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All Things Considered
Tom Crann and Gretchen Brown
St Paul

Minnesota loses $27.5 million in behavioral health funds as part of Trump administration cuts

The Minnesota Department of Human Services
The Minnesota Department of Human Services building on Lafayette Road in St. Paul.
Jiwon Choi | MPR News 2019

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Earlier this week, the Minnesota Department of Human Services lost hundreds of contracts, amounting to $27.5 million, as part of massive federal cuts nationally by the Trump administration.

“Losing that funding with unexpected termination and no notice is a huge impact,” Teresa Steinmetz told MPR News host Tom Crann on All Things Considered. Steinmetz is the Assistant Commissioner of Minnesota’s Behavioral Health Administration within the DHS.

The contracts included drug prevention programs in schools, treatment and recovery programs for mental health and substance use, and harm reduction strategies amid the nation’s opioid epidemic.

The cuts come at a time of a “national behavioral health crisis,” Steinmetz said, with mental health and substance abuse needs at historic highs.

Under COVID-era contracts, that money was already set to expire in September. The sudden loss of funding means Minnesota DHS employees did not have advance notice to coordinate an offramp for those impacted, Steinmetz said.

In a statement widely shared by national media, a spokesperson for the Federal Department of Health and Human Services said the department will save $12 billion from the cuts.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and H.H.S. will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” the statement said.

Press play above to listen to Crann’s conversation with Steinmetz.