42 U.S.C. § 290aa–18 — Limitations on authority

This section applies to any Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration program whose legal authority this title created or changed. When running these programs, the Secretary of Health and Human Services cannot allocate funding without considering how common mental health or substance use problems are, or what causes them. The Secretary also cannot require grant recipients to prioritize, set aside, or allocate their funding without that same consideration. There is one exception: this rule does not apply if allocating funds that way, or requiring recipients to, is consistent with a statute, a regulation, or some other federal law.