Hassan, Scott Introduce Addiction Grants Modernization Act

U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Tim Scott of South Carolina on Thursday introduced bipartisan legislation that would let substance-use prevention, treatment and recovery organizations apply for multiple federal addiction-related grants through a single application, replacing a system in which providers file separate, duplicative paperwork for similar programs scattered across the federal government.

The bill, called the Addiction Grants Modernization Act, would direct the creation of an interactive website where organizations can locate every federal addiction-related grant in one place, alongside a centralized application portal. There is currently no centralized resource that lists all such grants, and community organizations — many of them small nonprofits without dedicated grants staff — often repeat the same information across applications to different agencies.

"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," said Hassan, the Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care. "We cannot let up in this fight, and that means making it easier for them to get the funding and resources that they need." Hassan said the measure would let frontline organizations "focus less on red tape and more on their important work of saving lives."

What the bill would change

The legislation does not consolidate or cut any existing grant program. According to the sponsors, the unified application system is explicitly designed to protect existing grant structures and funding levels while stripping out the administrative duplication around them. An organization that now applies separately to several federal programs that fund overlapping work — a prevention coalition seeking youth program money, for example, or a recovery provider piecing together grants across agencies — would instead file once.

"Addressing substance use disorders in communities across the country begins by supporting the organizations providing life-changing care," Scott said. "By creating a unified application system that protects existing grant structures and funding levels, this legislation will reduce administrative and bureaucratic burdens so organizations can spend less time navigating paperwork and more time helping individuals."

Backing from advocacy and recovery organizations

The bill arrives with an unusually broad list of endorsing organizations spanning the treatment, prevention and policy worlds: the Overdose Prevention Initiative at the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and its New Hampshire chapter, BPC Action at the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Partnership to End Addiction, the Makin' It Happen Coalition for Resilient Youth, and the Drug Policy Alliance.

Libby Jones, associate vice president at the Global Health Advocacy Incubator's Overdose Prevention Initiative, framed the administrative burden as a direct cost to care: the point of the bill, she said, is "that way treatment providers spend their time on bringing people lifesaving care instead of doing paperwork." Susan Stearns, executive director of NAMI New Hampshire; Michele Stockwell, president of BPC Action; and Mary Forsythe-Taber, executive director of Makin' It Happen, also backed the measure in statements released with the bill.

New Hampshire's overdose trajectory

Hassan's office anchored the bill in her home state's recent numbers. New Hampshire recorded 424 opioid-involved deaths in 2017, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. More recently, the state's Drug Monitoring Initiative reported a decrease of roughly 45 percent in opioid-related deaths from 2022 to 2024 — progress Hassan has repeatedly described as fragile and dependent on the community organizations the bill aims to unburden.

A familiar lane for Hassan

The grant-streamlining proposal extends a longer record of addiction legislation from the New Hampshire Democrat. Hassan helped pass the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act in 2022, which eliminated the federal waiver requirement that had limited which clinicians could prescribe buprenorphine, widening access to medication-assisted treatment. She also backed the reauthorization of the SUPPORT Act, including funding for fentanyl test strip programs, and co-introduced the Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act, which would allow pharmacies to dispense methadone under physician oversight rather than limiting it to specialized clinics.

The Addiction Grants Modernization Act now heads to the committee process, where its bipartisan sponsorship — a Democrat who serves as ranking member of the Senate Finance health care subcommittee and a Republican from South Carolina — gives it a more plausible path than most behavioral health bills in a closely divided Senate.