This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
One Colorado lawmaker is sounding the alarm about layoffs at a federal agency that deals with substance abuse and mental health.
Hundreds of federal employees working on disaster preparedness and disease outbreaks were among those hit by mass firings at the Department of Health and Human Services by the Trump administration earlier this month. That also includes perhaps 100 at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, also called SAMHSA.
The layoffs come as Republicans and Democrats in Congress are in a deadlock over a government shutdown.
“We finally were moving in the right direction with the first year, we started to see a reduction in overdose deaths last year,” said Seventh District Rep. Brittany Pettersen. “Now they're dismantling the very systems that have helped support people to get the treatment that they need.”
Pettersen is warning of devastating ripple effects. "It's not just our substance use disorder treatment, it's also mental health services. We have one of the highest suicide rates in the country,” she said.
CPR Health Reporter John Daley interviewed Rep. Pettersen to talk about these cuts.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
John Daley: Let's talk about what's happening with substance abuse and mental health services. Can you just give me a lay of the land, what's happening with the CDC and the federal agencies that work on this issue?
Rep. Brittany Pettersen: It's pretty devastating when you think about the fact that last year was the first time we started to see a decrease in fentanyl overdoses. And starting to come out of the COVID pandemic, with the increase in overdose deaths across the country from fentanyl, taking over the supply chain, and a lack of access to treatment and turning in the right direction. Now they are decimating the entire systems that are set up to support the people on the ground who are doing this work with the federal grants that are necessary. A huge hit was to SAMHSA that oversees all of this funding and also tracks overdose death rates.
Daley: That's the government agency that handles substance abuse.
Pettersen: So all of the critical employees that we rely on to administer these dollars here in Colorado and across the U.S. to support treatment and recovery programs, as well as track overdose death rates. They are now at half their original size since the beginning of the year.
Daley: And Representative, do you know how many have lost their jobs, what those numbers are?
Pettersen: Health and Human Services has lost just from last week, the RIFs (reduction in force layoffs) was between 1,100 and 1,200 employees. This is the agency that also holds the employees that we're referring to, and last week, 125 were Riffed from SAMHSA. That doesn't sound like a lot, but they were already facing huge cuts since the beginning of the year because of DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency).
Daley: And is it your understanding that these are furloughs, so they could come back to work once the government shutdown ends, or are these layoffs permanent for these employees?
Pettersen: These are the people that are actually RIF’ed. So this isn't even including the people who are being told that they can't work right now. They are hoping that they actually have a job at the end of this. But of course, all federal employees are worried about their positions in the future because they've been demonized since the very beginning of its administration. So I don't think any employee feels faith about whether they're gonna come back, but also even if they're gonna get paid when they do.
Daley: And when you use the term RIF, that's a reduction in force. And it's your understanding that a RIF is permanent, like a firing?
Pettersen: Yes. You're no longer working. Yes, exactly. It's a firing situation.
Daley: What impact is this having on the ground in Colorado from what you've heard?
Pettersen: Well, we're gonna be reaching out to our behavioral health experts in the state who we've worked alongside for years just to better understand what these implications are. But they were already having a difficult time, huge delays. The amount of time that it would take to get responses, you know, they just didn't have the staff capacity to oversee the work that we were used to having support on here in the state. So they were already facing major impacts. And, because this just happened, I think that it's just gonna have a cascading impact and we will definitely keep you updated.
Daley: I know this is a personal issue for you. Your mom struggled with addiction for decades before getting the help needed to recover. What difference do you think these changes in the federal workforce could have for individuals who are struggling with addiction?
Pettersen: It's devastating when I think about how many lives are going to be lost because the limited funding that we get from the federal government is going to be delayed, unlawfully withheld. We know that the Trump administration has been withholding grant funding unlawfully. They were targeting the Department of Energy grants that from Colorado alone were over $600 million that they withheld, with political retribution, but they've also attempted to do so in other areas previously. This has already impacted our funding for critical services, but I want to highlight that what they passed in the big ugly bill (H.R. 1, also called the Big Beautiful Bill) actually takes away our state and the rest of the U.S.'s ability to utilize a waiver so that substance use disorder treatment and recovery services are funded through Medicaid.
And it's what we went through after I saw, you know, how broken our system was with my mom, and that we didn't cover the medical care that's necessary for people who are struggling with addiction. So when, when you talk about what they're doing to cut a trillion dollars out of Medicaid over the next 10 years, and taking away our ability to utilize a waiver that has been absolutely necessary in building our capacity to support people who are struggling with addiction. It's really hard to think about the people whose lives are going to be lost unnecessarily.
