Politics

The country's main mental health agency, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, commonly known as SAMHSA, is in the process of being dissolved. It has lost more than a third of its staff of about 900 this year as part of recent reductions in the federal workforce. President Trump's budget bill cuts $1 billion from the agency's operating budget, and its mission is being folded into a new entity shaped by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In March, Kennedy and the Department of Health and Human Services announced that SAMHSA, and other divisions, would be combined into a new entity called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA.

"Why would we, when we are finally seeing some success, bury that success, put it in an AHA program?" Dean asked. "We have to now rehire people and figure out what their roles will be within AHA?"

Kennedy didn't answer her question, but said he would ensure people with addiction have access to overdose prevention and other medications.