FRANKFORT – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, has announced the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will award $37,207,505 in federal funding to the state of Kentucky through the State Opioid Response Grant Program (SOR).

McConnell helped secure a total of $1.575 billion for the program in this year’s government funding bill, which the Senate passed, and the President signed into law in March. As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator McConnell fought for the funding and to ensure that resources through this program were targeted toward states with the highest overdose mortality rates, like Kentucky.

As a result, Kentucky will receive an increase in funding this fiscal year.

“Families in nearly every neighborhood across our country have suffered because of the opioid epidemic,” McConnell said. “As Senate Republican Leader and a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I’ve fought to secure millions in federal dollars for my home state, which has been particularly hard-hit by this deadly crisis. Today’s funding will target critical resources into Kentucky’s communities to help those on their road to recovery and to save more lives from these dangerous substances.”

The State Opioid Response Grant Program provides a block grant to Kentucky’s state government, which the state then distributes through Kentucky Opioid Response Effort (KORE) to programs across the state that help prevent, reduce and treat opioid abuse.

According to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, funding for this program has resulted in more than 5,000 overdose reversals, 28,000 Kentuckians receiving treatment services and 16,000 Kentuckians receiving recovery support services from 2017-2021 alone.

To date, McConnell has had a role in helping secure more than $700 million in competitive and block grant funding to combat drug abuse in Kentucky and over $240 million to Kentucky through the SOR Program.