Congress members are urging the federal behavioral health agency to reverse course and allow funding to be used for harm-reduction tools, such as drug-testing strips to detect fentanyl.
New guidance from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says that funding can’t be used to purchase test kits for fentanyl or xylazine, or to support overdose hotlines. The agency, which is housed under Health and Human Services, disperses grants to groups working to address mental health and substance use disorder challenges across the US.
“SAMHSA’s new guidance defies evidence showing that harm reduction for substance use reduces overdose deaths and dangerous infections, threatening to reverse years of progress in combating the overdose epidemic,” wrote Democrat Sens. Ed Markey (Mass.), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), Cory Booker (N.J.), and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) in a letter dated Friday.
The change in policies, issued in April, are confusing grant recipients. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy on May 4 outlined a strategy that explicitly supported test strips, contradicting the message sent by SAMHSA.
“While they may not prevent addiction, test strips can lessen its toll and give drug users the chance to survive and recover,” wrote Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) in a separate letter co-signed by House members Thursday.
Overdose deaths had been climbing in the US, but have recently tumbled. They reached more than 111,400 per month in June 2023 and fell to around 68,400 deaths in November 2025, according to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “committed to end the opioid epidemic,” Markey said in a statement. “They’re doing the opposite—cutting access to tools that help prevent overdose and the spread of infectious diseases.”