The President signed an executive order on Jan. 29, 2026, establishing the White House Great American Recovery Initiative to coordinate the federal response to addiction. The order was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 3, 2026, as Executive Order 14379.
The order says addiction, also called substance use disorder, affects 48.4 million Americans, or 16.8 percent of the population. It says that of 40.7 million adults with a substance use disorder in 2024 who received no treatment, 95.6 percent, or 38.1 million people, did not believe they needed treatment. The order says recovery efforts remain fragmented despite significant spending, and that addiction’s costs, including lost productivity and higher health care spending, reach hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
The initiative is co-chaired by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Senior Advisor for Addiction Recovery. An executive director will run day-to-day operations and report to the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. Members also include the Attorney General; the secretaries of the Interior, Education, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, and Veterans Affairs; the Director of National Drug Control Policy; the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; the Commissioner of Food and Drugs; the Director of the National Institutes of Health; and the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use. Several White House aides are members, and the co-chairs and executive director may add other agency heads.
The order directs the co-chairs, the executive director, and the other members to recommend steps to coordinate the federal response, including aligning programs, setting objectives, and giving the public data-driven updates on progress. It directs them to raise awareness of addiction, help people get treatment, and support a culture that celebrates recovery. They are to advise agency heads on programs that join prevention, early intervention, treatment, recovery support, and re-entry across public health, health care, criminal justice, workforce, education, housing, and social services, as each agency head finds appropriate and as law allows.
The order also directs the group to advise agency heads on grants for addiction recovery, focused on prevention, treatment, and long-term resilience. It directs consultation with states, tribal nations, local governments, community and faith-based groups, private companies, and philanthropies on strategies so more people receive treatment. The co-chairs may hold public hearings, meetings, and roundtables and may take expert input.
The order says it must be carried out consistent with applicable law and subject to available appropriations. It does not set a deadline for the initiative’s work, and it does not revoke or amend an earlier order. It states that it creates no right or benefit enforceable in court. The Department of Health and Human Services is to pay the costs of publishing the order.