American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the "stimulus bill" or "stimulus package," contains supplimental approproations to many federal entities, as well as several states. The funds distributed by the bill, about $787 billion, will go towards tax cuts, unemployement benefits (including COBRA extensions), and domestic spending on programs in healthcare, infrastructure, eductation, and agriculture, along with other programs. While the funds don't directly affect SAMHSA, the bill does provide signiciant additional funding for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which may benefit studies on M/SU or other M/SU programs. Additionally, funding to the states could help to shore up budgets, which may help to prevent cuts to M/SU state programming.

The White House has set up a site, http://www.recovery.gov, to help provide information about the specifics of how the money is being spent.

Text of legislation: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (pdf)