By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD – The state’s entire congressional delegation – four Democrats – are joining Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte in trying to restore $80 million in federal mental health and substance abuse treatment funds which were expected in the state, now leading to layoffs.

“Our state government, communities and health providers were using those dollars daily to address the urgent needs of Granite Staters, including for treating mental health and substance use disorders,” the joint letter to Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. drafted Monday reads.

“Despite having until 2027 to spend the funding, overnight they were notified that future awards would not be honored and that many grantees would not be reimbursed for services already rendered. 

“For New Hampshire, this harmful decision to eliminate funding weakens our state’s ability to respond to infectious disease outbreaks, cuts support services for individuals suffering from mental health crises and substance use disorders and undermines efforts to adequately care for rural and underserved populations. 

“Our state and local health departments have been forced to cancel work to control a tuberculosis outbreak in Manchester. This decision has also frozen contracts that provide on rapid response to individuals in mental health crises, support for patients transitioning from behavioral health facilities, post-traumatic stress training for first responders and immunization programs for our youth. 

“Staff across the state have already been terminated, and these terminations include our vital community health workers serving our most at-risk populations. Communities and organizations across New Hampshire, including community health centers, hospitals, mental health providers, schools and small businesses, are currently left without resources and holding the bag on already promised funding.  

“Clawing back these funds does nothing to improve our state’s public health system. Instead, you are needlessly putting our communities’ health at risk and jeopardizing our constituents’ livelihoods and their organizations. We urge you to reinstate this vital funding immediately.  

“Thank you for your attention to this matter, and we look forward to your timely response,” the four Democrats wrote.  

Two weeks ago, Ayotte said she was informed that the temporary, post-pandemic funding in DHHS that was expected to be available for the next two years was no longer coming from the Centers for Disease Control and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

And she said while the state has had some success in thwarting clawbacks from the Trump Administration, this one does not look so hopeful.

Ayotte said she would be working with DHHS to evaluate the impact and changes that will be required related to public health.

“We are looking at this carefully. We just got notified ourselves. We are working with the commissioner on this and we are doing all we can to make sure that the people who are served directly, that we find other ways to fund it,” she said.

Ayotte said she disagreed with the decision on the clawback as part of a Trump Administration $12 Billion nationwide effort as it relates to government efficiency with federal officials saying the pandemic was “over.”

On Monday, Ayotte was joined in a separate move by U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, a senior member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, and Senator Maggie Hassan, D-NH, a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, alongside U.S. Representatives Chris Pappas and Maggie Goodlander called on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to immediately restore the funds.

“For New Hampshire, this harmful decision to eliminate funding weakens our state’s ability to respond to infectious disease outbreaks, cuts support services for individuals suffering from mental health crises and substance use disorders and undermines efforts to adequately care for rural and underserved populations,” the letter reads.

Staff across the state have already been terminated, and these terminations include vital community health workers serving the most at-risk populations, it reads. 

“Communities and organizations across New Hampshire, including community health centers, hospitals, mental health providers, schools and small businesses, are currently left without resources and holding the bag on already promised funding,” they wrote.

In recent years, Shaheen and Hassan successfully pushed HHS to maintain SOR funding levels for New Hampshire and avoid significant cliffs in funding year-over-year. Shaheen and Hassan’s efforts have led to a more than tenfold increase in federal treatment and prevention funding for New Hampshire.

Pappas led 50 of his House colleagues in urging HHS Secretary Kennedy to reverse the cancellation of over $12 billion in federal grants for state health services from the SAMHSA and the CDC.