennedy Announces $100 Million Investment in Great American Recovery

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 2, 2026
HHS Press Office
202-690-6343

OXON HILL, MARYLAND — FEBRUARY 2, 2026 — Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. today announced a comprehensive plan to strengthen prevention, expand treatment, and carry out the executive order President Trump signed last week to ignite the Great American Recovery. The centerpiece of this plan is a $100 million investment to solve long-standing homelessness issues, fight opioid addiction, and improve public safety by expanding treatment that emphasizes recovery and self-sufficiency.

The Safety Through Recovery, Engagement, and Evidence-based Treatment and Supports — or STREETS — Initiative will fund targeted outreach, psychiatric care, medical stabilization and crisis intervention, while connecting Americans experiencing homelessness and addiction to stable housing with a clear focus on long-term recovery and independence.

“Addiction begins in isolation and ends in reconnection,” said Secretary Kennedy, who is co-chair of President Trump’s Great American Recovery Initiative. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, we are bringing Americans suffering from addiction out of the shadows and back into community.

”Secretary Kennedy made the announcement at Prevention Day, the largest government-sponsored gathering dedicated to advancing the prevention of substance use, hosted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a division of HHS.

The $100 million investment directed by Secretary Kennedy is a clear departure from Biden-era policies that were misguided, failing to stem the tide of death, addiction, homelessness, and crime in American communities. These policies focused not on preventing and treating individuals, but rather non-effective interventions such as harm reduction, supporting housing first, and other strategies that enabled future drug use — and were never intended to support people in their recovery to lead productive lives in their communities.

Substance use disorder — impairment caused by repeated use of alcohol or other drugs — among people ages 12 and older rose from 7.4% in 2019 to 16.8% in 2024, according to SAMHSA survey data. Nearly 8 in 10 people with a substance use disorder in 2024 did not receive treatment.

Secretary Kennedy also announced the $10 million Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) grant program to support adults with serious mental illness. AOT is a civil court-ordered, community-based outpatient mental health treatment program for adults with serious mental illness who are unable to engage with conventional outpatient treatment and are unlikely to be able to live safely in their community. The program is designed to work within the civil court system that supports engagement with community-based treatment as an alternative to more costly restrictive levels of care, homelessness, and interactions with the criminal justice system.

President Trump’s Executive Order Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets on July 24, 2025 directed SAMHSA grants toward evidence-based substance use disorder programs with proven results and assisted outpatient treatment that moves people with serious mental illness or addiction off the streets and into stable housing and support networks. SAMHSA in September 2025 awarded more than $45 million in new supplemental funding to State Opioid Response program recipients to focus on sober or recovery housing among young adults.

The STREETS Initiative and AOT grant announcements coincide with SAMHSA’s $794 million first allocation of 2026 annual block grant awards, with $319 million going to support comprehensive community mental health services for adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbance, and $475 million to the agency’s Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant program to prevent and treat substance abuse.

To help prevent family breakdown from substance use disorder, HHS’ Administration for Children and Families today under Secretary Kennedy’s plan added three Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) as prevention services eligible for federal funding. States and tribes can now receive a 50% federal match, respectively, to provide buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone to parents when children are at imminent risk of entering foster care but can remain safely in the home or in a kinship placement with access to these treatments.

All three MOUD are U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved, well-established, evidence-based tools that support recovery, promote family stability, and reduce risk factors associated with child welfare involvement.

SAMHSA and ACF intend to issue a Dear Colleague letter to emphasize that both agencies welcome full participation from faith-based organizations in their programs and activities.

President Trump declared upon establishing the White House Faith Office on February 7, 2025, “The executive branch wants faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship, to the fullest extent permitted by law, to compete on a level playing field for grants, contracts, programs, and other Federal funding opportunities.”