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Gov. Kim Reynolds directs federal funding to opioid addiction treatment
Move comes after Iowa legislators failed to agree on spending settlement money
DES MOINES — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will direct $17.5 million in federal pandemic relief dollars to fund opioid use prevention and treatment projects after lawmakers failed to agree on spending from the state's Opioid Settlement Fund this year.
The funding will go to some of the projects Reynolds included in a proposed bill to use the state's opioid settlement dollars during this year's legislative session. The session ended with lawmakers unable to agree on how to spend more than $47 million in settlement funds, leaving them unspent until next year.
“I’m disappointed that a bill to spend a portion of Iowa’s opioid settlement money never reached my desk this session," Reynolds, a Republican, said in a statement. "As a result, $47.5 million remain unused in the fund. Since legislation was not passed, I’m leveraging federal funds to make this investment in the health and well-being of Iowans.”
The money will come from American Rescue Plan funds, Reynolds' office said.
The funding will go to the following projects:
- $10 million for a grant program to improve physical infrastructure and capacity at existing treatment and recovery providers, administered by the Health and Human Services Department and Iowa Economic Development Authority
- $3 million to complete a recovery center in Story County for teens ages 12 to 18
- $3 million for Health and Human Services and the Iowa Finance Authority to build a network of sober living environments
- $1 million for a program to train physicians in prescribing opioids to surgery patients
- $500,000 to an Opioid Use Prevention Campaign through HHS
Iowa is set to receive more than $144 million over the next several years from multi-state settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors over their role in the opioid crisis. The funding will be split between state and local governments.
State lawmakers created the Opioid Settlement Fund in 2022 to hold that money, and it can be spent only by an act of the Legislature. A spokesperson for the Iowa Treasurer's Office confirmed the balance in the fund is just over $47.7 million.
Lawmakers this year advanced competing proposals over how to spend the funds in the last days of the legislative session. Negotiations over the bills broke down, and lawmakers ended the session without approving any spending.
House Republicans called for creating an advisory council that would review and approve grants applications for expenditures of the funds. Senate lawmakers, though, wanted to split the funding between the Department of Health and Human Services and the Iowa Attorney General's Office, and give the departments authority to spend it as they see fit.
“The problem is much greater than anyone can imagine,” Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, said last month. “And we don’t have the beds, and we don’t have the programs. It is vital for those persons with the addiction and for those families that we do better, and we just didn’t do anything. And that’s too bad.”
The funding announcement comes a day after Reynolds signed into law a large reorganization of the state's mental health and substance use treatment networks. The law combines the two systems into one behavioral health network with seven regional providers.
Reynolds and advocates said at the bill signing Iowa's mental health and social services have been fractured and difficult to access. The reorganization will streamline those systems and improve access, Reynolds said.
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