The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies approved a proposal last Wednesday to increase the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant to $1.834 billion, a $75-million increase over 2006, NASADAD reported June 8.

While this was the committee's most significant action, a number of other funding increases and cuts in the areas of substance abuse and mental health were approved by the subcommittee. These included an increase of $2.9 million (to $195.8 million) for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, and a decrease of $2.6 million for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, to $433.3 million; $5.2 million in reductions to the National Institute on Drug Abuse budget, to $994.8 million; and a $72.3-million cut to the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment budget, to $326.7 million. All of these cuts are compared to the agencies' FY 2006 budgets.

In addition, the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities State Grants program was cut to $310 million, down $36.5 million, but this is considered an improvement over President Bush's desire to eliminate the program entirely. Finally, the Mental Health Block Grant was cut to $428.5 million, $174,000 less than the previous year.

Each of these changes is pending the full House Appropriation Committee's approval on June 12.