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One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Morgan Griffith Touts Drug Treatment Programs He Slashed Funding For
Morgan Griffith stands for a photo op in front of a critical community service, Eagle’s Nest Regeneration, a faith-based addiction treatment facility in Floyd County, VA. What Griffith didn’t share was his vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) will result in funding being cut to services like Eagle’s Nest
To his credit, Morgan Griffith understands the seriousness of the opioid addiction crisis in the Ninth District of Southwest Virginia. In 2018, he said “Opioids have exacted a high toll from families across America and in the Ninth District. This crisis requires action at multiple levels, from prevention to treatment to law enforcement.
He’s right. And to be fair, he’s contributed to several bills meant to help solve the issue. Unfortunately, he also actively voted to undermine one of the most effective tools in the anti-addiction arsenal: addiction treatment centers.
In the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which he voted for is expected to place 300,000 of the roughly 550,000 adults on Medicaid Expansion at risk of losing coverage. KFF, one of the leading health policy organizations in the country has found that Medicaid covers 47% of all nonelderly adults with opioid use disorder. It covers over half (56%) of those receiving medication for Opioids Use Disorder and roughly two-thirds (64%) of adults in outpatient treatment and peer support.
Experts around the nation are sounding the alarm. The executive director of a rehab center in California said that more than 90% of the clients entering her program can only afford it because of Medicaid. Researchers at Boston University and Penn State estimate that 156,000 people across the US will lose access to treatment for opioid use disorder, leading to approximately 1,000 additional fatal overdoses each year. One analysis found that Southwest and Southside Virginia will be the areas of the Commonwealth hit hardest by the OBBBA cuts.
And it’s not just OBBBA that is drastically impacting addiction treatment in the Ninth. The Trump Administration is on a crusade to slash funding to SAMHSA, an organization that provides behavioral health grants supporting substance use disorder prevention and recovery support. Health & Human Services (HHS) canceled $1 billion in SAMHSA grants in March of 2025, and attempted to cancel another $2 billion in January 2026. The January 2026 cuts were rolled back after bipartisan backlash, including a memo to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that was signed by one hundred members of Congress from both parties, but not by Morgan Griffith.
All-in-all, Morgan Griffith’s actions reaffirm his longstanding pattern of pretending to care about issues that affect his constituents by making statements and participating in photo ops and then voting against the solutions to those very issues, in lockstep with Donald Trump and his followers. Southwest Virginia deserves better.
House Acts to Address Opioid Crisis Friday, June 22, 2018 https://morgangriffith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398947
Implications of Potential Federal Medicaid Reductions for Addressing the Opioid Epidemic, Authors: Heather Saunders and Robin Rudowitz Published: May 14, 2025 https://www.kff.org/medicaid/implications-of-potential-federal-medicaid-reductions-for-addressing-the-opioid-epidemic/
San Bernardino drug rehab center one of many facing uncertain future with potential Medicaid cuts By Rob McMillan July 20, 2025
Estimated Overdose Deaths Due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Letter: Delivered to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader John Thune July 3, 2025, By: Zachary Meisel, MD, MPH, Benjamin Linas, MD, MPH, Hana Zwick
Letter to The Honorable Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Secretary U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, January 14, 2026, Signed by 100 bipartisan members of Congress. https://tonko.house.gov/uploadedfiles/samhsa_grant_terminations_1.14.26.pdf