Daley: We know Colorado and the nation has seen a reduction just in the last year or two in some of these drug related deaths. So the timing seems, would you say it's challenging?
Pettersen: We were moving in the right direction with the first year that we saw, started to see, a reduction in overdose deaths last year. Now they're dismantling the very systems that have helped support people to get the treatment that they need to live in recovery and rebuild their lives. And they are pulling the rug out from our behavioral health system. And, you know, so many other pieces, it's not just our substance use disorder treatment, it's also mental health services. We have one of the highest suicide rates in the country. And unfortunately, they're also taking away funding that supports mental health services for students as well.
We can go over every single department and the impact that this is going to make to people, but it's not just about what it means for our federal workers who are impacted as individuals and their families and how that impacts the rest of our economy, but it's also the services that so many of us have taken for granted.Like making sure that we have clean water to drink and that we're prepared for wildfires and that our kids have access to mental health support. That if you're struggling with addiction, that you're not turned away.
When we first started doing this work, when I was in the legislature, one out of 10 people who wanted treatment had access to treatment, and now we're up to nine out of 10 people who want treatment have access, and that has saved countless lives, and they are completely decimating all of the work that we've done and can't imagine how many people are gonna die because of this.
Daley: Have you, your office, other Democrats in Colorado, members of the delegation, Congressional delegation, as well as the governor reached out to the administration for more information for an explanation or any information about whether these positions would, will be restored? Have you tried to do that and what have you heard back?
Pettersen: Yes, I joined with the leading experts for behavioral health in the caucus to demand that they reverse these decisions, these risks, and identify how critical they are for the wellbeing of U.S. citizens in addressing the opioid crisis. We have not heard back on anything. We're trying to push back and get our questions answered. And unfortunately, we have an unhinged president that is unwilling to work with us on a bipartisan path forward.
Daley: What's your thinking, once the shutdown ends, which it will end at some point, do you think these positions are permanently gone, or do you think that eventually some of these things will, some of these staff members who work on substance abuse and mental health, that they'll be able to return to their positions and that these positions will be restored?
Pettersen: I hope that some of these positions will be restored. I think, you know, Trump is unhinged and he doesn't prioritize the American people in anything that he does. I don't know how this all ends, but we're gonna be doing our part to advocate, that these individuals are rehired, they're filling critical roles and the chaos and dysfunction of the Trump administration from mass firing since he took office, then rehiring people because they realized that they actually needed them. I talked to a federal worker just the other day who was going through their second time of being fired for the year. It's just unfathomable what our federal employees are facing and what that means for the rest of us with these services that will no longer be available.
Daley: Is there any way that the state of Colorado can step in to help if, if these services are lost?
Pettersen: Well, you know, we are very limited in our ability to fill these funding gaps. The state of Colorado has already had to gut a billion dollars because of TABOR (the Taxpayer Bill of Rights). So Colorado is not in a position to fill these. I'm grateful that we have the leadership. They're going to try to mitigate the damage and make sure that we're supporting people in every way that we can. But to build up capacity for treatment and recovery, I worked on that for years in the legislature and it was still playing out, as I moved over into Congress where providers were getting ready to make sure that they provided those services, that they had consistent funding and support for those services and what that meant, and that we were just increasing our capacity and building over time. That doesn't happen overnight. So what they're doing, is what we've built over the last seven years, or really 10, is going to completely crumble by with the bill (H.R. 1) that they passed and then also all of the federal firings.
Daley: And that's due to a loss of both federal positions and the federal grants?
Pettersen: And I was one of the lead sponsors on the bill that would continue to fund some of the critical grants. It passed the Senate. It's expected to be signed into law by the president, but if you are unwilling to have the workforce necessary to oversee these grants to support states, and you're unable to deliver that funding, then it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if we actually have the intent of funding those support systems if we don't have the federal workforce to implement it. But it's also the big ugly bill that they passed. It is going to bring a huge crisis, the healthcare crisis across the board. In Colorado, it is going to take away our ability to continue to utilize that waiver that draws down hundreds of millions of dollars for treatment, that is going to be taken away.
Daley: Anything else you wanted to add?
Pettersen: It's just never ending. And when you're here in the district, our team is working around the clock to support people in this incredibly challenging time. And when you see the people on the ground that are going to be impacted, when you talk to our healthcare experts about what they're preparing for, it is a tsunami that is coming our way. And it's essential that our constituents understand, the looming crisis that's gonna hit just two weeks away with premiums increasing two to threefold and then the cascading impacts of the Big Ugly Bill in a year that is going to gut a trillion dollars from our healthcare system. I wish that we were focusing on all the great work we're able to do to deliver for families here. It's a challenging time.
